Beware Of Gold Companies Trying To Scam You Out Of Your Money. UPDATE: The Scams Are Getting Worse

This report was first published on April 12th, 2024. New information has been added.

As more and more people become acutely aware that the economy is collapsing, and the purchasing power of their fiat currencies are eroding, Americans are becoming increasing concerned about their finances, and therefore become prime targets for thieves and scammers to take advantage of their fear, innocence, and ignorance; and precious metals shilling is one of these scams.

The scamming has gotten so pervasive that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) issued a public service announcement about it in January. They said:

“The FBI is warning the public about scammers instructing victims, many of whom are senior citizens, to liquidate their assets into cash and/or buy gold, silver, or other precious metals to protect their funds. Criminals then arrange for couriers to meet the victims in person to pick up the cash or precious metals. From May to December 2023, the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) saw an uptick in this activity with aggregated losses of over $55 million.”

For example, just several weeks ago Fox 5 highlighted one of these gold scams, with some people getting swiped by $800,000. In this case, the scammer convinced one elderly woman to convert her hundreds of thousands of dollars into gold bars to protect against identity theft. The scammer would then pretend to be a federal courier and steal the gold. Eventually the scammer was caught during a sting operation.

Moreover, a number of popular pundits and show hosts have been representing a number of fraudulent gold and silver companies, who again are especially taking advantage of older and elderly individuals.

This was exposed in a video by investigative journalist Scott Schafer, who interviewed a whistleblower who worked for one of these companies, Augusta Precious Metals, who have a number of popular conservative pundits endorsing this company. Dale Whitaker, the turncoat who worked for Augusta, exposes the blatant extortion and theft these companies are doing, and all the tricks that they do to scam people.

Definitely watch the video, but basically the main thing these companies such as Augusta Precious Metals, Birch Gold Group, American Hartford Gold, etc., is they will mark-up the spot price of gold from anywhere from 100-250%, for example; thereby giving these companies hefty marginal returns, and usually a net loss for the purchaser; or inversely when someone would go to convert their coins, the companies would increase their spreads in order to not pay-out as much.

Their sponsors and representatives typically will scare people into buying from them by warning about impending stock market crashes, skyrocketing inflation, eroding purchasing power of the dollar, and so forth.

Some of these sponsors include: Bill O’Reilly, Ben Shapiro, Mark Levin, Glenn Beck, Candace Owens, Matthew Walsh, Rudy Giuliani, Michael Knowles, Steve Bannon, Dan Bongino, Jordan B. Petersen, Ron Paul, Kirk Cameron, Liz Wheeler, Bandon Tatum, and so on.

Also, these companies will typically not post their prices on their websites, and will rather direct prospecting buyers to discuss rates over the phone.

Many of these predatory companies have been forced to pay massive fines, but because these are considered “white-collar crimes” the same people who worked at these firms can close their doors and reopen as a new enterprise, and thus restarting the process all over again.

Furthermore, don’t let their good reviews deceive you. Whistleblower Whitaker exposed how these are fraudulently obtained, and how these companies will pay to get negative reviews removed. They will also entice purchasers with offering them a free coin immediately after they just settled with their IRA’s to get these good reviews. If a negative review is left, the sales rep will then try to entice the upset buyer into accepting $10K worth of silver coins to get the negative review removed, but the bag of silver is not worth that amount because of their extortionate mark-ups.

Definitely give the video a watch, and watch the entire interview to learn more:

Update: The Scams Get Worse

Earlier this month ABC 7 did an investigative report into this scam, exposing a company called Oxford Gold Group. The company did exactly what Whitaker and Schafer had warned about previously, only this time this company decided to just flat-out not even deliver the gold purchases as promised to customers, and the company quietly closed its doors earlier this year. This prompted local news to take a deeper dive into this, after a number of victims came forward and revealed they had invested their entire savings with the company, to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars, which are now probably gone for good unless authorities get involved somehow.

As covered previously, one customer in this instance who got scammed was tricked by fake 5-star reviews. ‘Before investing, he searched online and found good reviews for Oxford. And the company was very convincing, sending out a sophisticated printed investment guide,’ ABC 7 explained. The network added:

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[Scott] Dahl placed an order and was told the physical gold coins would be sent to a depository in Utah. It was all supposed to be handled by a company called Equity Trust. But then he received a letter saying Equity Trust was no longer working with OxfordGold.

“I don’t care what’s going on with your companies,” Dahl says. “But you’ve got my money. All I want you to do is to send the metals into the depository. That’s all I need you to do, and if you can’t do that, send the money back to me.”

He called the depository in Salt Lake City that was supposed to have his gold coins. But they said they had no knowledge of the order.

I may die before I have the ability to retire just because of this group that’s basically deceived me.

Dahl said

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However, even if Dahl and other customers still had access to the precious metals they still would have never turned a profit.

