How to Avoid Them!
Many of the gold and silver companies on the market are reputable, trustworthy companies. However there are also quite a few scammers that take their customers' money stating false claims just to get the sale. Although we see many scammer companies in the precious metal IRA niche, they also lie in the physical metals space too. Below we detail what to look out for when buying precious metals and how to tell if it is a scam. Precious metals are a great way to store your wealth and a few bad apple shouldn't be the reason why you don't do so.
The Classic Bait and Switch Scam
We see it in both gold IRAs and physical metal sales. In this instance, you may come across a good deal you want to invest in, whether it's through an ad, an email, etc., but once you get in contact with the company they start trying to manipulate you to invest in something different.
Another exaple of this is agreeing upon a certain price for something but when the time comes to pay, they try to force you to pay more than what you originally agreed to. Like if you wanted to buy gold bars at their advertised price, but when you move forward that item is "out of stock" so they offer you others with a marked up price.
Counterfeit Metals
As a normal person who is not a precious metals expert, it's easy to get scammed into buying fake coins and bars. Many times we see consumers looking to buy gold coins for example, and the company they buy it from sells them fake gold coins with even something like a buyback guarantee. When the consumer finds out they were scammed and tries to contact the company, they magically disappear.
One way you can beware of this is to not trust any seller who is offering a price way below the current gold or silver spot price as this is usually how they get you interested in the first place. No reputable seller is going to offer their coins for much less than market value. Be wary of these scammers - many times these sales will happen online so you can verify the coins for yourself before making the purchase.
Salespeople With Urgency
If you get on the phone to speak with a gold IRA company and the salesperson starts telling you that the gold price just lowered, and it's about to go higher any day now so you must buy now to get the most for your money, chances are the scam is not just in the salesperson. No reputable company is going to allow their salespeople to pressure clients into making financial decisions without having ample time to decide if it's the right move. Precious metals are notoriously stable investments and any person who insinuates otherwise is not to be trusted.
The Contracts' Fine Print
No matter what you're buying in life, it's always a good idea to read the fine print before signing anything. This rings especially true for financial purchases such as gold IRAs. Although there are some great gold IRA companies that don't hide any misleading details in their contracts, there are tons who does this very thing to end up leaving you high and dry. Do your best to vet any company you work with and make sure to look over the entire contract before signing anything.
Shaved Down Coins and Bars
A much too common scam these days is dealers slightly shaving down the coins and bars they sell to consumers. These shavings eventually add up to a large amount of free gold for the seller. This one is hard to decipher, which is once again why it's so important to vet the company you're buying your metals from and making sure they're reliable and trustworthy with a good track record.
