Three major numismatic organizations that sent a letter to Facebook executives to complain that the social media platform "has become the predominant choice of some fraudsters" are disappointed with the lack of a response by Facebook and the continuing appearance of pop-up advertisements selling counterfeit coins. No response has been received in the month since the letter was sent.
The Anti-Counterfeiting Educational Foundation (www.ACEFonline.org), Numismatic Guaranty Company (www.NGCcoin.com) and the Professional Numismatists Guild (www.PNGdealers.org) sent their joint letter on August 19, 2021 to Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder, chairman & chief executive officer.
Copies were also sent to Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Kara Sandberg and chief revenue officer at the time David Fischer.
"We are disappointed and frustrated that Facebook, for whatever reason, has failed to even acknowledge our important letter while hundreds of pop-up ads selling counterfeits or touting inaccurately or misleadingly described replicas continue to appear on their platform," said Bob Brueggeman, PNG executive director. "ACEF, NGC and PNG jointly offered to assist Facebook to detect and help prevent these kinds of fraudulent ads, but there’s been no response."
Mark Salzberg, Numismatic Guaranty Company chairman, stated:
"NGC was founded, in part, to combat counterfeit coins in the marketplace. The coin collecting hobby is safer now than ever before, but we unfortunately face a new and serious threat from counterfeiters who are using social media to take advantage of unsuspecting buyers. NGC hopes to have the opportunity to work with Facebook to help banish these unscrupulous sellers from its platform."
Doug Davis, ACEF Director of Anti-Counterfeiting and a former Texas police chief, stated:
"The Anti-Counterfeiting Task Force has identified Facebook as a major platform utilized by counterfeiters and criminal organizations to sell counterfeit coins and precious metals. It is critical that Facebook executives recognize the criminal abuse of their platform by crooks who are preying on unsuspecting and uneducated victims who have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars. But most importantly, the misuse of the Facebook platform undermines the integrity of the U.S. monetary system."
Here is the full text of the joint letter signed by Davis, Salzberg and Brueggeman.
August 19, 2021
Mr. Mark Zuckerberg, Founder, Chairman & CEO
Facebook, Inc.
1601 Willow Road
Menlo Park, CA 94025
Dear Mr. Zuckerberg:
It appears Facebook has become the predominant choice of some fraudsters. Counterfeiters of rare coins and counterfeit precious metals coins and sellers of these bogus, illegal products continue to blatantly obtain advertising on Facebook.
The work of the Anti-Counterfeiting Educational Foundation (ACEF) with law enforcement investigators leads us to believe the cost to unsuspecting victims is in the millions of dollars in lost investments. Good-faither buyers erroneously believe that if any advertisement appears on Facebook it must be accurate and true.
Facebook’s platform continues to be used to lure gullible buyers of counterfeits of century-old U.S. silver dollars, and fake gold and silver modern American Eagle precious metal bullion coins.
Some unscrupulous sellers also offer illegal "replicas" of historic coins that are not marked "COPY" and, therefore, are in blatant violation of the federal 1973 Hobby Protection Act and the 2014 Collectible Coin Protection Act.
Based on investigation and analysis by ACEF, there are many red flags to identify these sites, and it appears hundreds of "different" sites selling counterfeits are being created by only a handful of bad actors.
Expert members of the Anti-Counterfeiting Educational Foundation (www.ACEFonline.org), Numismatic Guaranty Company (www.NGCcoin.com) and the Professional Numismatists Guild (www.PNGdealers.org) are ready to offer their assistance to help Facebook prevent these types of fraudulent advertisements and alert you to those that may be popping up in the future.
Contact ACEF Director of Anti-Counterfeiting Doug Davis at 817-723-7231 or Doug@ACEFonline.org; NGC Chairman Mark Salzberg at 941-360-3990 or Mark@NGCcoin.com; and PNG Executive Director Robert Brueggeman at 951-587-8300 or Bob@PNGdealers.org.
Thank you for your consideration of this urgent matter.
