骗倒香港珠宝商的假黄金

Behind the counter of Mok Sang Kee Jewellery, a small shop in central Hong Kong, its manager is on guard against fraud.

在香港市中心一家小金铺——生记珠宝金行(Mok Sang Kee Jewellery)的柜台后面，店铺经理在时刻警惕着欺诈事件。

But Mok Yeuk Ping’s age-old methods of testing gold for purity may not be enough to protect him against today’s swindles. As gold prices rise ever higher, touching a nominal record of $1,424.10 a troy ounce last month, the yellow metal is attracting ever more inventive fraudsters.

但是，Mok Yeuk Ping用以检测黄金纯度的古老方法，可能不足以对付当今的骗术。随着金价节节攀升，于上月创下每盎司1424.10美元的名义新高，针对这种黄色金属的骗术，如今也是花招百出。

And Hong Kong, in its position as the back door to the booming Chinese gold market, is a prime location for gold counterfeiters. Haywood Cheung, president of the Chinese Gold & Silver Exchange Society, Hong Kong’s century-old bullion exchange, said goldsmiths and jewellers in the territory had been duped into buying between 200 and 2,000 ounces of a new, hard to detect alloy passed off as bullion.

香港作为通往繁荣的中国黄金市场的“后门”，是假黄金制造者的主要根据地。香港具有百年历史的黄金交易所——金银业贸易场(Chinese Gold & Silver Exchange Society)理事长张德熙(Haywood Cheung)表示，骗子以一种难以检测的新型合金冒充黄金，香港各珠宝金行受骗买进的这种合金估计介于200-2000盎司。

“It’s a very good fake,” Mr Cheung says.

“仿造质量非常高，”张德熙表示。

In one case, executives discovered a pure gold coating that masked a complex alloy with similar properties to gold. The fake metal included a significant amount of bullion, about 51 per cent of the total, alloyed with seven other metals: osmium, iridium, ruthenium, copper, nickel, iron, and rhodium.

在一起事件中，管理者发现，犯罪分子在与黄金属性相似的合金外面包裹了一层纯金。合金中含有相当高比例的黄金，约占总重的51%，另外掺有七种其它金属：锇、铱、钌、铜、镍、铁和铑。

The complex nature of the fakes suggest they were produced by a metalsmith with sophisticated equipment and extensive knowledge of metallurgical engineering. 

工艺的复杂性表明，只有那些拥有先进设备和高超冶金工程知识的金工技师，才能制造出这样的假黄金。

Most scams involve gold-plated tungsten or a cheap gold alloy which can be easily detected.

大多数骗局都是使用镀金钨钢，这种相对便宜的黄金合金很容易就能识别出来。

But the latest involves pure gold plated on a complex alloy whose colour, density, and hardness bears a remarkable similarity to the real thing.

但最新骗局中的假黄金，却是一种镀上了一层纯金的复杂合金，这种合金不管是颜色、密度还是硬度，都和真金极其相似。

Even Luk Fook Group, one of Hong Kong’s biggest jewellers, was tricked into buying $11,500 worth of fake gold this summer before putting its stores on alert. “This was the biggest hit ever,” said Paul Law, executive director of the firm.

甚至连香港最大的珠宝商之一——六福珠宝(Luk Fook Group)也在今年夏季被骗售了价值1.15万美元的假黄金。之后，该公司提醒各门店保持警惕。公司常务董事罗添福表示：“这是迄今以来我们受到的最为严重的一次冲击。”

The gold faking scams highlight two market trends: first, the rise in bullion prices, which has caught the attention of individual investors, and, second, booming demand in China which is on track to overtake India in the next few years as the world’s largest gold consumer.

假黄金诈骗案突显出两大市场趋势：一是金价上涨，这已引起了个人投资者的注意；二是中国黄金需求迅速增长。未来几年内，中国有望取代印度，成为全球最大的黄金消费市场。

The rise of Beijing is redrawing the map for the global gold industry and increasing the importance of Hong Kong’s precious metals market as a regional trading hub.

中国黄金需求的上升，正在改写全球黄金行业的版图，香港贵金属市场作为地区交易中心的重要性日益突显。

China, already the world’s largest gold miner, has been forced this year to make hefty imports to satisfy local buyers. In a rare revelation, Chinese officials said on Thursday that the country has this year – until October – bought 209 tonnes of gold, a fivefold increase from an estimated 45 tonnes for last year.

中国的黄金开采量居全球之首，今年，为了满足本国消费者的旺盛需求，中国不得不大量进口黄金。本周四，中国官方罕见地披露了黄金进口数据。今年前10个月，中国累计进口黄金209吨，比去年增长5倍。去年进口量估计为45吨。

The surge in imports come as Chinese investors, in common with gold buyers in the west, are turning to bullion to protect their wealth against fear of rising inflation and currency moves. Xin Yi Che, commodities analyst at Barclays Capital in Singapore, says that the latest data, even if incomplete because of the lack of information about gold scrap and the activities of the central bank, “suggests very strong Chinese demand”.

