A favorite trick of gold-selling scamsters is the Bait-and-Switch. Here is how it works: a fellow brings in a bag filled with 14 karat gold-scrap worth thousands of dollars (the bait). The jewelry store employee tests the items and, upon verifying its purity, offers X thousands of dollars.

The scammer takes the items tested and puts them back into the crumpled bag (the bag will have some identifying marks on it such as large initials written with a Black Magic Marker) while announcing that the previous jewelry store offered him $20 dollars more.

The store employee, not wishing to lose such a large purchase, will almost certainly agree to match the offer and takes back the bag which appears never to have left the employee's sight. The crumpled bag will have the same large initials written with a Black Magic Marker and feel as heavy as before. However, the scammer has already substituted a bag filled with worthless gold-plated items (the switch).

I personally know of dozens of jewelry store owners who have fallen for this fraud. One jeweler I do business with has been buying gold for 30 years and just a few years ago fell victim to the tune of $16,000.

All my employees are instructed that if any item or items ever leave their possession, no matter how briefly, they must retest the items before parting with any cash.