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FrugalRefiner

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We're happy to add this new section to our forum. Over the years many have come here offering Too Good to be True "opportunities" to our members. Ghana gold at far below market rates; proprietary methods for recovering nanogold, ormus gold, premature gold, etc.; mining opportunities with ore that doesn't respond to traditional assay methods... The list goes on.

Some of these scams are painfully obvious. Others have been more carefully crafted. Most of our members are wise enough to recognize even the best of them, so the moderators have simply deleted them when we've seen them. But these same offers are made elsewhere across the internet, and many folks who see them do not have the experience of our members.

Göran (g_axelsson) has pointed out that by leaving their contact information, we might help others outside our community to avoid being fleeced. Our forum is indexed by all the major search engines, so if someone sees a post on a different forum/blog/site, and they decide to do a little checking, a search might lead them here where they can see the comments of our members and moderators. It can serve as what Göran referred to as a honey trap. Once we identify these posts, we will lock them so the original poster can never delete their information and it will be available to anyone who takes the time to look.

In addition to outright scams, we'll also use this section to relieve at least a little of the clutter left behind by trolls and others whose interest is not learning about precious metals, but in causing a disruption to the smooth running of the forum. We've deleted many of these posts and banned the members as well, but in doing so, we lose information we can use to identify them if they return under a different name.

So we've created this section to serve as a repository for their clutter.

Leprechauns - They tempt you with the prospect of riches, but bad things will happen to you if you actually pursue them

Gollums (Golems) - Someone has implanted a single thought in their head, and even though they don't fully understand it, they still follow it blindly.

Sphinxes - All they do is ask questions and brutally attack those who don't answer the way they want.

Werewolves - Normally rational people with one single trigger, the sight of which will turn them into uncontrollable, howling beasts.

Gremlins - They only exist to break down everything they see.

Names and descriptions from http://www.collegehumor.com/post/69...er-creatures-lurking-in-every-comment-section

Our hope is that it can help our members as well as non-members.

You can all help us in this effort. First, please don't educate the scammers. Writing extensive, detailed posts that explain how we know their offer is a scam helps them craft a better presentation in the future. Second, please don't feed the trolls. It's certainly tempting to join in when a new member insists they've just recovered many pounds of precious metals from the solder on their sewage lines, but that's exactly what they want. Ignoring trolls starves them of what they're seeking, and they soon lose interest and leave.

Please don't educate the scammers.
Please don't feed the trolls.

the moderators
 
I haven't been on recently and I haven't posted anything. BUT this is a great idea it should be extremely
fun to follow the antics of these popular magical individuals as they hex the hell out of the everyday refiners.
Thanks for reading and hope everyone has a piles of what we like.
Jim
 
Hi All,

I was wondering if you had a thread for rogues, scammers etc and then I found this thread. Can we also post a scam that was not initiated on this forum but is still related to gold? (An offer on PCUs to be exact) I am not sure you would allow this, because I can imagine that this could potentially hurt people if the truth is not being told. Anyways, I received a couple of emails a short while back with an offer that was an obvious scam. I can back it up with the emails, company name some references and even a name and phone number and some people on the web that claimed to have been scammed by this company/person as well. I would just like to warn others, that's all.

Is this kind of stuff meant to be put up on this thread as well or would you prefer me to keep this to myself?

Looking forward to hear from you.

Joey
 
I vote put it up! Could be a fun read :)

Just be 100% sure not to tarnish someone else (and yours too, in the process) name without proof...
 
Please hold off on bringing off-forum issues here. I've posed the question in the moderators' forum to get the team's opinions. It will probably take us a few days for everyone to share their views and discuss the issue.

I have concerns about how we would go about verifying any claims of wrongdoing that do not occur here. The forum could be held liable if someone is accused here, regardless of whether the accusation is valid.