和西方黄金买家一样，出于对通胀上升和汇率波动的担忧，为了财富保值，中国投资者也纷纷购买黄金，从而推动进口激增。巴克莱资本(Barclays Capital)驻新加坡的大宗商品分析师Xin Yi Che表示，由于缺乏有关旧金和央行活动的信息，最新数据并不完整，但足可“表明中国需求十分强劲”。

Total Chinese gold demand surged last year to nearly 450 tonnes, up from about 200 tonnes a decade ago, according to the World Gold Council, the lobby group of the mining industry. Analysts anticipate a further leap this year, putting the country within striking distance of India’s total gold demand of 612 tonnes in 2009.

采矿业游说组织——世界黄金协会(World Gold Council)估计，去年中国黄金总需求从十年前的200吨左右，猛增至近450吨。分析师预计，今年中国黄金需求还将进一步大幅增长，直追印度。2009年印度黄金总需求为612吨。

Walter de Wet, precious metals analyst at Standard Bank in London, says the freshly revealed import data suggest that Chinese demand could top 600 tonnes, up nearly 75 per cent from last year. The data are murky, nonetheless, and Mr de Wet warns there are probably illegal gold exports from China that are not be captured by the data. “This would distort the actual gold numbers for China. However, the trend is undeniable: gold demand in China is rising rapidly,” he says.

标准银行(Standard Bank)驻伦敦贵金属分析师魏文德(Walter de Wet)表示，新披露的黄金进口数据，表明今年中国黄金需求有望突破600吨，比去年增长近75%。数据有些含糊，魏文德也警告说，可能有些非法的出口黄金行为没有纳入数据之中。“这会扭曲中国实际黄金数据，但趋势是不容否认的：中国的黄金需求正迅速增长。”

Little surprise, then, that criminals are trying to cash in. For inexperienced buyers of the precious metal in China and the rest of Asia, fakes can be extremely difficult to detect. Bashing, biting and scratching the metal provides a simple test for gold’s characteristic softness, but will not catch more sophisticated counterfeits.

因此，犯罪分子企图从中牟利不足为奇。中国及亚洲其它地区欠缺经验的贵金属买家，可能很难辨别出假黄金。敲、咬、锉等手法只能简单检测黄金的软硬度，难以辨别高明的伪造品。

Gold-plated tungsten is a near-perfect fake, since tungsten has almost exactly the same density and appearance as gold.

镀金钨钢是一种几可乱真的仿造品，因为钨的密度和外观与黄金相差无几。

Moreover, such products are relatively easy to obtain. China Tungsten Online, a company based in the coastal province of Fujian, says gold-plated tungsten, including coins, bars and jewellery, is one of its main products.

而且，要获得此种产品相对容易。厦门中钨在线科技有限公司(China Tungsten Online)表示，包括纪念币、钨条和珠宝首饰等在内的各类镀金钨钢产品，是其主要产品之一。

“Our gold-plated tungsten alloy products are only for souvenir and decoration purpose,” the company says on its website.

该公司的英文网站上声明：“我们生产的镀金钨钢产品仅作为纪念品和装饰品用途，我们谨在此声明：请勿把我们生产的镀金钨钢产品用于非法用途。”

“Here we declare: Please do not use our gold-plated tungsten alloy products for illegal purpose.”

不过，企图以镀金钨钢冒充纯金出售的犯罪分子，也只能欺骗那些天真的买家。钨是一种坚硬易碎的灰色金属。

Yet, criminals looking to sell gold-plated tungsten as pure gold would only be able to dupe naive buyers. Tungsten is a hard, brittle grey metal.

在假冒品上钻孔，或者剖开假冒品，立刻就能揭穿骗局。

Drilling into or slicing open a fake item would immediately expose the deception.

相比之下，今年早些时候骗倒香港珠宝商的复杂黄金合金，检测难度则要大得多。

By contrast, the complex gold alloy that has duped jewellers in Hong Kong earlier this year is far more difficult to detect.

这些假冒品需要经过极其细致的检查，包括对中心部位进行极高温和化学检测。

These items require extremely close inspection, including exposing the core to extreme temperatures and chemical analysis.

这个过程称作“火试金法”，是大型金行必备的标准检验法之一。这意味着，通过街头商店流入黄金市场的假黄金，无法通过冶炼商或黄金交易所。

That process, known as a “fire assay”, is a standard part of any big gold-dealer’s repertoire, meaning that fake gold that enters the gold market at street level will not be able to get past refiners or gold exchanges.

鉴于中国有望成为黄金市场上最大的买家，香港的珠宝商们可能还将遇见更加精巧的伪造品。

With China on track to become the biggest buyer in the gold market, Hong Kong’s jewellers are likely to see ever more elaborate fakery.

译者/杨远