A recent report highlights a fraudulent method involving gold. Some short video creators claim that by mixing a metal powder called Rhenium (Re) into gold and subjecting it to high-temperature smelting, the weight of the gold increases after cooling. They assert that the adulteration is undetectable both to the naked eye and by machines, and that the resulting gold maintains a purity of 99.9%.
Last year, police in Changxing County, Huzhou City, Zhejiang Province cracked a case involving this type of gold counterfeiting with rhenium. A gold store owner received a gold necklace from a customer who claimed it was made from gold previously purchased. That afternoon, a senior staff member at the store, upon inspection, found the cross-section of the necklace to be unusually rough and suspected it was fake, leading to a police report.
Following the report, police identified a criminal group specializing in this rhenium-gold fraud. The investigation revealed that the group's financial transactions were spread across multiple provinces, with numerous gold shop owners having transferred money to them, indicating a large number of victims. Ultimately, police arrested two core members of the fraud ring at a gold processing workshop in Wuhu City, Anhui Province.
Investigations on social media platforms show that many accounts posting videos about adulterating gold with rhenium powder are actually sellers of rhenium powder themselves. Numerous vendors promote their product with claims of "guaranteed pure gold quality." On second-hand trading platforms, a significant number of sellers offer rhenium powder, with some even using suggestive product titles like "Gold Amplification," "Passes Fire, Water, and Spectrometry Tests," or "Mix 75% Gold with 25% [Rhenium]."
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