A Phoenix, Arizona man thought he was getting a deal on gold jewelry. Months later, he realized that he got scammed. Now he’s revealing how it all went down so the same doesn’t happen to anyone else.
Tootie Perez (@tootie.az), the founder of True Fades Barbershop, recently posted a TikTok explaining how he got scammed in a mall. Perez said the man who scammed him had “the perfect hustle,” which led him to believe the jewelry he was offering was real.
But months later, the supposed gold jewelry — which he said he paid $2,400 for — turned out to be fake.
“I got scammed by a master scammer,” Perez wrote in an on-screen caption of the post.
As of this writing, the post has more than 19,000 views.
What led him to buy the “gold” jewelry?
Perez was at a mall in Arizona when he said a man in a Cadillac drove next to him. There was a woman in the passenger seat.
Perez said the man asked whether he’d like to buy some gold jewelry.
At first, Perez declined. But the man in the Cadillac was persistent. He reversed his car and followed Perez in the parking lot.
“So finally I was like, ‘All right, bro, let me just check it out,’” Perez said. “So he pops the trunk and he’s like, ‘Look, let me show you something real quick.’”
Perez said the man had multiple pieces of gold jewelry. He showed Perez a necklace, a watch and a ring.
Then the man explained why he had so much gold.
“He opens this notebook and it’s got hella credit cards in there, and he’s like, ‘My lady, she be working the club, bro, and she be jacking these dudes for their credit cards, and we use it to order jewelry,’” Perez recalled.
The man offered to let Perez test the items inside the mall. Perez agreed and they walked into the mall where they found a jewelry tester across from a Kids Foot Locker.
What happened when they tested the jewelry?
Perez when they tested the jewelry, an employee confirmed it was real gold.
“I lay down the jewelry, dude test it. He’s like, ‘Man, this is some good stuff.’ He’s like, ‘It’s real. So anything else I can do?’ I was like, ‘Nah,’” Perez said.
Perez and the man went outside, where he paid him for the gold.
A few months went by before Perez wore one of the pieces. As soon as he pulled it out of his safe, however, he noticed it was oxidized.
While it is possible for metals such as gold and platinum to oxidize, both are highly resistant to it. Jewelry website IcedOut says that pure 24-karat gold generally doesn’t oxidize at all.
That’s when Perez realized he had been scammed.
Perez went back to the shop where they’d had an employee verify the jewelry was real gold. He spoke with a manager. They said nobody worked there who matched the description of the worker.
“ This dude… had the perfect hustle,” Perez said. “So if I ever see you again, bro, I’m going to shake your hand, ’cause that [expletive] was legit.”
Perez said police eventually got involved.
A cautionary tale about buying gold
Some viewers gave Perez advice on the do’s and don’ts of buying jewelry. Most felt that he probably shouldn’t have bought “gold” from a man who approached him in the parking lot.
“Never ever buy gold anywhere but a legit store,” one person wrote.
“You gotta go to a store of YOUR choice to get stuff verified,” another person added.
A third wrote, “Gold is super easy to sell anywhere at value. Anybody trying to slang it for cheap is scamming.”
Others were more sympathetic.
Bro we live and we learn. How much did you spend?” one person asked. Perez replied, “Like $2.4k … he got me lol.”
Perez declined to comment.