Schafer did a follow-up video report proving that Dahl would never have been able to make a return on investment. Per the receipt shown in ABC 7’s report, Dahl purchased a number of 1/10th ounce gold coins for $347.80 on November 29th, 2023. However, the SPOT price for an ounce of gold on that same day, according to SD Bullion, was running at $2,044.63. So this means 1/10th ounce would have been sold at $204.46. Of course, companies will charge a markup, so if the company charged 20% more then companies should be charging no more than $230 on that date.

An ounce of gold now costs a little above $2,500. Clearly, Dahl and others would have lost out on this investment. For proof of this, this particular 1/10th coin that was sold to Dahl can be purchased directly from the U.K.’s Royal Mint. Right now that coin is being sold for around $323. But Dahl was sold that same coin from Oxford for $347.80 in November of last year, as gold prices rose almost $500 since that time. Customers would still be unable to break even.

This is definite proof that these companies are blatant scams.

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AUTHOR COMMENTARY

Colossians 2:4 And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words.

And it’s not just these more well-known pundits who are pushing these scams: it seems like everywhere on YouTube now SOOO many of these smaller, independent content creators, and larger gatekeepers, are pushing some sort of gold and precious metals or mining stocks company. I’m not claiming that these are scams, but I also do not trust them, quite frankly; unless the company lists the spot price of the products they are selling directly on the site, as covered in the interview.

For example, I saw one gatekeeper not long ago, Jimmy Dore, brought on this scammer Paul Stone for Colonial Metals Group, and lo and behold, they’re offering $10K worth of free silver, just as Whitaker exposed that these grifters do.

Dore had another covert advert a month later pumping this company, and this time the comment section was loaded obvious bots with hundreds of likes telling you why gold is so great.

Another one that I remember seeing was one Dan Golka’s channel I Allegedly, who had on CEO of Patriot Gold Group, Jack Haney (on more than one occasion), and this guy, in my opinion, just wreaks of a slick conman. I mean, the hair all over my body stood up just listening to this greaseball trying to get people to call their 1-800 number to convert their retirement into a gold-backed IRA, among other things. And again, this company will not list the spot price for their products.

Moreover, I Allegedly was pumping a mining stock scam over a couple of years ago called Altaley Mining Corp, funded by Gold Standard Media LLC. This is an indentical scam that The Economic Ninja – another scammer and grifter I exposed earlier this year was shilling – was doing right around the same time. SEE: “The Economic Ninja” Is A Lying Con Man And False Prophet

There are plenty more out there but these are just some of the other examples I have seen.

Pay attention to these proverbs:

Proverbs 20:14 It is naught, it is naught, saith the buyer: but when he is gone his way, then he boasteth. [15] There is gold, and a multitude of rubies: but the lips of knowledge are a precious jewel.

This passage is the credo for all haggling, scamming, grifting, Ponzi’s and pyramids, and get-rich-quick schemes.

Allow me to demonstrate: ‘Your money is fake, your dollar is soon to be worthless, so give me your worthless dollars and I’ll give you real money for it at marked-up values.’ “It is naught, it is naught, saith the buyer:” Food for thought.

Be very careful with a lot of these gold grifters. So many of these people are out there trying to take advantage of you, and they will sell you on all this fear and doubt and worry. If it’s so “worthless,” then why don’t these companies just heap the gold and silver for themselves? Is the dollar dying? Yes. Will it eventually go to zero? Yes, all fiats fail. But, if this money is so fake then why are these companies and their sleazy salesmen so interested in accruing more of those “worthless” dollars? Think, friend, think! And then you get people who want to play semantics and schmooze you into believing buying gold is not an “investment,” when by dictionary definition it is an investment. Having said that, if you are buying gold for the sole purpose of turning profits and getting rich, that is not wise. Precious metals should be purchased for wealth preservation, not as a vehicle to get marginal returns.

But, alas, some people you just can’t reach; and I fear for many of you out there, brethren, because I don’t want you to be taken. The love of money blinds and it will deceive, and it will kill. 1 Timothy 6:9 says, “But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. [10] For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”

Mark 4:18 And these are they which are sown among thorns; such as hear the word, [19] And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.

Now, having said all of this, am against buying precious metals? No, and I think it is one of the safest (not fool proof or guaranteed protection) things you can invest and transfer your money into, to which then can be reconverted later. If you have the option to purchase precious metals, then PLEASE make sure you get them from a place that directly lists the spot asking price, mark-ups are not extortionate, and you can physically possess them. If you don’t hold it, you don’t own it.

There is a lot more I could say, but I’ll relent for now, but I do plan to talk more about this subject in future reports. I’m just so sick and tired of seeing these scams and I want to make sure you are aware of them and how to spot them.

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[7] Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? [8] Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? [9] For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? [10] Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. (1 Corinthians 9:7-10).

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