FORT WAYNE, Ind. (ADAMS) – The Fort Wayne Police Department is warning of a jewelry scam that is happening mostly at local gas stations and shopping centers.
Police say that someone with what police call a “tale a woe” will approach and try to sell jewelry that is heavy and seems real. Police say that the jewelry is fake and people are finding that out after the fact.
They say a “crew” of people have been doing it outside of local retailers.
Police say that if you come into contact with someone doing this you should call 911.
FWPD officials released the following”
The Fort Wayne Police Department says it has been getting reports from the public, and detectives have been getting alerts from businesses (pawn shops and jewelry buyers), that members of the general public are being scammed by a crew of people at gas station lots and on parking lots of various shopping centers locally.
The one constant in the scam is that someone will approach a citizen, give them a tale of woe, and then hard sell that citizen jewelry for a very small amount of money. The jewelry is very heavy and at the time appears to be genuine. The folks who buy the jewelry, thinking they’re going to turn a tidy profit, then go to one of the businesses and find out that the jewelry is either highly polished brass or heavily gold-plated junk metal and is absolutely worthless.
Police say the suspects are Hispanic-appearing with heavy accents, and are very aggressive in their sales pitch.
The general feeling is that, with the economy being the way it is, people are thinking they’ll be able to make a little extra money by reselling the items they buy or they’re just trying to get this aggressive person out of their space. Either way, the general public needs to be aware of this so they can prevent being taken advantage of.
If anyone comes into contact with these individuals attempting to sell them junk jewelry, please call 911.