Introducing FakeBullion.com

[natsb88]

7/25/16

The Justice Department has quietly settled a lawsuit seeking millions of dollars from companies the agency had accused of importing counterfeit U.S. coins from China and fooling the U.S. Mint into paying nearly full value for them.

A federal district judge in Philadelphia dismissed the case in a July 21 order that said the parties in the case, America Naha Inc. and Wealthy Max Ltd., had reached an agreement with the agency.

Click for more.

[natsb88]

Law enforcement investigating counterfeit gold, silver sales



ALABAMA - Arrests have been made and more are pending in a multi-agency investigation into the sale of counterfeit gold and silver, the Limestone County Sheriff's Office announced Friday.

LCSO has partnered with Morgan County Sheriff’s Office, and the Huntsville Police Department after each department recorded cases of people being scammed out of money after buying fake gold and silver bars or coins.

Click for more.

[natsb88]

Three new items added to the database this week.

[natsb88]

Delaware couple charged with selling more than $35,000 in fake gold bars and coins



OCEAN VIEW, DE - An Ocean View couple faces charges after police say they sold counterfeit gold bars and coins to Sussex County residents.

Delaware State Police began an investigation Oct. 24 after receiving a report about the sale of counterfeit gold bars and coins over the internet, said Sgt. Richard Bratz of the Delaware State Police.

In July, he said, one victim met with Paul Micaletti, 41, and Heather Micaletti, 34, who were selling gold bars for more than $1,700. The victim made the couple sign and date a receipt stating the gold was real, Bratz said. Paul Micaletti then told the victim that the bars belonged to his father-in-law who had passed away.

Click for more.

[natsb88]

A little more about the couple above. The picture shows fake Perth and Pamp bars, some unknown coins, and a fake dealer receipt.



https://www.fakebullion.com/index.php/n ... -fake-gold

[natsb88]

New counterfeit gold on the way.





Click for more info.

[spincity]

Does the 1oz pass the PMV test?

[natsb88]

Does the 1oz pass the PMV test?

I don't have the VeriScan or Apmex bars to test yet. The PMV picks out the other 1 oz fakes in assay cards, but not the smaller fractional fakes in assay cards.

[natsb88]

With a few recent additions we are now up to 40 different counterfeit items in the Fake Bullion Database. I have several more queued up that I just need to finish the photo work on, and then I will be looking to borrow some genuine examples again.

In response to feedback and requests, there is now a Monthly donation option on the site, and there is now a check / money order option for the Lifetime donation. The Monthly and Yearly recurring options still use PayPal.

I would also like to thank Bullion Exchanges as the newest affiliate to team up with FakeBullion.com. If you click through their banner to order something, it helps out the site

[natsb88]

Thanks to SD Bullion for supporting FakeBullion.com! Click through their banner before you order and it helps keep FakeBullion.com online

[natsb88]

BANGOR, ME - A Waterville man who sold counterfeit coins was sentenced Wednesday in federal court to serve 10 months in prison and three years of supervised release.

Mwashuma M. Sithole, 32, was sentenced by Judge John A. Woodcock Jr. in U.S. District Court in Bangor for the crime, to which he pleaded guilty on May 9, according to a release from the U.S. Department of Justice that cites U.S. Attorney Thomas E. Delahanty II.

Click to read more.

[Crossfaced]

Not sure if this is the right place to put this. Something to watch out for. This guy is on Facebook making silver sales but not actually sending the silver.

http://www.topix.com/forum/city/lawrenc ... RTOQ0BQLGF

[MasterBlaster]

BANGOR, ME - A Waterville man who sold counterfeit coins was sentenced Wednesday in federal court to serve 10 months in prison and three years of supervised release.

Mwashuma M. Sithole, 32, was sentenced by Judge John A. Woodcock Jr. in U.S. District Court in Bangor for the crime, to which he pleaded guilty on May 9, according to a release from the U.S. Department of Justice that cites U.S. Attorney Thomas E. Delahanty II.

Click to read more.

Last name Shithole

[natsb88]

High-quality counterfeit gold bars sold in Winnipeg



WINNIPEG, CANADA - If you're planning on buying gold bars anytime soon, Winnipeg police are advising extra caution after a series of "suspicious transactions" at locations in the city.

The transactions took place on Nov. 30 at a number of pawn shops and gold buyers, police said, involving the sale or pawning of counterfeit one-ounce gold bars.

Click for more.

[natsb88]

I just added a 2013 25th Anniversary Silver Maple to the database, as well as added updated comparisons to current production samples for the Silvertowne Standard 1 Oz Bar and Silvertowne Eagle 1 Oz Bar (scary good match here). Several more in the pipeline to be added soon. I also have samples on the way of new counterfeit Pamp Veriscan, APMEX, and RCM gold in assay cards. They all look to be very high caliber fakes.

