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!

Peter dug around to see what the BBB had to say about EuroPacific and was promptly met with a big F. This was due to one customer complaint, within one year, that had been filed; which was the ONLY customer complaint and/or rating that had been filed in total. So if GoldLine had a lawsuit on their hands, not to mention over 70 complaints in over 3 years on their BBB page, why wasn’t their enough information to rate their company? The obvious skepticism lead Peter to dig through numerous gold and silver companies that he knew were running scams, and wasn’t at all surprised by now to find that their ratings were not as poor as his.

His conclusion: BBB is taking payment for the rating listings, and GoldLine was keeping their rightfully smeared image under wraps.

Although we’ve listed in previous posts to double check a precious metal company’s ratings on various websites, we can now say that the Better Business Bureau lacks the integrity to provide accurate information for your buying experience. Have no fear, there are plenty of other ways to find out if the company you are working with is up to no good. Read Peter Schiff’s Gold Scam Report, and keep following our blog to stay up on the latest gold scams around the world.

Happy buying!

-Megan

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.

The alleged scammers hired an Irish security team to bring the gold from Africa to Europe, but the team quickly found out that the name the operation was organized by was unreachable. They expressed their concern and immediately investors withdrew. However, this didn’t mean everyone was saved from the €100 mil loss. The Irish security team who made their way down to the border were left stranded without the pay promised to return home.

“We were cut loose — the minute they (the investors) realised what was going on they walked away. We had to pay all our own expenses and even our flights home,” said one member of the security team.

When dealing internationally and off the record (avoiding taxes and processing fees), be sure to background check who you are dealing with. Rookie buyers shouldn’t jump into international bullion deals, unless consulting with an experienced investor. I can advise that it is very risky placing faith in a company that you can not speak directly with or find proof of past business experience and ratings. International gold buying is inevitable in our global economy; be smart about your provider. And most of all, make sure they exist!

It’s not just the U.S. that is plagued with the cheesy gold-buying commercials and ridiculously priced gold coins. Canada also deals with their fair share of gold scams. With a very sizable gold investment conference around the corner in Vancouver, BC, it’s important that BC’s Better Business Bureau has created a Top 10 Scam List for 2012. And surprise, surprise…guess what made the top of the list? Gold scams.

As a con artist, you’ve come along way to take the cake in a contest that most businesses would like to come in last place for. Since gold’s stellar performance over the past couple of decades, criminal activity within the business is moving relatively higher. A correlation no one can ignore. With big money, comes the bigger scams.

The Better Business Bureau in British Colombia is doing our job for us in Canada. (more to come in a follow up post about the BBB in the States) They’ve voted Gold Scams as the number one scam to be aware of in 2012. Their suggestions to keep investors safe range from buying locally and finding an appraiser to see your gold/silver before you sell it physically. Run a search through your local BBB and they’ll feed you some good tips, but they also keep a running database, well they should, of past complaints and red flags on businesses in your area.

The BBB’s “Top 10” list gave quite a bit of competition, still gold came out on top:

-Penny Auctions
-Locksmith Fraud (eek!)
-Brand Spoofing
-Virus-Fixing Scheme
-Advance Fee Loans
-Power-Saving Claims

Looks like our friends in BC that have read Peter Schiff’s Gold Scam Report won’t have anything to worry about in the New Year. These trends are similar in the States with record numbers of scams happening everywhere. Your investing should be taken care of by people who understand your passion and goals as an investor, not a pushy salesperson calling from a musty boiler room. Avoid the scams by joining us to hear the latest.

Happy Buying,

Megan