Who would have known that someone would take the time to arrange a slew of videos that can help you learn how to spot fake silver. As much as we warn against buying from unknown dealers, sometimes a deal comes up that can seem trustworthy, whether or not the dealer has a business on the books. In the case you’ve come across a nice deal to purchase bullion outside of an established dealer store, use caution. This YouTube playlist of videos can be one extra step you can take to ensure you are not ripped off.
Fake Silver Playlist
The most popular of these scams is the Morgan Dollar, a coin minted from 1878 until 1904, and again in 1921 for a short amount of time. The handiest tool against Morgan Dollar counterfeiters is a small scale that can measure to the hundredth of an gram, even though most metal is measured in ounces (most digital scales have an ounce AND gram option). If the coin does not measure within one hundredth of an ounce from 26.73g, then cancel the deal because you are about to get jipped. This Morgan Dollar scam was mostly being tracked on eBay.
As we all become more immersed in the silver and gold buying world we see the fear mongering around every corner. “No, the risks…it’s not a safe investment!”…”The government could knock on your door and take it all away tomorrow.”
We all know the FDR story back in the 1930’s where an executive order required all citizen’s gold to be collected at local Federal Reserve branches and then given an artificial price increase. Today the fear lives on as the precious metal world proliferates the executive order’s chance to reappear. There are several reasons why silver and gold have a very small chance of ever being taken from its owners’ hands by the government. Silver above all stands little chance of confiscation. Its industrial use and meek presence in the United States wouldn’t even assist the government with the astronomical debt today. It also wouldn’t be the individuals the government would first target; it’d be the mining companies.
Learn more about the history of the gold confiscation and why, especially silver, and gold are safe in the hands of investors. Aside from that, do you really think FDR’s executive order rid the hands of all Americans?
This video, in the majority of the first half, covers all the reasons why silver, especially, has low odds of ever being confiscated by the Federal Government.
It’s no surprise that with the growing popularity of physical bullion buying, Trey Parker and Matt Stone take on the gold scamming culture we now live in. The creators of South Park have been tackling some timely issues (the TSA, Dolphin Killings, and next week the GOP Primary!) in a hilarious manner, so I wasn’t surprised one bit with the wit they added so gracefully into Episode 16 of this Season’s South Park:
Cash for gold stores and shopping networks have been around for decades, but with the new emergence of social networks, and the intergenerational use of the internet, the choices have now become more broad, allowing competition to weed out the scammers!
So we recently began asking people to share their first gold/silver bullion buying experience. Little did we know how “off the radar” and hush-hush everyone would be. I’ve offered to not release any names but only the text sent our way. By sharing these types of stories with other buyers and curious investors we are working faster than the unethical bullion dealers can keep up. With peers near and far sharing their experiences, we’ll surely create an intelligent group of physical precious metal buyers who can pass the knowledge down.
So here’s one story from a reader about his transaction that happened over, none other than, our centripetal force of nature: Facebook.
I knew my friend had some gold bars. I wanted one. So I sent him a facebook message asking if he was willing to sell me one. He was pissed that I sent a facebook message considering that he wanted his gold ownership to be ‘off the radar’. Regardless, he sold me a 1 ounce Credit Suisse ingot for Spot.
So here at SchiffGold we try to keep you abreast of the latest in scams happening around the world and perhaps even in your neighborhood. Our blog has been running for a few months now and we’ve generated quite the buzz on Facebook, where we already have over 4,000 Fans! So today we’d like to hear from you. What was your first, physical metal buying experience like? Did you run into any of the problems that are covered in the Peter Schiff Gold Scam Report while shopping for the right dealer? A salesperson pushing numismatics? Dealer ever ask you to meet in a Kmart parking lot? We want to know!
How’d they do it? By agreeing to pay up to $4.5 million to its former, disgruntled customers.
Gold Line was taken to California’s Superior Court after 19 consumer complaints were filed as a lawsuit in Santa Monica. Gold Line was accused of “bait and switching” customers, by luring them in with catchy bullion prices, then selling them on marked up numismatics. Sometimes the mark up was as much as 50%!
Gold Line didn’t get away with it scot free by just agreeing to a multimillion dollar settlement. They are now under surveillance from the state of California who will be recording phone calls, meeting with company executives, as well as “secret shopping” their business as they please to ensure lawful practices. Gold Line stated that these measures would “enhance its industry-leading disclosures to prospective precious metals buyers.”
As we’ve talked about here at Gold Scams before, numismatics can be risky when it comes to investing your wealth into precious metals. If bullion dealers are marking up the price over 7% on numismatics and selling you on their rarity and safety, find another dealer! Gold Line has been one of the greatest recent examples of everything you don’t want in a bullion dealer. I’m still baffled on how they plan to stay in business with a reputation like that. With all of the dealers across the country, continent, and world I’m sure investors can find a more ethical and trust-worthy place.
NumberSleuth.org took on the ever interesting task of breaking down the life of gold, including where it is, who has it, and where it’s going. Some of the facts pulled from this beautiful graphic are astonishing.
Did you know that all the gold in the world could be broken down to 5 golden rings per person on the planet? Or that contrary to most of you reading this, jewelry is the main use of gold, not investments!
Click the image to see the entire graphic!
What is with people purchasing very important investments in shopping plaza parking lots?! I must stress that skepticism is your best friend when loading up your car at the local Target or Wal-Mart and you’re approached by a bullion dealer. The chances of a legitimate bullion salesperson meandering through the lot selling legitimate silver are very slim. However, to remain open minded, there are deals out there that you can score in one of those serendipitous moments.
As gold scams pop up around the country and world we are providing you information in order to help you avoid becoming a victim of the scams. This time around it’s not the precious metal dealer that is scamming you. It’s the one rating the deceitful precious metal dealer.
Peter Schiff talked this month on his show on SchiffRadio.com about a suspicion he had about the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and their rating system. The gold scam of the year was undoubtedly the GoldLine fiasco, and with their trial taking place this month in Santa Monica, Peter decided to check and see what happened to their BBB rating. They were originally listed as an A+, now no rating existed at all. No F’s, not even a C! This wasn’t because they were disqualified all together from the site for their obvious fraudulent activity…the site’s reason for no rating was that there was “not enough information” to rate this company. HA!
This isn’t the first time an Irish passport has been used to forge a company and/or person’s existence. This time around it is believed that a group from Nigeria put together a massive gold scam that almost amounted to over €100 mil in gold from US investors. They told the investors that the unprocessed gold coming from African mines would be shipped into Europe and avoid fees, taxes, etc. Turned out that the gold didn’t exist with the company and neither did the head of the company, John Recketts. His passport number was linked to an elderly woman in Dublin whose passport was stolen.
