Source: Time Weekly - Time Online
"In the past, salary and year-end bonus would reward you to buy luxury bags and jewelry, but now you are buying gold. Gold can play jewelry, keep its value and increase its value, without losing money." Consumer Xiao Zhang told Time Finance that she had five gold necklaces alone.
Since this year, "gold" has become one of the key words of social media. It has been hot on microblog for many times, and gold consumption is also forming a boom.
On April 26, China Gold According to the data released by the Association, in the first quarter of this year, domestic consumption of gold bars and coins was 106.323 tons, up 26.77% year on year; Gold jewelry consumption was 183.922 tons, down 3.00% year on year. On the whole, however, the gold consumption demand is still on the rise. In the first quarter of 2024, the national gold consumption will be 308.905 tons, with a year-on-year growth of 5.94%.
Behind this is the soaring gold price in the year. Wind data shows that as of April 29, London gold spot (XAU) denominated in RMB has risen from 470.70 yuan/g at the beginning of the year to around 542.70 yuan/g, up 15.30%.
Source: Tuchong Creativity Several banks promote gold recovery business
Many consumers choose to cash in their gold at a high level, and gold recycling is also booming. As one of the recycling channels, the business volume of banks is also considerable.
Bank of Communications The relevant person in charge of a branch of Beijing Branch said to CCTV Finance that in March, the branch repurchased 564 gold businesses, up 4000% month on month, with a repurchase amount of 28.88 million yuan, up 5150% month on month.
Time Finance has noticed that many banks have recently promoted their gold repurchase business in official WeChat, including Industrial and Commercial Bank of China 、 Postal Savings Bank 、 agricultural bank 、 Ping An Bank Yangzhou Rural Commercial Bank, etc.
According to the article of ICBC Jiangxi Branch on April 26, "In 2024, ICBC will upgrade its gold repurchase business. All kinds of physical gold products with gold content of 99% or more can be recovered (purchased), and the recovery price needs to be reduced by a certain price difference. There are two specific standards, namely, ICBC's brand gold (recovery price) The difference with the real-time market price of gold on that day is 4 yuan/g, and the difference between the repurchase price of non ICBC branded gold bars or other gold products is 10 yuan/g. "
Bank gold recovery standards are relatively strict, and there are requirements for access channels and gold quality.
According to the official micro blog of ICBC, its repurchase service of "non ICBC brand gold bars collected by ICBC" is limited to 14 commercial banks and 2 gold enterprises. 14 commercial banks, including 5 state-owned banks and China Merchants Bank 、 Shanghai Pudong Development Bank 、 Minsheng Bank 9 joint-stock banks including Ping An Bank; Two gold enterprises are temporarily China Gold and Shandong Zhaojin.
On April 28, a staff member of ICBC South China Branch told Time Finance that ICBC could recover its brand gold, gold bars and gold ornaments from cooperative banks. The brand gold of ICBC does not need to provide a certificate, but it comes from other commercial banks. In addition, gold jewelry will be monitored for fineness by means of gold melting. The gold content is less than 99% purity and cannot be recycled.
"The gold jewelry cannot be recovered after the financing, and it is recommended that the gold jewelry should be taken to the physical jewelry store for recovery." The staff member said that only 5 ICBC outlets in Guangzhou have gold recovery business qualifications, and customers can handle it at the counter with their ID cards, bank cards, gold products and related (bills) certificates, and they need to make an appointment in advance.
However, banks are not the mainstream gold recycling channel chosen by consumers. Several consumers told Time Finance that the threshold for banks to recycle gold is high. They mostly choose brand gold jewelry stores and professional gold recycling platforms such as Rongtong Gold and offline pawnshops. Some consumers also choose online recycling. These channels have relatively loose requirements on gold brands and whether they are gold jewelry.
Compared with online recycling, offline processes are relatively simple. Take the gold recycling platform financing as an example. Consumers carry ID cards, bank cards, and gold products to the platform to weigh and bill, check the quality of gold products, and finally deduct certain fees, gold (financing) losses, and price differences, and then confirm the settlement. For online recycling, after sending gold, the recycling agency needs to issue a test report and other steps.
A variety of gold scams are quietly breeding
With the gold consumption boom, fraud is also quietly breeding.
Recently, several local public security officials, including Shanghai Changning, Yunnan Mouding, Sichuan Mianyang, Zhejiang Yuyao, Jinan, Tianjin and other places, have warned consumers to be alert to gold fraud and gold fraud risks. These frauds include gold futures investment fraud, faking gold bars as real ones, snapping up gold bars for false delivery, and recovery traps.
According to a fraud case involving investment in gold futures recently detected by the Sichuan Provincial Public Security Department, a citizen was defrauded of 1.3 million yuan in 9 days.
According to the relevant police information, Zhao met an online friend who said he made a lot of money investing in gold futures on a platform, sent a screenshot of the profits to Zhao, and said that "we can make money with him". Zhao downloaded relevant software and recharged according to the other party's prompt. After earning a few hundred yuan, Mr. Zhao then made a large amount of recharge on the platform, with a total investment of 800000 yuan before and after.
As the gold market became stronger, Zhao's principal and profit soon exceeded one million yuan, and he was ready to withdraw cash and put it into his pocket. At this time, he was told by the platform that he needed to pay taxes, risk deposits, etc. In desperation, Zhao has paid various fees up to 500000 yuan for many times, with 1.3 million yuan invested in just 9 days, but still unable to withdraw cash. Zhao found something wrong and called the police. At present, the police have helped him recover some of his funds. The case is still under further investigation.
The Public Security Bureau of Fuxin County, Liaoning Province, also recently uncovered a fraud case of "fake gold". The suspect used gold wrapped silver jewelry as pure gold jewelry to mortgage money in a credit company, involving up to 400000 yuan.
Gold buybacks are also frauds. The Youxian District Branch of Mianyang Public Security Bureau in Sichuan Province issued a tip that some businesses attract customers under the guise of "high price recycling", and then proposed to purchase at a discount or deduct relevant fees for various reasons such as insufficient purity, impurities, lost vouchers, gold burning loss, etc., which led to customers not only not selling at a high price, but being "exploited by businesses".
In addition, the police also reminded that there were sellers selling fake gold on the e-commerce platform, such as impure gold, rhenium doping, glue injection, etc., as well as gold on the surface of gold jewelry and silver on the inside, which consumers need to carefully identify.
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