Pair arrested over gold jewelry scam, public urged to be careful
By Peggy Revell on June 23, 2018.
prevell@medicinehatnews.com @MHNprevell Two people have been arrested locally in connection to a gold jewelry scam, while the Medicine Hat police reminds the public to remain vigilant as similar scams have been reported throughout Alberta. “It seems like it’s an Alberta-wide problem,” said Insp. Joe West with the MHPS. “Instances with the same MO have been reported around the province, where citizens are approached by these people, begging for money.” The suspects offer up fake gold jewelry or other valuables in exchange for cash. On June 21, police responded to a suspicious person complaint at a local business parking lot. West confirmed that another arrest was made, with two people charged with fraud and other offences. The two suspects arrested are believed to be connected to instances reported to the police earlier this month, said West. “But there could be other unreported ones, and certainly it sounds like there’s a number of them in the province, so I wouldn’t eliminate the possibility that there’s more (suspects) in the area or more in the southern part of the province.” It’s unknown if the suspects were successful in defrauding people, said West. “A lot of times with fraud of course, people may be too embarrassed to call us and report them, so at the end of the day we don’t know,” he said, encouraging any victims to come forward to police. A news release from Airdrie RCMP stated there were 12 reported incident between the dates of May 25 and June 13, 2018 of a similar scam. West said police don’t know if the local incidents and others across the province are co-ordinated attempts at fraud. “We know that our intelligence community is gathering the information, we do have suspect photos from other parts of the province, and certainly will be co-ordinating with those other agencies as we move forward.” And as always, police caution with the usual adage: If it’s too good to be true, then it is. “People just need to be fraud aware. If it seems suspicious or odd then it definitely is,” said West. 16
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