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When it comes to things you probably shouldn’t purchase on the street, precious gold jewelry places pretty high on the list.

And yet, some gold buyers say there’s been an uptick in the number of Ottawans targeted by scammers selling fake gold for a quick buck.

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“It’s definitely spiking now,” said Erik Ramsey, owner of the Swap N’ Shop pawnshop on Merivale Road. “I’ve been seeing it come through the store for the past year or two — but nothing like the past few months.”

The gold scam is pretty simple: Someone on the street claims to have some gold (often in the form of a necklace, ring, or other jewelry) and needs cash, pronto. The mark buys the gold, but it’s not until taking it to get appraised does it becomes clear it’s either gold of far lower quality than the mark was told or, more commonly, it isn’t gold at all.

Photo by Julie Oliver / Postmedia

Based on the reports he’s heard, Ramsey said many people are being hit with a similar scam.

“The most common one is they approach you either in a gas station parking lot, or even on the street, (and) they spin you some story about how they have no gas in their car and need to get to the airport.”

He said the scam is so common, he rarely even needs to test the gold — he can just look at it.

“All the (fake) pieces look the same,” he said. “It looks like they took the same mould and made hundreds of these.”

Most people, he said, get taken for a couple of hundred dollars, but he’s seen some people fork over nearly $1,000 for this fake gold.

The most recent spike prompted Ramsey to put out a warning to the public.

“DON’T BUY GOLD ON THE STREET!!!” reads a notice he posted to social media. “We have seen HUNDREDS of people over the past year in our shop alone … If the people were so badly in need of money they could easily walk into ANY gold buyer in the city and receive hundreds if not thousands of dollars on the spot.”