Hi all this is to alert others on this forum that I have received some fake silver rounds from OTIS. I purchased a 75oz lot of various 1oz coins/rounds/bars from OTIS back in august, and within the lot there are 32 generic buffalos which are fake. I tested them with the precious metals verifier and they read far right (ie. Definitely fake.) He responded initially saying he will provide a partial refund for the transaction but stopped responding to my msgs, and I have had no response from him for over a month. I can see from his profile he has logged on during that time so it's apparent to me he has no intention of making good on the deal. So this is just a public notice to alert fellow members who have purchased silver from OTIS to check what they have is genuine, especially if they're generic rounds.
It's good that you went to the bloke first and gave him the opportunity to fix it. Thanks for the warning.
Not so good that his not making good, but I doubt he would of known himself. When buying bullion it is always best to know the path from the producer, or that it comes from reputable dealer that knows their stuff around testing for fakes. (not just having an XRF machine) What is a "precious metals verifier"?
XRF's can give false positives depending on the product and the quality of the fake. I posted a video showing this recently in this forum but I'm sure it's easy enough to find on YouTube. That is a great tool. I can't afford it at this time but when I get enough fiat Fed notes together, I will buy one. .
PM varifier is a great tool. Sometimes can give you suspicious results on small coins but on 1oz rounds it's great. I got one 2 months ago and it's helped me several times. Persuaded a dealer to buy one and he has never looked back - picked up severs fake Sovs and rounds. I think the excuse of not knowing he was selling fake rounds does not hold water. It may be true but he is responsible and needs to fix the problem. Monopolize should send him the link and ask him to respond. If he will not he should be reported to the administrators and banned. Selling fakes is not how we encourage an honest site. Members have been banned for lesser deeds. Thank you for posting this
Banning crooked traders is a pretty frivolous exercise when they can just rejoin the forum under a new IP address and handle 5 minutes later.
If losing quite a lot of positive feedback is nothing to him then Otis can do that ,but I believe it is not that simple GP has ways of determining if a banned member is signing up under a new name...not sure what ,but have seen it mentioned before. Otis needs to come clean and all could be forgiven.
Bloody hell......... And this is what happens when you have fake crap being produced and sold. This is proof of how fakes are affecting the market and will cause some people not to get involved with physical gold or silver or if they are it plants seeds of doubt, is what I am holding actually real? I am sure there would be dealers out there who do buy backs and get stung as well. Not good at all.....
Generally you can tell a banned member is signing up again by them using the same IP address. But you can change the IP address of your computer and get a new free email account such as gmail or hotmail which would make it a lot more difficult to spot. The broad location and ISP would be a giveaway but harder to be certain it's not someone else.
Ive bought few items from OTIS before and had no problems, unless the rare earth magnet test for bars is flawed. Can you post pics of the rounds, the weight, size please
Definitely need both sides to the story here ! Great that "monopolize" has said something, and shown patience, and would have deliberated greatly over his choice of words. Would have been hard, but makes it really difficult for accumulators like me. Has me considering bona fide dealers only, which also means that I will most probably only be able to sell to dealers only.
Hi monopolize, sorry to hear about it... Do you think OTIS was naive enough to not know about his fake assets ? or do you think he is just another disgusting player trying to pass fake metal around ? It's hard to make purchases without F2F and trust unknown members.... I would suggest only trade F2F or with well known members... If you are doing F2F, you don't need any "fancy" equipment especially for coins(gold or silver)... Just make sure you have on you a RARE EARTH NEODYMIUM MAGNET... buy a larger block so you can test it "sliding" the coin around 45%...for resistance.... you can buy it anywhere.... here's are couple of good places I recommend: http://aussiemagnets.com.au/ http://www.frenergy.com.au/ take care TRADER10
Hi all. The rounds weigh 31g, 3mm thick, and 38mm wide. My measuring instruments are not precise though. Image of the fake rounds: Weight on scale: Fake round on PMV: Real round on PMV (for comparison):
