It is precisely because of the imperfection of the industry management system that many loopholes can be exploited for criminals. With regard to the stipulation that no catalogue fee shall be charged before auction, the commercial department has promulgated this stipulation, but it has no law enforcement power, and the institutions with law enforcement power do not take this stipulation as the basis for punishment. So that criminals can get away safely even if they are punished after fraud, which is even more rampant.
At present, when dealing with such cases, law enforcement departments often confiscate illegal income and revoke their business licenses as long as they hold auctions, no matter how much money they cheat. Can't be treated as fraud.
After this slight treatment, these criminals often strengthen their fraud by changing their names and places.
The auction management system is not perfect, and many collectors are lucky after being cheated. Most of the art fraud gangs were not convicted after being cracked, which led to these people being locked up for up to two days and then changing their names and locations to continue cheating.
There are two kinds of fraud methods most commonly used by these criminals:
First, it claims to hold an art auction in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan or overseas, charging collectors a high fee for participating in the auction, and finally informing collectors by streaming auction; At the same time, in order to appease collectors, they are promised to be responsible for finding buyers for the collection until the transaction is completed. But in fact, there is no buyer at all, and no matter how long the collection is preserved, it is impossible to make a deal.
The second is to claim that overseas buyers took a fancy to the collectors' collections and cheated people, and then claimed that they needed to apply for identification certificates, collection certificates or pay other fees. After the collector pays the fee or completes the so-called certificate in the institution recommended by him, he informs the buyer that he has changed his mind or has an accident and cannot continue the transaction for various reasons.
In fact, everyone in the industry knows that the above two methods will not work. The Law on the Protection of Cultural Relics clearly stipulates that cultural relics in Chinese mainland before 1949 and those regarded as cultural relics after 1949 shall not be traded abroad in any form, otherwise they will be regarded as cultural relics smuggling.
The two methods mentioned above are the most commonly used fraud methods of these criminals. Recently, according to collectors, new fraudulent methods have emerged. With the development of network economy, fraudsters turn the location of fraud from offline to online, which is more hidden and difficult to identify.
No matter what name, place or way fraudsters use to cheat, just remember two things: First, as long as you charge the buyer any fees or ask the seller to handle any documents before the auction, stay away from them; Second, as long as you claim to auction overseas (including Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan) or claim to have overseas buyers, stay away from them quickly. As long as you remember these two points, you won't be fooled. Now we can add a third point. If it is in the name of identification, as long as it claims to have been identified in an activity or a column, it must be fraud.