PETALING JAYA: Their names may not be familiar to most consumers, but rhenium and tungsten are metals of choice for adulterated gold syndicates, as both have densities that are so similar to gold that conventional testing equipment can be deceived into passing them off as uncontaminated gold.
According to the Federation of Goldsmiths and Jewellers Associations of Malaysia (FGJAM), adding rhenium and tungsten reduces the content of gold while retaining its weight.
This in turn makes adulterated gold difficult to detect using conventional testing equipment at retail outlets, enabling it to be fraudulently disposed of as high-purity gold.
The latest scam involving gold adulterated with rhenium and tungsten warns of how gold-related fraud has evolved and has become increasingly sophisticated over the years.
One of the biggest cases emerged in 2012 when a local bank suffered losses of more than RM75mil under its pawn-broking service after fraudsters used gold-coated bars as collateral.
Police investigations showed that the bars were tungsten blocks wrapped with genuine gold, enabling them to pass basic authenticity checks.
The syndicate, believed to be aided by locals, recruited and paid several hundred ringgit to unsuspecting customers, including elderly individuals, to pawn the bars at various branches to avoid arousing suspicion.
The deception came to light only after the bank uncovered numerous unclaimed gold bars at its branches nationwide more than a year later.
Further testing, including cutting up the gold bars, uncovered only a small fraction of genuine gold in the “wrapping” that concealed the tungsten core.
An industry player who spoke to The Star said the methods employed by fraudsters have continued to evolve from gold-coated tungsten bars or cheaper metal cores to adulterated gold containing dense alloys that are harder to detect.
