She decides to put her money into gold and silver.
Along the way, she realizes the investment isnt what she had thought it was.
TIP:Do your research and read the fine print.
[00:00:20] HOST: Anykind of investment usually has some risk attached to it.
Stock market, realestate, your next car.
But what about precious metals?
Youknow the one’s we’re talking about.
You see the ads on TV and hear them on theradio.
And something about the pitch seems just so, well, reasonable.
But whatis it really like to invest in gold and silver?
This come up with the FBI, Iassume.
[00:01:05] HOST: Well you’re absolutely right.
(MUSIC SEGUE)
[00:01:21] Grace:Hello?
[00:01:22] HOST: Hi,Grace, it’s Will Johnson, at AARP.
[00:01:26] Grace: Hi,Will.
[00:01:27] HOST: I’mgreat.
[00:01:28] HOST: Thisis Grace.
She has an MBA, describes herself as well-educated and has someexperience dealing with investment scams in the past.
[00:02:45] HOST: So,what did you do next?
You decided to invest and how did you go back doing that?
[00:03:30] Grace:Okay, it was 220,000.
[00:04:00] Grace:Uh-huh.
I did see that the prices were going up, so I was really excited.
[00:04:25] Grace:Right.
So I called the company and started screaming.
She goes, well because it’s a semi-numismatic, wedon’t really know the value of that.
[00:05:14] HOST:Where’s the vault?
[00:05:15] Grace: It,the vault’s, I believe in Utah.
[00:05:21] HOST: Butdid he tell you where a specific vault was for you?
[00:05:23] Grace:Yeah, he did, uh, huh.
[00:05:25] HOST: Wow.
[00:05:42] HOST: Andthey, and how did they differentiate?
[00:05:46] Grace:They were different years, and they were different types.
[00:05:57] Grace:Right.
So that was another red flag.
[00:05:59] HOST: Werethey less value?
[00:06:01] Grace:Yes.
[00:06:02] HOST: Andwhat makes them less value?
Less gold, less weight?
[00:06:05] Grace: No,they were, they were newer.
They were brand, brand new for that year.
[00:06:20] HOST: I’msure it did.
We promised that weguaranteed that we’ll buy it back and I had purchased this one coin for 508.
[00:07:04] HOST:$508?
[00:07:06] Grace: Fora .25-ounce coin, a quarter ounce coin.
And he goesfine, we’ll buy it back for $300.
And I said, are you kidding me?
I just boughtthese things.
I bought them in December.
[00:07:33] Grace:Yes, yes.
And then I also talked about the silver coin.
[00:08:21] HOST:Enter Dan Rutherford.
[00:09:05] HOST: Andbecause we’re talking about investments here, we have this quick disclaimerfrom Dan.
Also, thisinformation is for educational and informational purposes only and should notbe construed as legal or investment advice.
[00:09:26] HOST:Alright, back to the show.
The fact is that gold and silver investing is not sosimple.
We could take an entire show to cover just the basics.
Grace definitelylearned that along the way.
The bottom line is that if you’re thinking aboutinvestments like gold and silver, do your research.
As with any business wherea lot of money’s involved, there are bad actors out there.
Dan’s office workswith dealers who are registered only.
If businesses are not registered, theyare actually operating illegally.
[00:09:51] HOST: Sosome of this then falls outside of what you guys manage.
Definitely readthe fine print.
[00:15:19] Grace:Thank you.
I just hope I help a lot of people.
We haven’t talked a lot about that.
[00:15:40] FrankAbagnale: Yeah, but it’s a lot easier than that.
[00:16:10] HOST: So Idon’t necessarily have to be surfing around on the dark web.
You know, this is a lot of the old back to the scams of baitand switch.
I bought these here, they’ve arrived, Ilook at them, they look beautiful.
[00:16:50] HOST: Andbite them, right, is that how people test gold.
[00:17:18] HOST: Youvebeen scammed.
If I have a trusted financialadvisor.
But, and so it gets intothis sort of area where there may be very legitimate businesses doing it.
But that’s because you didn’t read the fine print and you signed it.
Do you consider that a scam?
We don’t teach ethicsat home.
I’ve had three sonsgo to graduate school.
Only the one that went to law school had a courseoffered on ethics.
And that’s ridiculous that we’ve come to that point.
Thishas nothing to do with religion.
[00:22:00] FrankAbagnale: A number of years ago, I wrote a code of ethics.
I put it on mywebsite under publications.
And I wrote it in very simple terms, it’s not long, it’s one sheet.
[00:22:47] HOST: Andit becomes of the company culture.
[00:22:50] FrankAbagnale: Right, absolutely.
[00:22:52] HOST: We’dlike to welcome Jen Beam back to the podcast.
She is with the Fraud WatchNetwork and manages the very active and interesting Fraud Watch NetworkFacebook page.
Jen, how are you?
[00:23:01] Jen Beam:Hi Will.
[00:22:46] HOST:Vacation rental scams are a kind of a hot area, right?
Craig’s List, peopleposting vacation places that either maybe don’t exist or they don’t own?
[00:23:11] Jen Beam:Absolutely.
[00:23:36] HOST: Sowhat are people doing?
The price is unbelievable.
And then you’re puttingdown a deposit or something, or how are they, what’s the scam?
[00:24:36] Jen Beam:Yes, so Facebook.com/fraudwatchnetwork, we post daily there.
[00:24:52] HOST:Alright, safe booking out there.
Thanks again, Jen.
[00:24:53] Jen Beam:Thanks, Will.
I’ve heard at one point that 90 percent of web traffic is on the darkweb.
I think people are fascinated by it.
[00:26:48] HOST:Right.
A complicated web, a global web.
So thanks, as always, for joining us.
[00:27:03] FrankAbagnale: Thanks, Will.
Great being with you.
[00:27:16] HOST:Alright, I’d like to thank producers, Julie Getz and Brook Ellis.
Our audioengineer, Julio Gonzales, and of course, my cohost, Frank Abagnale.
[00:27:24] FrankAbagnale: Thanks, Will.
