Selling Gold for Cash or Bitcoin

How to Spot a Scam Gold Buyer: 11 Red Flags

By Michael Tanguma, Founder & CEO of Heirfolio. Reviewed by Diana Cruz, GIA Graduate Gemologist. Updated May 25, 2026.

TL;DR. Most gold buyers are legitimate. A small set isn't, and the worst actors cost sellers an average of 35% of fair value — sometimes 100%. Eleven specific red flags separate the operators worth shipping to from the ones worth walking from. None requires you to be an expert; all are visible before you put a piece in the mail.

The gold-buying industry is unevenly honest. The big-name mail-in operators with regulatory filings and ten-year track records are, on the whole, fair — they pay narrower spreads than pawn shops and disclose their process. A smaller but persistent set of buyers operates in the seams: domains that move every few months, payouts that don't match quotes, "lost" packages, and policies that are visible only after you've already shipped your gold.

The failure mode this article exists to name: the worst actors in the gold-buying industry rely on the fact that by the time you realize you've been underpaid or stalled, your gold is in their hands and the cost of getting it back is higher than the cost of accepting the loss. Every red flag below is visible before you ship — which is the only window that matters.

→ Get a verified, no-pressure quote — published spread, locked for 60 seconds

Red flag 1: No published spread, no published melt-value formula

Reputable buyers publish, at minimum, the percentage of melt value they pay on standard karats. They show their math: spot price × purity factor × payout percent. You can verify the quote against a gold melt value calculator before shipping.

Bad actors publish nothing. The quote is a single number with no breakdown. When you ask how the number was computed, the answer is vague — "based on current market conditions," "after our internal assessment," "subject to final appraisal."

The test: Ask any buyer "what percent of melt value do you pay on 14k?" A legitimate operator answers immediately, with a number. A bad actor changes the subject.

Red flag 2: The website appeared in the last 12 months

Legitimate buyers build their business over years. Their domain registration is old. Their reviews accumulate slowly. Their physical address is consistent across years of records.

Scam operators churn domains constantly — register a name, run it for 6–18 months, accumulate complaints, abandon it, register a new name. The pattern is so consistent that domain age alone is a reliable filter.

The test: Run the domain through a free WHOIS lookup. If the domain was registered less than 12 months ago, ask the operator how long they've been in business — and ask for the names of the prior domains. Honest answer: "Same domain, same address, twelve years." Suspicious answer: a story about a brand refresh.

Red flag 3: BBB rating below A, or no BBB profile at all

The Better Business Bureau is imperfect, but it's the best free filter for the gold-buying industry. A buyer with a BBB rating of A or A+ and 100+ verified reviews is meaningfully more likely to honor their stated process than a buyer with no profile or a rating below B.

The pattern to watch: operators with a freshly created BBB profile (less than two years old), no reviews, and no resolved complaints. The profile exists to be screenshotted for marketing; it has no content to defend.

The test: Search the operator on bbb.org. Look at the rating, the complaint count, the complaint resolution rate, and the years the profile has been active. Anything less than two years and a B rating is a signal to dig further or move on.

Red flag 4: Return shipping isn't free if you reject the offer

This is the single most exploitative practice in the mail-in gold industry, and it appears in fine print across many operators.

You ship your gold. The buyer makes you a lowball offer. You want your gold back. They charge you $40–$100 to return your own property. The math: a $300 quote on a $500 piece becomes effective once you weigh the $80 return-shipping cost against the $200 gap. Many sellers accept the lowball offer rather than pay the return fee.

Legitimate operators ship your gold back free and insured if you decline. They publish this policy on the same page as the inbound shipping policy. It's a one-sentence promise: "If you decline our offer, we'll return your items at no cost, fully insured, within five business days."

The test: Find the return-shipping policy on the website before you ship. If you can't find it in two minutes, ask via email and require a written response. No written guarantee = no shipment.

Red flag 5: No quote lock window

A reputable buyer locks the quote you accept for a defined period — 60 seconds on a direct platform, 24 hours on a mail-in operator, sometimes longer. The lock protects both sides: you know what you're getting, and the buyer hedges the price exposure during the lock.

