It’s an unfortunate part of life that burglars and thieves are particularly active around Christmas time. With the record high gold prices it’s also no surprise that these criminals have been targeting gold and silver jewellery – your gold and silver jewellery that you’ve worked hard to purchase, received as a gift or was handed down by a relative.

New Zealand Police reported that there were 60,142 burglary offenses recorded last financial year! That’s 138.6 for every 10,000 Kiwis. Shocking statistics really… so the questions to think about are what can I do to protect myself and my family?

Firstly it can be helpful to look into the psychology of the typical burglar so to be better prepared – here’s some information provided by the NZ Police website:

Who burgles a house and why?

• I can be male or female and I act on easy or tempting opportunities
• I burgle houses during the day or night – especially when I can see no one’s home or the risk of being seen or caught is low
• I may operate alone or with other people I know
• I may be on foot or could use a vehicle to cruise and check out your neighbourhood looking for those easy or tempting opportunities
• I often burgle one or more nearby houses in the neighbourhood
• I generally don’t stray too far from my home. I like familiar territory such as the routes to work, school or a friend’s place.
• I’m always on the look-out for opportunities along the way, but I won’t burgle too close to home in case someone recognises me.
• I may look out of place in your neighbourhood, but few people take note of my activity or even ring the Police to report suspicious activity

60,142 burglary offenses recorded last year in New Zealand!

Why would I pick your place?

• I like houses where it looks like no one’s home – lights aren’t on at night, curtains may be drawn during the day, or mail and newspapers have been left to accumulate in the letterbox.
• I like houses where a window or door is left open or unsecured
• I like houses where people can’t see what I’m doing from the street. Trees and shrubs may block the view
• I like houses that have alleyways running beside them or back onto parks, reserves or green belts
• I like houses where items of value are left outside overnight, like a bike
• I like houses where the garage door is open, I can see your car isn’t there and there’s something valuable inside, like a lawnmower
• I like houses I’ve been to before. I know the layout, what’s in them and how to get out.
• If I’ve burgled a house once, it’s likely I’ll try it again when valuable items have been replaced.

How do I operate?

• I’m usually looking for cash or small, valuable items I can quickly convert into cash such as jewellery, videos and stereo equipment
• Often I’m stealing to order and may have a car nearby to help with my ‘get away’
• I usually sell stolen property to people who like to buy things cheaply
• I may go onto a property and knock on the door to see if anyone is home
• If someone is home, I normally make up an excuse for being there. For example, I’m looking for my dog or a nearby street
• I try to get in and out of your home as quickly and quietly as possible
• Sometimes I hide your property nearby and come and get it later

What I don’t like!

• Houses with alarms
• Neighbours who support each other, talk to each other and take an interest in what’s going on around them, particularly people they don’t know or haven’t seen before
• Neighbours who report suspicious activity to Police and are able to give good descriptions of who and what they’ve seen
• Dogs or guard dog signs on fences and gates
• Houses with good locks on doors, windows and other entry points
• A vehicle in the driveway
• Lights, TV or stereo on
• People who mark valuable property with serial numbers and keep a record of those numbers

If you have gold jewellery you’ll need to think about how it’s protected… the first thing to consider is insurance - are the items insured for the correct amount, do you have detailed photos, receipts, records for each piece?

The next thing to consider with gold jewellery is how safe will it be in your house? Do you use a safe for storage of precious items, is that safe adequate for the job (fire proof, bolted to the floor, commercial strength, etc) or are your jewellery items simply sitting in a jewellery box or in your top drawer?

If you don’t have a safe, then another and even better option would be to store items using a Safety Deposit Box - they have excellent security and will provide peace of mind that your valuable gold and jewellery is safe.

All Gold Dealers and Gold Buyers in New Zealand are subject to strict laws around the purchasing of precious metals:

• (1) A licence holder who has possession of, or who is offered for sale or pawn, any goods that he or she knows or suspects are stolen goods must—

  • (a) report the goods to a constable as soon as practicable; and

  • (b) if he or she has possession of the goods, hold them for 14 days from the date of the report to the constable.

  (2) If a constable gives a licence holder a notice that specified goods are, or are alleged to be, stolen goods, the licence holder must—

  • (a) immediately notify a constable if any of the specified goods are offered to the licence holder for sale or pawn; and

  • (b) check whether he or she already has possession of any of the specified goods and, if so, must comply with subsection (1)(a) and (b).

  (3) A licence holder commits an offence, and is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding $10,000, if he or she fails, with respect to goods that the licence holder knows, suspects, or ought reasonably to know or suspect are stolen goods, to comply with subsection (1)(a) or (b) or subsection (2)(a) or (b).

  (4) A licence holder may dispose of goods that he or she has reported to the Police under this section after holding them for at least 14 days unless, before the expiry of the 14 days, the Police issue a hold notice under section 40 with respect to the goods.