I hate asking for support, but I'm going to do it here briefly. The site costs money to maintain and host, I have to pay for most of the samples I analyze, and there are some fixed costs associated with maintaining an LLC. This year I also purchased a decent USB microphone and some video editing software to start making videos, and loaned a large box of documented counterfeit samples to the Numismatic Crime Information Center to use in training investigators at a law enforcement conference in Texas.

For 2016 I am a couple hundred dollars in the red, and going back further I still have about $2500 I have yet to recover from the initial entity formation, web development, and securing samples.

I have not been paid a dime for my time, which has been many hundreds of hours. I put as much into the site as I can, but it doesn't pay the bills. More contributions means I can spend more time working on it.

To those of you who have already contributed, a very big thank you!

To those of you who find the site useful and wish to contribute, here are several ways you can help out.

- Become a Supporting Member. You get to see new entries in the Fake Bullion Database 60 days before they go public and you can post "does this look fake to you" and related questions and commentary in the Supporting Members Forum. $5/month or $40/year through PayPal, or $150/lifetime through PayPal or mail-in payment.

- If you don't want to join but do want to donate, there is also a plain PayPal Donate button on the page linked above, or you can PM me for an address.

- If your favorite dealer is an advertiser or affiliate with FakeBullion.com, click through their banner on our website before you place your order. It doesn't cost anything extra and it helps support the site. Affiliates currently include Bullion Exchanges, SilverGoldBull, SD Bullion, Golden Eagle Coins, and Coin Supply Express. If your favorite dealer isn't listed there, tell them they should be! There are two large dealers that do have affiliate programs but are not yet partnered with FakeBullion.com. One expressed concern about being associated with a site that has "fake" in the domain name, and the other has just ignored my application and emails. Tell your dealers that supporting a site that is trying to educate the industry about a very real problem makes them look good! For those without affiliate programs, we offer inexpensive pay-per-click advertising.

- And finally, share links to FakeBullion.com on other sites! I have introduced the site on Bullionstacker, Realcent, and SilverStackers, and answered questions in a couple of Reddit threads, but there are many other relevant communities that I don't frequent. If you visit other sites, and the topic of counterfeits pops up, plop a link in there for FakeBullion.com. The more people that visit the site, the more it begins to pay for itself. And if you want me to a mail a postcard to your favorite local coin shop or coin club, send me their address.

Thanks for your support and Happy New Year!

[natsb88]

$10K in fake gold bars uncovered during Edmonton police investigation



EDMONTON, CANADA - The Edmonton Police Service issued a warning Monday about a counterfeit gold scam in the city after an investigation uncovered thousands of dollars in fake gold bars that have also shown up elsewhere in western Canada.

Police began investigating after receiving information late last year regarding the sale of suspected counterfeit gold bars to various merchants in Edmonton.

Click to read more and watch the video.

[Long John]

Nate, I'm going to join your site as a supporting member, not because I expect to use it that much but because it is a cause worth backing. The Chinese fakers are becoming too good at this, abetted by their own government and by slimy Westerners who buy the fakes with the criminal intention of reselling them as real. As you saw in another thread, the resellers are even becoming brazen enough to do unboxings of the Chinese packages and pretend it is hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of real gold. Any measure taken against the fakers is a worthy one.

[Mechanic4hire3]

Nate, I'm going to join your site as a supporting member, not because I expect to use it that much but because it is a cause worth backing. The Chinese fakers are becoming too good at this, abetted by their own government and by slimy Westerners who buy the fakes with the criminal intention of reselling them as real. As you saw in another thread, the resellers are even becoming brazen enough to do unboxings of the Chinese packages and pretend it is hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of real gold. Any measure taken against the fakers is a worthy one.

I concur.

[Goldman]

Nate, I'm going to join your site as a supporting member, not because I expect to use it that much but because it is a cause worth backing. The Chinese fakers are becoming too good at this, abetted by their own government and by slimy Westerners who buy the fakes with the criminal intention of reselling them as real. As you saw in another thread, the resellers are even becoming brazen enough to do unboxings of the Chinese packages and pretend it is hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of real gold. Any measure taken against the fakers is a worthy one.

I concur.

Same here. Will donate/join soon. Done.

[natsb88]

Thanks for the support guys, it is greatly appreciated! I am also open to suggestions on additional features/content/perks that would benefit Supporting Members and encourage more people to visit and use the site. I think mainly I just need to be creating more content more regularly. Who needs sleep