Fake silver being hawked on Ebay: There’s no such thing as a “mill” or how to invest in one troy ounce of bullshit

These are one ounce pieces of cheap metal thinly coated with silver plating. They’re nearly worthless.

These things are being sold to gullible investors on Ebay and I presume other sites.

Be warned.

Here’s an actual listing from one of the Ebay purveyors of bogus silver:

“You are bidding on a silver art bar. The bar is 1 troy oz. of 100 mills of .999 silver. It is in great condition. It has been on the market for less than 1 year.”

The wording is deceptive because it makes a contradictory claim. It says the bar is a troy ounce of .999 silver and it says it’s a 100 mills of .999 silver. It can’t be both. I didn’t learn until later that “100 mills” is jargon that mean plated, but jargon used in this manner constitutes Doublespeak as it is intentionally deceptive. Had the seller simply said the bar was plated, I would not have bought it. The listing fails to specify what the “1 troy ounce” is.

 

Another buyer registered a similar complaint with this seller on December 24th. He said, “The bar turned out to be silver plated not 1 oz silver.”

Considering he paid $27.00 for it, it’s clear he thought he was buying genuine silver.  If you have any verifiable examples of scams like these, please send the info to shawn@theswillbucket.com, and we’ll help put a stop to these shady practices.

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