Real Gold Dealers on LinkedIn

How do you tell if the Gold post on LinkedIn is real?

Ive gone through on previous posts specifying why certain types of gold deals from sellers or offers from buyers just wont work, to help you narrow down the field. Todays post is to specifically hone in on ways to ascertain if a specific buyer or seller on LinkedIn (not that these rules dont apply elsewhere too) is the real deal and Im sure Ill follow up with other posts to assist you in your search.

If like me you get 50+ offers a day on LinkedIn you get to see patterns, which Im today going to try and help you to see. This ISN’T infallible, its just a guideline.

So… Youve seen or recieved a message with an offer, first thing to do click on the person who sent it /posted it and look at their background.

Firstly look at their name and photo. Is it a photo of a real person or a picture they are hiding behind? No photo is a big warning! This is the standard practice of a scammer who has multiple fake profiles. Avoid these ones at all costs, there is NO reason to hide who you are (and Im pretty sure its against LinkedIn rules). Also is it a real name, or again a pretend title or company with no registration behind it. You can google most companies and if they are real youll get 100s of pages on them, their background and their dealings going back years. Ignore Facebook, LinkedIn, TradeKey, AliBaBa and similar references as obviously this is just what theyve posted themselves. If theres a website go to who.is and see how long its been in existence (prefereably a minimum of 5 to 10 years).

Secondly look at the title theyve given themselves, is it mandate, buyer/seller, a massive list of everything under the sun, or something equally inane or irrevlavant to the product they are purporting to buy or sell. Any of these are another major warning they have no knowledge of the product and are most likely just forwarding a spam email theyve recieved. Gold dealers tend to work in gold almost exclusively, its a big money, high risk business and allows little room to play at something else.

Thirdly their background history, what were they trained as, where, what have they been doing since, is it also related?

Lastly, posts posts posts! Look at their comments to posts, look at what theyve posted. This is a huge one and can give you an indication of how long their profile has existed (or if its a new scam shell) and if this is just a repeat scam theyve posted every week for the last several months.  Lots of clues to be gleaned here!

Its a non exhaustive list AND only a guide but I hope it helps you on your journey. Trust is key, so find someone who youd be happy to do business with, not someone thats constantly setting your teeth on edge with worry. Good luck.