Swindlers and extortionists target gold merchants once again

Gold merchants and jewellery shop owners in the country are once again falling prey to swindlers and extortionists.

Two years ago when a similar situation arose the matter was taken up with the Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa and was quickly brought under control.

The latest incident came to the spotlight a week ago when one of the gold traders in Colombo started getting threatening phone calls, warning that his family members would be abducted when he refused to comply with their demands, a senior member of the Sri Lanka Jewellers’ Association, who did not wish to be named, said. The association consists of about 4000 members, islandwide.

He said, the usual modus operandi of the extortionists was to threaten a trader by informing him that he had purchased stolen gold from a suspect who was in their custody. He will be told that the suspect will be produced in courts and the jewellers’ name would also come up during the hearings. The caller would then demand about Rs. 500,000 or more from the jeweller if he did not want his name to come up. He would also give a detailed account of the movements of the jewellers’ family members and threaten him that harm would come to him and his family if he failed to pay up.

The member said that about eight members had given into the demands adding that all the calls have originated from one phone number.

The callers would also give details of the account number and name of the account holder into which the money had to be deposited. The association members said they have found out that the account holder himself had been threatened to give the bank details.

One of the gold traders who had received one such call was told that they were calling from Vavuniya.

A senior officer attached to the crime division of the Pettah police said that the trader who was at the receiving end of threatening calls last week has been told to inform the police if he received more calls.