Do we all remember when the forum was shut down for a couple of weeks? That was because of a complaint filed by a member of the forum who had made a post here, then claimed that the post had been copied from a different site. It was a false claim, but the result was still that we all lost access to the forum for a couple of weeks. Imagine the can of worms we might open if any member is allowed to make a post claiming that someone else is a scammer.

Dave
 
Hi Dave,

This was exactly my concern. I will wait patiently. I can of course send all to someone in a private message for moderation before publishing. This would however, put quite a burden of work on someone else. Not something anyone is waiting for I guess.

Anyways, I will keep an eye out and wait for now.

Joey
 
It can sometimes take a while for us to complete our discussions in the moderators forum as several members can be out of the country / out of touch for extended periods.

We are in agreement that we wish to avoid outside posts as it could create liability issues for the forum.

Thank you all for your patience.

Dave
 
Leprechauns - They tempt you with the prospect of riches, but bad things will happen to you if you actually pursue them.
Well my username does not describe me personally :) I am an observer on this site and have been for a long time and I love it and the greatest respect to all contributors who have helped me on my path. Just in case you are being offered gold bars please be aware that there is a lot of this happening in Europe where the bar has a thick layer of gold on the surface and underneath is tungsten a similar density to gold. So drill everything before you buy. I think Patnor can vouch for my credibility.
 
Perhaps posting just the link in the Rogue's Gallery so that members are fully aware that the information provided is possibly a scam might be an alternative way to do this. Keeping opinions of said site on the Forum should also alleviate Civil concerns because one needs to be a Member to post, no?
 
We're happy to add this new section to our forum. Over the years many have come here offering Too Good to be True "opportunities" to our members. Ghana gold at far below market rates; proprietary methods for recovering nanogold, ormus gold, premature gold, etc.; mining opportunities with ore that doesn't respond to traditional assay methods... The list goes on.

Some of these scams are painfully obvious. Others have been more carefully crafted. Most of our members are wise enough to recognize even the best of them, so the moderators have simply deleted them when we've seen them. But these same offers are made elsewhere across the internet, and many folks who see them do not have the experience of our members.

Göran (g_axelsson) has pointed out that by leaving their contact information, we might help others outside our community to avoid being fleeced. Our forum is indexed by all the major search engines, so if someone sees a post on a different forum/blog/site, and they decide to do a little checking, a search might lead them here where they can see the comments of our members and moderators. It can serve as what Göran referred to as a honey trap. Once we identify these posts, we will lock them so the original poster can never delete their information and it will be available to anyone who takes the time to look.

In addition to outright scams, we'll also use this section to relieve at least a little of the clutter left behind by trolls and others whose interest is not learning about precious metals, but in causing a disruption to the smooth running of the forum. We've deleted many of these posts and banned the members as well, but in doing so, we lose information we can use to identify them if they return under a different name.

So we've created this section to serve as a repository for their clutter.

Leprechauns - They tempt you with the prospect of riches, but bad things will happen to you if you actually pursue them

Gollums (Golems) - Someone has implanted a single thought in their head, and even though they don't fully understand it, they still follow it blindly.

Sphinxes - All they do is ask questions and brutally attack those who don't answer the way they want.

Werewolves - Normally rational people with one single trigger, the sight of which will turn them into uncontrollable, howling beasts.

Gremlins - They only exist to break down everything they see.

Names and descriptions from Dropout - Independent, ad-free, uncensored comedy.

Our hope is that it can help our members as well as non-members.

You can all help us in this effort. First, please don't educate the scammers. Writing extensive, detailed posts that explain how we know their offer is a scam helps them craft a better presentation in the future. Second, please don't feed the trolls. It's certainly tempting to join in when a new member insists they've just recovered many pounds of precious metals from the solder on their sewage lines, but that's exactly what they want. Ignoring trolls starves them of what they're seeking, and they soon lose interest and leave.

Please don't educate the scammers.
Please don't feed the trolls.

the moderators
Now that's a good one.
 
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