Bad actors don't lock anything. The quote you accept is "subject to final inspection" or "based on the market on the day of processing." Translation: if gold falls between when you ship and when they process, you absorb the loss. If gold rises, they keep the upside.

The test: Ask "if I accept your quote today, what price do I get when you process the gold next week?" A legitimate answer: a specific timeline and a specific price guarantee. A suspicious answer: "we'll re-price based on market conditions at the time of processing."

Red flag 6: Vague or missing physical address

A real gold buyer has a real physical location — typically with a refinery, a vault, and an XRF assay station on the premises. The address is on their website, in their BBB profile, on their state business registration.

Scam operators list a PO box, a vague city, or no address at all. Some list a "corporate office" that's actually a mail-forwarding service or a residential address. The address tells you whether the operator is a business or a website.

The test: Find the operator's physical address. Look it up in Google Street View. A real gold-buying operation looks like a small commercial space — a sign, a door, a building. A mail-forwarding service looks like a strip-mall storefront with twelve other business names on the door. A residential address speaks for itself.

Red flag 7: Payment by check only, no wire or ACH option

Legitimate buyers offer multiple payment methods — ACH for free, wire for a small fee, sometimes PayPal or Bitcoin. The choice of method is the seller's.

A buyer who insists on paying by mailed check is buying themselves time. The check is the slowest, most reversible, and least traceable common payment method. If you cash the check and then realize the payout was wrong, the recourse is harder than if you'd received a wire.

The test: Ask what payment methods are offered. If the only option is a mailed check, ask why. A legitimate answer is rare. A suspicious answer is the rule.

Red flag 8: Pressure to ship before you receive a quote

The honest workflow: you submit photos and a description, the buyer returns an estimated range, you decide whether to ship. If you ship, the final quote is based on weight and assay, but it's anchored to the estimate.

The dishonest workflow: "ship first, we quote after." Once your gold is in their possession, the bargaining position has shifted entirely. The buyer knows you don't want to pay return shipping. The buyer knows you don't want to wait three more weeks for the next operator. The lowball offer arrives, and it works.

The test: Demand an estimated quote before shipping. A legitimate buyer provides a range based on the photos and weight you submit. An operator who insists you "have to ship to know" is operating with the structural advantage that scams depend on.

Red flag 9: The "we found unexpected issues" downward revision

This is the classic. You accept a quote. Your gold arrives. The buyer emails: "Unfortunately, our assay found that your pieces are actually a lower karat than indicated, and our revised offer is $X" — typically 30–60% below the original quote.

Sometimes this is honest — pieces are occasionally mismarked, and an XRF reading is more accurate than the stamp. But repeated downward revisions across a buyer's review history is a pattern, not a coincidence.

The test: Check the buyer's reviews for repeated complaints about downward revisions. A legitimate buyer has occasional revision incidents and resolves them transparently. A scam operator has dozens of identical complaints. The pattern reveals itself in any 50-review sample.

The protection: photograph and weigh every piece on your own calibrated scale before shipping, and require the buyer to disclose the basis for any revision in writing. If they cite an XRF reading, ask for the actual reading (with the alloy composition), not just a revised number.

Red flag 10: No third-party verification of the assay

Legitimate buyers run XRF assays on a transparent process — sometimes video-recorded, often with the customer able to view the result. The XRF machine displays the alloy composition (gold %, silver %, copper %, other) on a screen.

Bad actors run their assay in the back room, send you a number, and won't share the underlying reading. There's no way to verify whether the number came from a real assay or from a spreadsheet.

The test: Ask whether the assay is documented and shareable. A legitimate operator can produce the XRF readout (a screenshot, a video, a written record) on request. A scam operator can't.

The best operators publish a video of the assay as part of the standard process — every piece, every time. This is the floor we built Heirfolio to.

Red flag 11: Reviews that are universally five-star or universally one-star

A real business has a normal distribution of reviews — a strong majority positive, a meaningful tail of negative, a small middle of mixed. The negative reviews include specific complaints with responses from the business.

Two patterns to flag:

Universally five-star. Hundreds of reviews, all glowing, no specifics, posted in a short window — purchased or fabricated.
Universally one-star. Many complaints with the same theme (downward revisions, lost packages, slow payment, ghosting after gold received) — the operator's actual track record.