In the terrible event that your items get stolen then you must report this to the Police ASAP. A link to “How to Report a Crime” can be found on their website here.

To protect Kiwis, the team at Gold Smart will readily report anyone suspicious to Police!

Remember to sell your gold to Gold Smart the GOLD BUYERS!

"It's 9ct, not 22ct, honestly!"

It’s well known that gold prices have been at record levels for people interested in selling gold. The advent and increase in fly-by-nite jewellery buyers is concerning for us at Gold Smart. These gold buying scams can take many forms and at the end of the day knowledge is your best defense against becoming a victim.

There’s basically two groups of gold scams to be careful of – the first is people trying to sell you gold (often from dubious sources) and the next is people wanting to buy gold from you (such as traveling gold buyers or dodgy companies). We can say from experience that there’s 99.99% chance that anyone wanting to sell gold to you from countries like Ghana will be a complete scam. Simply nobody will send you gold without first receiving payment in full and on the flip-side you’d want to be very careful whom you send money to!

You’ve probably seen a rise in companies offering to buy your old gold jewellery, however there’s a massive difference between the level of honestly, professionalism, quality of service and prices you would receive from other companies. It’s not uncommon we have customers tell us how they took their items other gold buyers that didn’t even know the correct carat of gold – in one case the gold was 22ct (approx 91.6% in purity) only to have the character in question try and tell her it was 9ct (37.5% in purity). Either this is very bad training or simply fraud! Don’t be deceived, a reputable gold buyer will be able to tell very quickly if the gold in genuine or not, and determine the correct purity for you.

If you don’t feel comfortable or safe with the people offering to purchase your gold jewellery, then listen to your gut – it’s often right! The other comment we hear frequently is that “I didn’t feel comfortable, something didn’t seem right about them”, and “They couldn’t, or wouldn’t provide me even basic information such as what they pay for gold!”

At Gold Smart we are unashamed quality buyers of gold! Don’t take our word for it, check out our testimonials – they are literally golden! When considering selling gold, come to Gold Smart first, you’ll be glad you did!

P.S. The 4 things you need to check are prices, their ratings/testimonials, history and affiliations.

The New Zealand Commerce Commission released an interesting press release on the 26th of July that relates to Budget Loans Limited pleading guilty to 34 breaches of the Fair Trading Act.

“Consumer legislation such as the Credit (Repossession) Act and the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act provide important protection to lenders and borrowers alike. All lenders need to ensure that their business practices and contracts comply with the relevant consumer legislation, as failure to do so means businesses run the risk of breaching the Fair Trading Act,” said Graham Gill.

Budget Loans has reversed or refunded over $400,000 of the approximately $500,000 of overcharged interest and fees. The company has agreed to reverse or refund the remainder of the overcharged interest and fees as well. The Court recognised this reparation in setting a fine for the offending.

During the Commission’s investigation Budget Loans also voluntarily reversed or refunded an additional $571,000 to its debtors in relation to credit fees that were not the subject of the current charges.

Full Article Here

Click for Part 1: Campbell Live Investigation

Last night Campbell Live ran two videos about the real cost of taking a loan from various Auckland’s Pawn Dealers (or “Loan Sharks“).

We blogged about it a few weeks ago how some companies take advantage of people when they are vulnerable. It was interesting to hear what they had to say about Warriors star Stacey Jones fronting TV ads for Instant Finance. From the article it appeared as though there was a difference between what Mr Jones understood their finance rates to be and what they actually are.

The simple reality is that very high interest rates can be extremely difficult or impossible to repay. The advice from the Gold Smart team is to seek independent advice on budgeting and cash management. The government of New Zealand provides such services at no cost – only will power and discipline is required by the person needing help.

Watch Part 2

When it comes to selling gold, you must ensure that you’re not binding yourself to repaying high interest rates from companies or individuals offering loans. The process for receiving the best price for your gold jewellery and gold bullion is simple – call our friendly team as we’d be happy to talk through the details.

*Sell Gold to New Zealand’s Gold Buyers – Gold Smart.

Pawn Shop:

1. a pawnbroker (or pawnshop) is an individual or business that offers secured loans to people, with items of personal property used as collateral.

Pawn:

1. a person used by another to gain an end,
2. the pawn is the most numerous and (in most circumstances) the weakest piece in the game of chess, representing infantry, or more particularly armed peasants or pikemen.

Being gold buyers in New Zealand we occasionally have customers ask us if we will lend money on gold jewellery items as security. There are unscrupulous pawn shops and loan sharks that will take advantage of vulnerable Kiwis needing fast cash or a payday advance.

