Claimed to be "999 pure silver," but the actual content is 0.67%! Don't buy this "bargain" silver jewelry.

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At a time when silver prices are trading at high levels, in online live-streaming rooms, many merchants have seized the opportunity to introduce “special discount prices” and “clearance prices” that are lower than the market unit price, luring consumers to place orders. However, the “bargain-hunting” that buyers are eagerly hoping for often turns into stepping into a trap. So, what is the truth behind these so-called “pure silver” accessories, priced far below the cost of raw materials?

58-gram pure silver bangle—after the coupon price is 138 yuan

A woman’s test finds the silver content is only 1.66%

Hu女士 from Rizhao, Shandong, has long wanted to buy some jewelry when silver prices rise, but as the prices of silver jewelry went up, she kept hesitating. It wasn’t until the end of last year that Hu女士 came across a live-streaming room while scrolling. The “special discount price” the merchant offered during the livestream instantly made her interested.

Hu女士 liked a 58-gram bangle labeled “pure silver 999.9.” After using a 300-yuan “new customer” coupon, she ultimately paid only 138 yuan and successfully bought the bangle—effectively purchasing it at a price of 2 yuan 3 per gram.

However, when she tried to buy again, she found the shop had quietly shut down. Later, some “buyer beware” reviews made her uneasy, and she decided to go to a professional institution to have it analyzed via spectral testing. The result was shocking: for this bangle labeled “pure silver 999.9,” the silver content was only 1.66%, and the main components were copper and zinc.

Angry, Hu女士 wanted to contact the platform’s customer service to file a complaint, but was told that the after-sales period had already passed.

Hu女士’s experience is not unique. According to data from the Black Cat Complaints platform, after the black cat complaints 【Download the Black Cat Complaints Client】 silver price surged starting March 2025, related complaints increased sharply. In just the six-month period from September 2025 to March 2026, the complaint volume increased by 71.98% year over year, with problems directly pointing to “counterfeit and shoddy goods” and “insufficient weight per gram.”

“Pure silver” labeling for low-priced silver jewelry

The actual base is a copper-zinc alloy

At present, due to fluctuations in international gold and silver prices, domestic retail silver prices generally stay between 25 yuan and 28 yuan per gram. However, on e-commerce platforms, silver is repeatedly sold below this price.

The reporter’s investigation found that a pair of silver earrings labeled as weighing 3.72 grams was sold for 69.9 yuan in a live-streaming room—equivalent to 18 yuan per gram. At that time, the silver spot price on the Shanghai Gold Exchange was about 23 yuan per gram. This means the merchant’s selling price was even lower than the cost of raw materials.

What’s more, on a certain e-commerce platform, a pair of 20-gram “pure silver bangles” sold for only 30 yuan, as low as 1.5 yuan per unit—so low it basically became “cheap as cabbage.” Even though the prices were unbelievably low, the merchants’ promises were especially loud. Some live-stream merchants claimed that the silver jewelry they sold supports professional testing and can also include an appraisal certificate.

Can these accessories, marketed in live-streaming rooms as “solid pure silver” and stamped with “S999,” stand up to inspection? The reporter randomly placed orders and purchased eight silver jewelry samples across multiple online platforms, and sent them to authoritative testing institutions for analysis.

At Shanghai Institute of Measuring and Testing Technology Co., Ltd., engineers used professional testing methods to conduct rigorous experimental analysis on the eight jewelry samples. According to the national standard GB11887, the overall silver content of pure silver should be no less than 990‰. That is to say, only when the overall silver content reaches 99% or above can it be called pure silver. The results showed that in nearly sixty percent of the samples, the test results for silver content were seriously inconsistent with the claimed values.

For the earrings advertised in the live stream as “solid pure silver,” stamped with a “pure silver 999” mark, testing found that only a thin layer of silver was plated on the surface—the surface silver content was only about 22%, and the silver content in the cross-section was even less than 1%. The base was mainly made of a copper-zinc-nickel alloy, with copper at 60% and zinc at about 30%.

For the “pure silver jewelry 999” earrings advertised in the live stream as “having no other impurities besides silver,” testing found the base was a copper-zinc alloy, and the measured silver content was only 0.67%.

The reporter noted that for those silver jewelry items whose silver unit price is far below the market price, the measured silver content still fails to meet the “pure silver” content requirement by a wide margin. And even though some silver jewelry items have a per-gram unit price that matches market conditions, the test results are still not satisfactory. These silver jewelry items labeled S999 or 999 actually have copper and zinc as the base materials and should be called “alloy jewelry.”

Medical experts warn that this may cause skin irritation in people with sensitive or allergy-prone skin, easily triggering itching, redness and swelling, and even contact dermatitis.

At present, some of the live-streaming rooms involved have been complained about and taken down.

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责任编辑：赵思远