25 held over antique appraisal swindle
Print Edition
TWENTY-FIVE people have been detained on suspicion of being involved in an antiques appraisal scam that cheated 100 victims out of 6 million yuan (US$924,000), Hongkou District police said yesterday.
The suspects — all of them employees of the Huasheng auction house or Guyuan appraisal company — are alleged to have lured the owners of antiques with the offer of interested buyers willing to pay over the odds for their valuables.
The buyers, however, were stooges paid by the group to feign interest in the items up for sale, police said.
Once a deal was agreed, the owners were asked to pay for an appraisal of their items — at the request of the buyers — to confirm their authenticity.
Once the appraisal had been completed and paid for, however, the buyers pulled out and the deals fell through, leaving the owners out of pocket.
An investigation was launched after a number of owners reported their suspicions to the authorities.
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