At Gold Smart we have the opinion that debt is not the answer – especially if you have other finance commitments. We’ve had customers tell us about companies charging 360% interest per annum! If someone chooses to “pawn” their gold and not sell it, it’s likely they will lose because the high interest rates wipe out any potential gains in the gold price (opportunity cost). They also have control over your items and based on the law of averages, a certain amount of people will slip on their obligations and your items then become their property. The pawnbroker can then sell your items via a public or internet auction website. You’ll lose any interest you’ve paid, the items and the potential return you would have made from selling your gold to Gold Smart.

Basically more debt is not a smart idea. We can’t provide financial advice, however with some research you’ll find all the templates and budget plans that will help you get back on top of things. If you have gold (or silver) to sell in New Zealand, and you are looking for the best value gold price talk with the friendly and professional team of gold buyers at Gold Smart.

Check out our Testimonials and see what customers are saying about us!

P.S. Based on a loan of $1,000, you would have to pay back $3,600 after 12 months!!

Would you sell your jewellery to people that buy from criminals?

It’s common knowledge that there are companies and certain individuals that have no problem buying items of suspicious origin. It turns out this has not gone unnoticed by the New Zealand Police and about 240 police officers executed 44 search warrants on Wednesday and Thursday following months of investigation into compliance with the Secondhand Dealers and Pawnbroker’s Act.

The Police have now made it public that some secondhand dealers have knowingly been buying gold (particularly as melted gold) from dubious origins. The laws that have been established to protect the public are very clear and provide appropriate guidelines that help Police find, track and recover stolen property.

When you are considering selling gold, would you want to take the risk by dealing with one of these types of companies?

Gold Smart takes pride in its professional conduct as licensed gold buyers – make the right choice, deal with the company you can trust – Gold Smart (the smart choice).

NZ HERALD, Friday 23 April

Police have seized cash, drugs, guns, electronic equipment and about $300,000 of watches in an operation targeting secondhand dealers in the Auckland Region.

Operation Castle focused particularly on the trade of stolen gold. Police said secondhand dealers had been buying stolen gold jewellery, melting it down and selling it to gold bullion dealers.

About 240 police officers executed 44 search warrants on Wednesday and Thursday following months of investigation into compliance with the Secondhand Dealers and Pawnbroker’s Act.

Police had concerns around the compliance of 115 of Auckland’s 858 licensed secondhand dealers and 94 breaches of the Act were detected during the compliance checks.

The officer in charge of the operation, Detective Inspector Greg Cramer, said gold jewellery had been the item of choice for many burglars after its price doubled from US$600/ounce in 2007 to US$1,200/ounce in three years.

“Generally such items are relatively small, portable and they provide a high return,” he said.

“When it comes to gold jewellery, it would appear that some dealers have knowingly been buying it, melting it down and on-selling to gold bullion traders, in defiance of their statutory obligations.”

All dealers must be licensed to trade and must retain property they’ve acquired for 14 days, before they’re able to on-sell.

“Traders should always question why a customer has melted gold product to sell, particularly if there’s a regular supply from that customer,” Mr Cramer said.

Anyone who has information about non-compliant secondhand dealers, questionable business practises or active burglars, should call their local Police or provide information anonymously to 0800 CRIMESTOPPERS – 0800 555 111.

- NZHERALD STAFF

At Gold Smart we’re not sure if these guys are selling seafood or something else! Either way it might be worth avoiding!

There has been much written recently about the horrendous interest rates New Zealand “Loan Sharks” charge vulnerable Kiwis – we think this is both unethical and immoral. If you need cash you should try advertising online as you’ll know the market will pay what something is worth (not what a Shark tells you).

At Gold Smart we do NOT provide loans of any kind – just the top prices for your unwanted gold jewellery. Check out our Testimonials to see what our happy customers are saying about us, the process and our prices!

At Gold Smart we hear from people that have had gold jewellery items stolen and want to know if we’ve seen any similar items come through. It seems that opportunistic thieves know that the price of gold is high and one lady recently told us that she’d been burgled and they only thing they took was the gold (leaving the laptop, silver, camera, etc)! And now she was thinking to sell the gold they didn’t take as it no longer felt that it was safe sitting at home in a drawer.

Gold Smart has tight processes in place to help stop the trade in stolen gold jewellery items and we work closely with the Police to ensure any suspicious items and people are reported. This has resulted in successful prosecutions of individuals that want to profit from stealing your gold jewellery.

It’s common knowledge that there are pawnshops and buyers who will happily purchase stolen items on the basis that when it’s melted it becomes very hard to trace. We have heard of several companies in New Zealand already being fined for such activities and in our mind this makes them complicit in the crime.

At Gold Smart we pride ourselves on following and exceeding the legal and moral obligations put on us by New Zealand law – it’s just not right to knowingly profit from stolen gold jewellery. If you want to work with Gold Buyers with integrity talk to Gold Smart today.

P.S. Perhaps the gold jewellery you no longer wear would be safer as cash in the bank!