The test: Read the negative reviews carefully. If the complaints repeat the same themes across many reviewers, the theme is the business model. If the negative reviews are isolated incidents resolved transparently, the business is real and imperfect — which is normal.

The 60-second pre-ship checklist

Before you put any gold in any envelope, the test:

Spread published? Look on the homepage for the percentage of melt the buyer pays. If you can't find it, ask.
Quote lock window? Look for a sentence like "your quote is locked for X days/hours/seconds." Verify in writing.
Return shipping free if you decline? Look on the same page. Verify in writing.
BBB rating A or A+, with 100+ reviews? Verify directly at bbb.org.
Physical address that resolves to a commercial location on Street View? Verify.
Multiple payment methods (ACH, wire, check)? Verify.
Domain registered over 24 months ago? Verify via WHOIS lookup.
No pressure to ship before quote? A real buyer is patient.
No "we'll quote after we receive" workflow? A real buyer quotes from photos.
Assay is documented and shareable? Verify in writing.
Reviews show a normal distribution, with responsive resolution of complaints? Read the negative reviews.

A buyer that passes all eleven is almost certainly legitimate. A buyer that fails three or more is a buyer not worth the risk. A buyer that fails on items 4 (return shipping), 5 (quote lock), or 9 (quote-after-ship) is structurally aligned against the seller.

→ Paste any dealer's quote into our spread checker

What to do if you've already been scammed

The recourse, in order of effectiveness.

1. Demand return of the gold in writing

A formal written demand — email and certified mail — that the buyer return your property. State the date you shipped, the items shipped, the agreed-upon quote, and the timeline. Most legitimate disputes resolve at this stage.

2. File a complaint with the FTC

The Federal Trade Commission tracks consumer complaints against gold buyers. File at reportfraud.ftc.gov. A single complaint rarely changes anything, but patterns of complaints trigger investigations.

3. File a complaint with your state Attorney General

State AGs frequently pursue bad-actor gold buyers under consumer protection statutes. File with your AG's consumer protection division.

4. Report to the BBB

Even a BBB complaint that doesn't resolve your specific case adds to the public record and helps future sellers avoid the same operator.

5. Dispute the payment if you have one

If you received any payment by credit card, dispute the transaction immediately. If you received a check, your bank may be able to reverse it within a short window. Wire transfers are typically not reversible, which is part of why bad actors prefer them.

6. Pursue small claims court for amounts under your state's threshold

Small claims caps are typically $5,000–$15,000 depending on the state. The filing fee is small. The judgment is enforceable. The process is slow.

7. Pursue civil litigation for larger amounts

For losses above small claims thresholds, a consumer protection attorney can pursue civil litigation, sometimes on a contingency basis. The economics are usually only worth it above ~$25,000 in losses.

The honest reality: the most effective protection is the pre-ship checklist. Recovery after a scam is possible but slow, expensive, and uncertain. Avoiding the shipment in the first place is the only fully effective remedy.

What a legitimate operation looks like

The positive version, because it's easier to spot patterns when you know what right looks like.

A legitimate gold-buying operation has:

A physical address you can find on Street View
A domain registered five-plus years ago
A BBB profile with multiple years of activity, A or A+ rating, and a complaint resolution rate above 90%
A published spread (percentage of melt value paid on standard karats)
A published quote lock window
A published return-shipping policy (free if you decline)
Multiple payment methods, including wire and ACH
A pre-ship quoting process based on photos and weight
A documented assay process — sometimes video-recorded
An estimated timeline from "gold received" to "funds cleared," typically 48 hours to 14 days
A customer service phone number that's answered by a person

These are not premium features. They are the baseline. Any operator that meets all of the above is at least worth a quote; any operator that misses three or more is worth walking from.

Frequently asked questions

What's the biggest scam in mail-in gold?

The most common pattern is the bait-and-switch — a high published estimate to win your shipment, then a 30–60% downward revision after the gold arrives, paired with return-shipping fees that pressure you to accept rather than pay to get your gold back. The math works for the operator because most sellers do accept. Avoid by getting a written quote based on weight and photos before shipping, requiring free return shipping in writing, and reading the buyer's reviews for repeated patterns of downward revisions.

