Conmen "Switch $118,000 of Diamonds for Worthless Fakes"
January 09, 23
(IDEX Online) - Police in India are hunting three men alleged to have duped a diamond dealer by switching genuine stones worth $118,000 with fakes.
They visited the victim's office at the Bharat Diamond Bourse, Mumbai, where they examined and photographed a selection of diamonds and their pouches.
They returned later, chose 320 carats and asked for them to be set aside until while they went to get the cash to pay for them.
Satish Chandpara, 35, a diamond trader at the bourse, at the Bandra Kurla Complex, became suspicious when they didn't return and found their phones were all switched off, according to a report in Hindustan Times.
It quotes a police officer as saying: "The trader got suspicious and opened the packet of the diamonds selected by the trio — only to realise that they had changed the original diamonds with fake ones."