TV Gold buying Ads

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Posted: Fri Nov 27, 2009 3:10 am

OK this is not an outright scam but slightly amusing...in the execution, guess it depends if the Gold Buying compay is an ITP and also qualifies as cash baiting (almost)

http://www.cockeyed.com/citizen/goldkit/gold_kit.shtml

Posted: Fri Nov 27, 2009 3:20 am

I read through both pages and everything seemed legit. What's the scam?

EDIT: Ha! This guy lives in Sacramento. At least now we're famous for one thing. Laughing

Posted: Fri Nov 27, 2009 3:53 am

Yes not really a scam more take money of the gullible. I would certainly send off all valuable with no way to check their value relative to the price offered.

Posted: Fri Nov 27, 2009 3:55 am

It's not something I would do either, but from what I saw from that link, they even paid the guy the appropriate sum of money for sending them junk.

There is nothing to suggest that any kind of fraud is happening.

Not quite a Newb Joined: 14 Jul 2005 Posts: 41

Moved here - it isn't AFF.

Posted: Fri Nov 27, 2009 7:20 am

I am confused how you would consider this almost cash baiting. There is no scam involved. The company is asking to buy your gold so I don't know how they can be an ITP.

They are buying gold in anticipation that gold prices will go up later. It's not much different from going into a pawn shop and selling your gold chains or whatever. Except since all they are going to do is melting it down, they don't care if your jewelry is broken.

If I remember the TV commercial correct, they want to buy $100,000,000.00 worth of gold before the end of the year.

Posted: Fri Nov 27, 2009 7:52 am

Most (all?) of the mail-order cash-for-gold companies are ripoff artists to begin with. They pay much less than even your local pawn shop would, let alone what the gold is worth.

I've always figured that their main client base has to be burglars. They would be happy to take pennies on the dollar for jewelry and coins if it meant sending them far outside the jurisdiction of the town where the burglary took place. In essence, these places are big, mail-order fences.

I like this story a lot. It is very much akin to baiting.

Posted: Fri Nov 27, 2009 8:07 am

So you consider these guys scammers because criminals abuse their service?

I can certainly see how they could be convenient fences, but I'd like to be a little less cynical and believe the business was started with good intentions, as most are.

Posted: Fri Nov 27, 2009 8:19 am

^
No, I consider them scammers for other reasons. For example:

http://www.trendite.net/2009/04/07/cash4gold-scam-employee-jewelry-cash-for-gold-complaint/

http://www.cash-for-gold-scam.com/

Feel free to do your own research.

Baiting Guru Joined: 04 Jan 2006 Posts: 3193

Jammy wrote:

I've always figured that their main client base has to be burglars.

The police here agree with you. Thieves appear to be targeting gold in exclusion of TVs and even silver.

Posted: Fri Nov 27, 2009 10:08 am

I figured the same thing about burglars. Pawn shops have to keep records and make them available to the police. If a stolen item is recognized it's recovered. This is not to say a burglar can't burgle a home in one city then use a pawn shop in another. If so, it doesn't make the pawn shop a crook.

Jammy the link http://www.cash-for-gold-scam.com/ seems to be more of an ad for CashForGoldUSA.com. Indicating they pay the highest so only sell to them. So everyone who buys scrap gold is scammers except them?

The companies are offering to buy your unwanted, warn, broken, or scarp gold. Something that is basically of no use to you. They are in the business of buying gold to make a profit (like any business) so obviously they aren't going to pay you top dollar.

You send them your gold, they send you a check for what they are willing to pay. If you are not happy with the price you send the check back and get your gold back. If you are happy with the price you cash the check.

What is the scam here?

You know what? Don't answer that. I don't have any gold so it really doesn't matter to me Very Happy

@Thud - Burglars will steal whatever they can get the most money for and can be fenced with the least amount of hassle. Jewelery is usually the first thing they go for because it small and easy to carry away. I seriously doubt it's because of the recent buy your gold TV commercials.

Posted: Fri Nov 27, 2009 10:27 am

Ghost wrote:

Jewelery is usually the first thing they go for because it small and easy to carry away. I seriously doubt it's because of the recent buy your gold TV commercials.

I agree.
And as people tend to keep all of their jewelery together, a burglar gets his whole payday just by opening one drawer and stuffing his pockets full.
Also, he can normally get out of the burgled address unobserved in the same way as he got in rather than having to go out of a bigger exit, which he would have to do if he stole a TV or some other larger object. It's also a lot quicker to sweep the contents of a drawer or a jewelrey box into your pockets than it is to go around unplugging items.
Jewelrey gives the highest return for the least risk to any burglar. Always has, always will, regardless of wether or not someone is offering a deal for it on TV.

Posted: Fri Nov 27, 2009 10:39 am

Yep, especially the burglars that only spend a few minutes in the home. They go right for the jewelry boxes. Grab whatever they can stick in their pockets. Guns are something that are always stolen. Drugs too but this probably goes unreported. Maybe not the burglary itself but I doubt the victim adds an 8 ball to the list of items stolen Laughing

These burglaries are probably about 20 to 1 compared to a ransacked home. Hot prowl burglaries are the least common.

Posted: Fri Nov 27, 2009 10:01 pm

My father-in-law and brother-in-law are jewelers and they agree that these guys who advertise on TV are not the best place to take your scrap gold (or "old gold" as they call it). They would advise to shop it around jewelry stores in your home town first. Some won't buy at any price but others, especially those that make custom designs in shop, may make you a decent offer.

These guys do operate legitimately but they are like the people who sell auto warranties or credit life insurance. You are just not likely to get a good deal.

Posted: Sat Nov 28, 2009 8:16 am

Ghost wrote:

What is the scam here?

You know what? Don't answer that. I don't have any gold so it really doesn't matter to me Very Happy

Fair enough! Very Happy

I'll just say, if anyone here has gold they want to sell, please thoroughly research all your options.

Smile

Posted: Sat Nov 28, 2009 10:34 am

^^sounds like good advice to me Smile

Posted: Sat Nov 28, 2009 7:16 pm

Good old Radio 4 - they had an interview with one of the company owners who admitted that he ran 2 companies, one without TV advertising, just online promotion, that paid about 98p/£ on the true value of the gold, but his other TV advertised service paid 64p/£, and some of his (also advertising hard on TV) competitors would pay as low as 35p/£. Even allowing for the 35p/£ to be an exaggeration, anyone advertising so heavily is not going to give you a better price than someone without those overheads.

Go to any real, manufacturing jeweller, ask them to do you a deal - they can cut out all the middlemen.