The recent spate of silver bullion buying sparked an increase in fraudulent or misleading online advertising, attempting to lure unsuspecting retail buyers to purchase counterfeit United States silver dollars, officials of the Anti-Counterfeiting Educational Foundation warn.

“The Chinese are blowing up the web selling fake silver dollars. We’ve seen suspicious ads posted on many platforms, including Amazon and Facebook,” cautioned Doug Davis, ACEF anti-counterfeiting director.

“During the past couple of weeks, we received an increase in reports of counterfeits due to silver’s volatility and especially the ongoing interest in the Morgan silver dollars market,” Davis added. “The Chinese are heavily marketing fake silver dollars via Facebook. Remember, if you don’t know precious metals, you’d better know a reputable seller, such as experts affiliated with the Accredited Precious Metals Dealer program (www.APMDdealers.org).”

Richard Weaver, president of the Professional Numismatists Guild, said, “The crush of retail customers has slowed down a bit, but we’ve definitely seen ‘panic buying’ of silver the past couple of weeks. Unfortunately, some unsuspecting buyers are becoming victims of online scams by unscrupulous sellers. Supplies of genuine, century-old Morgan silver dollars are extremely tight, but one suspicious seller on Facebook is offering to sell 28 ‘genuine’ Morgan dollars for only $199. If they actually were genuine coins, the price would be closer to $900. Even the certification holders housing their fakes appear to be counterfeits.”

The Anti-Counterfeiting Educational Foundation is alerting the Secret Service about the fakes as part of the foundation’s ongoing assistance to federal, state and local law enforcement and prosecutors, to fight counterfeiting and the sales of counterfeit coins.

For additional information, contact the Anti-Counterfeiting Educational Foundation by phone at 817-723-7231 or by email to info@ACEFonline.org, or visit the web site at www.ACEFonline.org.

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