Gold is becoming an increasingly popular investment with concerns that the stock market is too volatile in response to the recently instituted tariffs.  In times of political turmoil, such as we are experiencing at this time, gold becomes more attractive to investors.  Unfortunately, along with legitimate gold merchants, there are many scammers who often contact their victims by telephone or email as well as through radio, television and online advertisements offering tremendous opportunites to invest in gold.  Unfotunately, these scammers sell overpriced gold or even sell gold that they never deliver to their victims.

TIPS

An essential rule of investing is to never invest in anything that you don’t fully understand.    Another important thing to remember is that merely because an advertisement appears in legitimate media, such as television and radio does not mean that the company doing the advertising is legitimate.  Most media do little or no investigation into whether or not an advertiser is scamming the public.

Specifically for prospective gold purchasers, you should make sure that the dealer selling you gold is a reputable dealer which you can do by checking out the dealer with the American Numismatic Association at its website http://www.Money.org.  Also do not have the dealer store your gold for you.  Always take delivery of the gold yourself.  Finally, only do business with dealers that offer a buy-back guarantee within 72 hours.  As for gold sellers who contact you by phone and pressure you to buy, you should just hang up the phone.

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