An ingenious business plan. First, they organise an antique appraisal conference. You can tell from the scale of the event that the scammers have invested quite a bit into it and were all out to make it look convincing. Next, they invite collectors from all over the world to bring their collections in for appraisal. Each appraisal by the panel of experts cost every collector 800 RMB. Every single one of the collectors were told that they were in possession of a valuable antique including the undercover journalist who had bought his “antique” for a mere 80 RMB.
Holding such a valuable item, many of the collectors would be anxious to sell. Here comes the certificate of authenticity which would set them back another 8,000 RMB. Employees at the company had to put up staged transaction “disputes” and other kinds of drama to convince the victims that their collections could really be sold at those inflated prices.
It’s revealed in the video that experts are easily bought. So why not we engage the experts directly and get those certificates without going through the middle man?