Oh no!!! I've been scammed into buying fake silver

Hi all,


A couple weeks ago I was the victim of fraud. It's embarrassing to be taken advantage of like that. And I was already in the process of selling these before I found out they were fake. Thankfully I was able to realize this scam before anyone sent me money and all sales were cancelled before payments were sent.


Here is most of the details surrounding that horrible situation and the outcome along with pictures of the counterfeit silver.


Oh no! I've just been scammed into buying fake silver bullion


I am also working on editing a video of the counterfeit silver in hopes that more people will be able to avoid being robbed of their hard earned money like I was. Video will be posted soon!

Basically if you've bought silver bullion in the past couple months here in New England you should have it looked at by a specialist because this con-artist has been selling a lot of fake bullion.


Sincerely,
~JobIII

 

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Glad it worked out for you to get your money back in the end. The only Silver I buy is coins, and at that I steer clear of things that look too good to be as best i can. The bars of silver like you bought, are the same as the gold bars with bison, etc. on them. Bad bad bad.

 

It is appalling that the authorities do not care.

 

WOW! those are the same bars that I ended up buying from a user right here on CT. I ended up getting the money back from the paypal claim I opened because the other party did not respond in 10 days. You can see the thread here http://www.cointalk.com/t219683/

 

pballer I think I was trying to get in touch with that seller here on CT as well. They were selling the bars at like $2 under melt right? He never got back to me after I asked for a referral of previous sales here on CT.

MUMU it was really frustrating to call the State's Criminal Fraud Hotline, leave a message daily and never once get a return call. The FBI was at least honest that the amount of money didn't make them want to bat an eyelash...

~JobIII

 

job good detective work..... i am amazed ...listen get a test kit... there cheap... 30 bucks go along way

 

Glad you got your money back and thanks for posting this information here. I'm not in that area but it is not to say there isn't someone around here doing the same thing~

 

I sold an ASE at a flea market last year. The buyer walked up to my table, looked at the coin, whipped out a test kit, scraped the edge of the coin against the test bed, hit it with a drop of liquid, and declared it genuine. I stood there dumbfounded, as I had not given him permission to test the coin, and he started the test before I realized what he was doing. Buyers are definitely getting more educated, but I don't like the idea of them doing destructive testing without asking.

 

You need a sign: You test it, you bought it.

 

This is why I usually buy common date US pre-64 silver. While there is no absolute guarantee that they are not fakes, I don't think anyone is going to go to the trouble of counterfeiting them.

 

Revi, We also mainly buy 90%. Only lately has the bullion been coming our way.

 

I used to get an email weekly from a company w/American in it's name. I think it started coming about the time I signed up to receive them from Cheapslabs.com. I think these were likle $7. Much less if bought in bulk. I've never seen anything legitimate w/ "made in korea" on it.
Not to be censored, that clucks.

 

Unfortunately that test would not work on the latest fakes that are hitting the market. Most of which have rather thick plating of silver.

Not sure where you heard that. Some of them are very heavily counterfeited. About.com has rather nice article where Chinese cops founds tons of Morgans and others counterfeits of US coins in the shop..

 

I must ask. Why are the sides of the bar the only part that is magnetic? Also, can they produce these bars similar in weight to a troy ounce using non magnetic materials? Lastly, how strong of a magnet is needed to test these?

 

Probably because it contains small portion of iron in there, you can use nedoynium magnet (be careful with these). Most modern Silver bullion counterfeits (pandas, leafs etc) these days are not magnetic and even more advanced counterfeits have same weight/size as the real deal. They also have thick silver plating so acid test will do little good and you literally have cut it away using something like power saw to reveal the non silver core. These coins likely use mix of Lead-Tin alloy to replicate Silver's density.

 

I would guess it's because whatever coating there is would be concentrated on the flat surfaces, and therefore would be thinner on the sides and corners.

 

Oh they probably care, but they are overworked and it costs to do an investigation and prosecution. In most cases it will cost much more than the amount that was lost. So it has to be a large figure for the fraud before they will do much about it. I don't like it but I understand why it happens.

 

I saw a counterfeit 1964 dime the other day. And a counterfeit 1965 quarter (with cast marks and made of pewter or lead).

Absolutely everything is being counterfeited these days.

 

I don't get it - why where you unable to press charges in this case? Whether the lawyer refunded the money or not, the seller was still dealing in counterfeit goods. Attempted fraud is still a crime, even if you caught him and got your money back.

Also, your time and effort in this was worth something. Just getting back to where you started is not coming out even.

 

The seller will deny knowing anything about the bars being fake. He probably purchased the bars from a guy who purchased the bars who purchased the bars....