Sincerely,
| Doug Davis Director of Anti-Counterfeiting, Anti-Counterfeiting Educational Foundation |
Mark Salzberg Chairman, Numismatic Guaranty Company |
Robert Brueggeman Executive Director, Professional Numismatists Guild |
cc:
Ms. Sheryl Kara Sandberg, Facebook, COO & Director
Mr. David Fischer, Facebook Chief Revenue Officer
If anyone is curious how dumb Americans have become, just log onto facebook for awhile! ‘Good-Father buyers erroneously believe that if any advertisement appears on Facebook it must be accurate and true.’ Really? That tells you everything you need to know about the state of America today! Obviously, I don’t think all Americans are dumb or ignorant, but the percentage of this group is growing exponentially in recent years.Since I rarely peruse Facebook, and certainly believe no advertisement or claims they make, I am exempting myself from this group.
Just look at some of the prices for common coins on ebay. Is that in Australian or U.S. dollars?
Whaaaaa!!!! Buyer beware.
My Space was a total failure but the Government seen the potential to spy on and abuse Americans so they Picked Zuckerturd as their poster-boy to clone My Space (and claim he created something unique and from scratch) notice how anyone who uses this social garbage can only be a follower and can only give a thumbs-up to the masters they follow Hmmm – that’s my 2 cents on social media. With the Feebay machine breaking down and the corrupt monopoly of “three major numismatic organizations” losing it’s stranglehold as smart collector’s defect from Feebay and enjoy buying coins that… Read more »
Senza, Couldn’t agree more! I wonder, as I’m watching some of the coin hawkers parlaying their products, what is the appeal of buying a coin available in seemingly unlimited quantities? These MS70 business strike ASE’s are freaking everywhere. If there were only 1000 or 1500 of them in existence, maybe I’d be interested. But how many are out there..100,000, 500,000 0r 1,000,000? Who knows. Now, they are resorting to selling these coins in ‘special, limited edition, core holders.’ I have to assume people think they are getting something that’s rare. I’m also amazed at how blatant these coin ‘hosts’ are… Read more »
Speaking of those Reverse Proof ASE’s, has anybody here received theirs yet?
Mammoth,
Mine are still in the ‘Processing’ line. I’m wondering how Mike and the Coin Vault guys got so many to grade. I guess we have to downgrade our expectations for expediency in todays environment.
Kaiser, Were you watching the Coin Vault last night? I was watching MNF, but would switch to the CV (which I DVR) during the endless commercials. Andy Abel described that scenario almost to a tee. He also commented that there was no advanced purchasing on this product. So,12,500 coins weren’t skimmed before we got our chance. He said he asked his Mom and others to buy the Sets. Right, plus a lot of others. He then said the bidding war for the Sets between the various re-sellers would be engaged until they reached the $1000-$1500 price tag. It is a… Read more »
Notta
Mine have shipped as of today. It is usually a two day trip to the front door so we shall see. Good luck to all the rest!
Spoken like a true collector – your words are golden and silver too… As you said, when every coin they sell just happens to be a perfect PF70 or RP70 but always a perfect 70 then the rarity fades as the plot to grade everything 70 for a market that believes this BS. Don’t be surprised if they create a new grade that’s higher than 70 or a label made from Elon Musk used toilet paper just because there is a generation of martians or whatever they are would buy it and pay triple – they are exploiting our hobby… Read more »
“Don’t be surprised if they create a new grade that’s higher than 70“
Senza, your comment brings to mind that rock musician in the movie “Spinal Tap” who had a volume knob with an ’11’ on it installed on his electric guitar, because he wanted to be louder than a ’10.’
Hmm
There are many aspects to this ritual however, I say consider this: Before graders had a monopoly they basically said cleaned and error coins are worthless and ungradable (until they realized they could make a profit on those too) so as millions of collectors sent coins to these graders – the graders began keeping the error coins and replacing them with regular coins which many collectors never noticed (which is why it’s so important that we be able to buy directly from the Mint) and because of this phenomena such things as the book of VAM’s was created – where… Read more »
Speaking of error coins, a while back I was looking at one of my Peace Dollars under a magnifying glass and saw there was a hair on it. After repeatedly unsuccessfully attempting to brush away that hair, I examined the silver dollar under higher magnification and discovered it was a raised line across the coin – apparently due to a crack in the die it was stamped with!