Should I send my gold without a written quote?

No. Always demand a written quote — a range is acceptable, a specific number is better — based on the photos, weight, and karat information you've submitted. A buyer who insists you must ship before they can quote is operating in the position where the seller's bargaining power is weakest. Reputable buyers quote from photos because they have to compete with each other for your shipment.

What if the buyer says my package was "lost"?

Reputable buyers ship with full insurance and a tracking number. A "lost" package on a reputable carrier is rare but real, and the insurance pays. The pattern to flag: a buyer who claims a package was "lost" but can't produce the tracking number, doesn't file the insurance claim, or asks you to file it yourself. Real lost-package claims are documented; manufactured ones aren't. If you're told your package was lost, demand the tracking number and the insurance claim number in writing within 48 hours.

How long should it take to get paid after a buyer receives my gold?

Industry-fair settlement is 24–72 hours after the gold is received and assayed, for ACH or wire payment. Mailed checks add 5–10 days. Anything over 14 days from "gold received" to "funds cleared" without a stated reason is a signal. Reputable operators publish their settlement timeline on the same page as their pricing, and they hit it.

Should I keep my pieces whole or have them melted before selling?

Keep them whole. Melting destroys any resale premium (brand, design, period, stones), is irreversible, and is what the buyer is paying to do anyway. A reputable buyer pays you fair value for the piece as-is and handles the melting on their side. Pre-melting only makes sense in narrow cases (your own home refining for personal investment), and never as part of a sale to a third-party buyer.

Is a BBB rating enough to trust a gold buyer?

A high BBB rating is necessary but not sufficient. A BBB A or A+ rating with 100+ reviews and multiple years of profile activity is a good filter — it excludes most scam operators. But a high BBB rating doesn't guarantee a fair spread or transparent pricing. Combine the BBB check with the rest of the 11-point checklist (published spread, quote lock window, free return shipping) for the full picture.

Is the price they quote what I'll actually get?

For reputable buyers with a published quote lock window, yes. The quote is binding for the lock period (typically 24 hours to 7 days on mail-in operators, 60 seconds on direct platforms). For buyers without a quote lock, the quote is not binding, and the final price is "subject to final inspection" — which is the structure scam operators rely on. Always verify the quote lock in writing before shipping.

Can I get my gold back if I don't like the offer?

At a reputable operator, yes — return shipping is free and insured if you decline the offer, typically within 5 business days of your decline. At a bad-actor operator, return shipping is $40–$100, creating financial pressure to accept the lowball offer. Verify the return-shipping policy in writing before shipping. If return shipping isn't free, it's not a buyer worth shipping to.

What's the deal with "free appraisal" offers?

A free appraisal is a marketing line, not a service distinct from the quote process. Any reputable buyer provides a free quote based on the photos and information you submit; calling that an "appraisal" is wordplay. A real written appraisal — the kind needed for insurance or tax purposes — is performed by a credentialed gemologist (typically GIA Graduate Gemologist) and costs $75–$200 per item. If a buyer claims to provide a "free appraisal," what they're providing is a quote, not an appraisal.

How do I report a gold-buying scam?

Three primary channels: file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission at reportfraud.ftc.gov, file with your state Attorney General's consumer protection division, and file a BBB complaint. If you paid by credit card, dispute the transaction with your card issuer; if you paid by check, contact your bank immediately. For losses under your state's small-claims threshold (typically $5,000–$15,000), small-claims court is a low-cost path to a judgment. For larger losses, consult a consumer protection attorney.

What to do next

If you're considering shipping gold to any mail-in buyer: run the 11-point checklist first. It takes about ten minutes and will exclude every scam operator we've seen.

If you've already received a quote and want to verify it's in the fair range: paste it into the spread checker. The tool computes the implied spread against current spot and tells you whether the offer is competitive.

If you want to skip the buyer-vetting process entirely: get a Heirfolio quote, with the spread published up front, the quote locked for 60 seconds, and free insured return shipping if you decline. We built the workflow this way because the alternative is the article you just read.

The good operators in this industry are good. The bad ones are obvious if you know what to look for. The point of the checklist is to make the difference visible before you ship.

→ Document what you own before you ship anything — for what's worth keeping