How to Keep From Getting Scammed When Buying Gold

No one wants to get scammed. Not you, not your parents, not your kids, not even the people who try to scam you.

No one wants to get taken advantage of.

When people take advantage of us, at best it injures only our pride. But at worst, scammers could take advantage of us to the tune of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars.

When we get scammed, it’s natural to blame ourselves sometimes. If only I hadn’t clicked that link, if only I hadn’t picked up the phone, if only I had seen those red flags, etc.

Sound familiar?

If you’ve ever been scammed before, you’ve probably learned some important lessons. And hopefully those scams didn’t hurt you too badly.

But there are some bad actors out there right now looking to scam you. They’re looking for easy victims and easy money.

And like Willie Sutton, who robbed banks because that’s where the money is, scammers are looking to target big pots of money. And what could be bigger than the $38.4 trillion Americans have saved up for retirement?

Naturally, many Americans are looking to protect those savings, whether it’s through diversifying their portfolios, adjusting their exposure to market volatility, or buying safe haven assets like gold and silver.

But even when trying to protect your savings with gold and silver, scammers can be a threat. They take advantage of unseasoned buyers who may not know who to deal with or what to buy.

And unfortunately, they’re having success. Here are five ways you can avoid getting scammed when buying gold and silver..

1. Is This an Unsolicited Offer?

One of the first things to look for is whether the offer you’re seeing is something that’s unsolicited. Sometimes you might give out your email address online to get more information, and the next thing you know eight different companies are bombarding you with emails for their products.

That might be sleazy, but it’s not necessarily a scam. And normally you can tell based on the type of companies spamming you which company they bought your email address from.

The real scams, though, are people who contact you out of the blue and you have no idea where they got your email address from.

It’s the Nigerian prince who needs you to loan him money so he can collect his multi-million dollar inheritance.

It’s the lonely young woman whose parents just left her several million dollars and she really needs someone to warm her up on these cold nights.

Or it’s a company you never heard of sending you a PDF of a shipping invoice for something they claim you ordered. Don’t click on it!

All of these approaches try to lower the guard we reflexively put up against strangers. They use greed, lust, and even just outright curiosity to lure us in. And that’s how they get us.

If you’re in the market to buy gold and silver, you might reach out to companies in the industry to get a sense of what products are being offered, and you might then expect to get contacted by companies looking for your business.

But if you’re receiving unsolicited offers to buy gold, especially gold products you may not have ever heard of, or at prices below the spot price, there’s a good chance that unsolicited offer is a scammer looking to clean you out.

2. Do Your Homework

If you’ve been contacted by a company with an offer that sounds too good to be true, it pays to do your homework. Let’s say the unsolicited offer comes via email.

Is it actually coming from the company, or from some random Gmail or Hotmail address? Is it trying to get you to open a link or click an attachment? That’s almost always a sign of a phishing scheme.

If you’re receiving an email from an individual, how realistic is the tale they’re telling? By now most people have gotten wise to the Nigerian prince scam, but what happens when someone you know has their email account compromised?

You might get an email from your pastor, your best friend from college, or even your grandchildren, saying that they’re traveling and lost their credit card and can you please send money?

That scam has ensnared many kind and trusting people. But if you stop, think for a second, and reach for the telephone to give a call, you may find out that the email you received is a scam.

What if you’re searching online for something you really want, like gold and silver coins, and you find a website that seems to offer what you’re looking for. Maybe it’s a company you’ve never heard of before, but the website seems legit, and the company seems to offer quality products.

That’s when you really need to do your homework. Research the company online and see what their online presence is like.

Search the company’s name, along with keywords like “scam” or “reviews” to see what other people are saying about them. Very often if something seems like it’s too good to be true, it is.

Every now and then you may get lucky and find that your research has paid off and your first hunch was wrong. But sometimes it’s better to be cautious and stay safe than to throw caution to the wind and risk losing a lot of money.

3. Ask Tough Questions

Another way to protect yourself from getting scammed is to ask tough questions. If something doesn’t sound right, or if it sounds too good to be true, push back and ask questions.

Make sure the answers you get make sense, and if they don’t, keep pressing. If you’re talking on the phone and someone promises you something, ask to get it in writing.

If you’re dealing with a legitimate company, that shouldn’t be a big deal. And it’s especially important when you’re buying gold and silver, where you could end up spending tens of thousands of dollars.

When buying gold and silver, especially through a gold or silver IRA, you should ask questions about how your metals will be stored, how you can confirm ownership of your metals, whether there’s a buyback guarantee, etc.

Make sure to get answers to your questions in writing, and don’t ever transfer money before having a binding written agreement in place.

We’ve all been taught since childhood to be nice and polite to people and not to make waves. But if you don’t stand up for yourself and ask tough questions, other people who aren’t as nice and polite as you can take advantage of you.

4. Keep Your Emotions in Check

Once our emotions get going, it can be tough to get them to stop. That’s why we need to keep our emotions in check from the very beginning.

Scammers use lust, greed, and other emotions to elicit a reaction from you. They’re looking to push your buttons. And when they’re able to trigger your emotions, you can become more susceptible to being scammed.

Greed is one of the major emotions scammers will use to try to exploit you. All you have to do is send Prince Jafar $3,000 so he can claim his $20 million inheritance, and he’ll let you have 10% of it.

Such a deal! So much money! Wow!

But it’s not real. And even people who should know better get tempted, as the allure of easy money can be too great to resist.

Fear is another emotion that scammers may try to manipulate. Whether it’s fear of losing money in a market downturn or fear of missing out on an opportunity to buy something before the price goes up, scammers will try to use fear to their advantage.

When it comes to gold and silver, they might try to scare you into thinking that you’ll lose all of your wealth in a market crash, and that if you don’t move all of your money into gold, you’ll lose everything you’ve worked so hard to accumulate.

Or they may try to tempt you with a price that seems too good to be true, and that’s only good for a limited time. They’re trying to get you to make a quick decision based on the fear of missing out on a good deal, without doing your due diligence first.

Just remember that when it comes to making any financial decision, you need to put your financial well-being first. Your money is supposed to work for you, and not for anyone else.

5. Walk Away

Finally, don’t be afraid to walk away from any deal that seems fishy. It’s far better to leave some unknown salesman mad at you than to put your hard-earned money at risk trying to please someone you just met.

Scammers will try to use your politeness against you, knowing full well that many people are just too nice to tell them where to shove their scams.

Don’t be afraid to hang up the phone, ignore emails and phone calls, and block scammers who are pressuring you. Just because someone is using high pressure tactics to get you to part with your money doesn’t mean you have to give in.

There are other ways to get people like this off your back, including giving them the cold shoulder. Don’t put your financial future at risk just because you don’t want to make a scammer upset by telling them no.

Goldco’s Commitment to Customer Service

At Goldco, we realize that not every company out there is looking out for its customers’ best interests. And that’s why we’ve decided to do things differently.

We pride ourselves on helping our customers benefit from owning precious metals like gold and silver, whether that’s in a precious metals IRA or whether it’s through direct cash purchases of gold and silver that can be delivered directly to your door.

We’re so sure that you’ll enjoy the gold and silver you buy from us that we even offer a buyback guarantee. And with over 5,000 5-star reviews from our satisfied customers, we’re confident that we’ve done an outstanding job in providing high quality gold and silver products and exemplary customer service.

If you’re looking to add precious metals to your portfolio and you want to make sure that you’re dealing with straight shooters, call Goldco today to talk to our experienced representatives and find out more about how gold can help play a role in safeguarding your financial future.