That’s part of the joy of coin collecting – you seen it as a discovery and that discovery might add value to your coin. On the other hand I see it as a ploy by the dealers and graders to siphon an extra buck out us when we are on the buying end of the deal. These dealers and graders have such a tight grip on us and the hobby that they realized they were killing the hobby and thier own profits so they came up with the great-americon-coin-hunt sham where they allegedly put some coins of value back into… Read more »
I was browsing one of those coin sellers mentioned on this blog and they said only the first 4 Monster cases were all perfect coins – is a Monster Case full of Monster Boxes?
Thank you for your kind and welcome comments – I find wisdom and useful data in your posts as well as a touch of entertainment.
Best Regards
I keep reporting this seller but nothing is ever done: https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/2015-High-Relief-American-Gold-Liberty-Proof-Replica-24kt-Gold-Layered-w-Cert-/294408302407?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&_trksid=p2349624.m2548.l6249&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0
Daniel,
I can get a 1933 Gold Double Eagle for just $14.90, I’m in! Why in hell have I been buying coin from the mint?
Why would eBay want to terminate this seller? If they refused all entities involved with fraud or counterfeited items, they’d be out of business. The new world reality.
Unfortunately, Feebay makes money off bad transactions too an doesn’t care who they get the money from or how as long as they get the money. The only way to get an account closed on Feebay is if you file a police report with your local police and show the seller or buyer ripped you off – then the police will send the report to Feebay and Feebay will still keep your money if your a seller and take their sweet time but they will eventually kill the scammers account but you have to do all the work because Feebay… Read more »
My head hurts that one went right over – but I did use my official Government ID photo to make the point.
hey i bought that same coin in a walmart parking lot from a guy who also had an arm full of gold watches what a deal and i thougth etsy was great
Facebook bills itself as a way for friends and family to keep in touch, while in reality this is just a tool for following people around on the internet, recording their every move, and then selling this information to the highest bidder.
No thanks! I still do not have a presence on Facebook.
Mark Zuckerberg can go and suck my Mammoth…
Question regarding fake coins from resellers, I only purchase PR70 DCAM Silver Eagles all with the same matching labels. I then run them thru PCGS certification web page to confirm they are logit and everything match up correctly. Am I missing something here that I should be concerned about? I have never had a problem from AMPEX, Pinehurst, Liberty etc or ebay (YET). If someone could give me a heads up of problems I would appreciate it.
Best regards from a long time coin corrector.
You trust the graders – I don’t that’s all……………. As far as APMEX before I made my first purchase I told them I read one of their customer reviews where the customer claimed he received a fake gold coin and APMEX admitted this had really happened but they assured me it was a one-time thing and they resolved the problem. Because of their honesty I did make a purchase and several more over many years however how do any of us really know if the gold or silver is real? Anyone notice APMEX has been sold out of Lady Fortuna… Read more »
Did someone say they over-sold the 2 coin reverse proof set? Should I be worried about the unexplained refund I got a few days ago?
Jinkeez my order didn’t go thru until I believe shortly after 1:00 p.m. I was about to give up then seen a message on the US Mint twitter feed saying orders had just started flowing in don’t give up so I went back and gave it another try. Thanks for that valuable information.
The thing is … no one ever re-checks a graded coin (especially not a high grade coin, as it could only go down). Then you have arseholes like this on alibaba, willing to sell you a tungsten coin which has been gold plated. https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/american-buffalo-1-oz-tungsten-gold_62197466784.html?spm=a2700.galleryofferlist.normal_offer.d_image.4ab27eddthAEt5 there are even sellers there who will sell coin slabs with fake authentication labels, which they steal matching numbers straight off NCGS’s website. So when you check it, it all looks real. I got done on a full set of Morgan-CC coins. I bought from a seller here in Australia, I thought “this packaging is a… Read more »
Hey guys & gals we did it my prediction has come true US Mint Director to be replaced effective October 1st