Gold IRA Scams: 11 Warning Signs, the Real Cases, What They Cost and How to Report One

Gold IRA scams put retirement money into overpriced or missing metal, and federal cases over a decade alleged over $500 million of overpriced metal sales (March 20, 2024). That count comes from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the federal agency that polices gold fraud. Most victims got real coins, often at 64% to 130% over the seller's cost. So how do you tell an honest seller from a scam?

A markup is how much more you pay than the metal is worth. Bullion means plain coins or bars valued for their metal, and spot is the market price for one ounce that day. $250,000 put into plain 1 oz bullion coins at about 5.9% over spot buys about $236,072 of gold (one dealer's live quote, September 29, 2026). At a 130% markup, the top rate in a 2024 federal consent order, it buys about $108,696: $127,376 less on day one.

This guide covers the 3 kinds of scam, 11 warning signs tied to real cases, 8 enforcement actions since 2020 and what each tactic costs on $100,000. It ends with 5 things to get in writing and which agency to call, starting with your custodian, the trust company that legally holds your IRA. No company can pay to change this page.

The table below sums up gold IRA scams, as of September 29, 2026.

What Is a Gold IRA Scam?#

A gold IRA scam is a sale that misleads you about your IRA metal, and it takes 3 forms: theft, deceptive overpricing and legal but costly selling. The same lies can hit any precious metals IRA.

A gold IRA is one kind of precious metals IRA, an IRA whose custodian buys and stores physical metal for you. The table below gives the first step for each form of scam.

A spread is the gap between what you pay and what the metal is worth, stated as a share of your price or of the metal's cost.

Most scams sell real coins an IRA may hold (IRA-eligible), so what makes them illegal? Gold is a commodity, the legal word for traded goods, and lying about its price breaks the CFTC's anti-fraud rule.

The CFTC and FINRA, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority that oversees stockbrokers, wrote in 2024 that "retail metal dealers are not regulated at the federal level." Most resolved cases below ended in a consent order, a settlement a court signs, usually without the seller admitting wrongdoing.

Are gold IRAs a scam?#

No. A gold IRA is a legal retirement account, and the price you pay for the coins decides whether you get a fair deal. The tax code allows it under 26 U.S.C. 408(m)(3): named coins such as the American Gold Eagle, and bullion of the required fineness held by a trustee. SafeOunce's guide gives the full picture of what a gold IRA is and how it works.

The table below compares honest and fraudulent pricing.

So are precious metals IRAs safe? The account is legal, but a bad price does the damage: fraud can drain "one-third to one-half" of a saver's retirement money, the CFTC and FINRA warn.

There is no tax trick either. The CFTC's 2024 "Lies Versus Facts" flier calls "secret tax loopholes" a lie: "there are no special tax breaks for self-directed IRAs."

Whether a gold IRA fits you, even at an honest price, is a separate question: is a gold IRA a good investment?

Why do gold IRA scams target retirement savings?#

Scammers target IRAs and 401(k)s because that is where people near retirement keep most of their savings. A rollover moves savings from one retirement account to another, and a single rollover can move $100,000 or more in one call. The CFTC's flier "Lies Versus Facts" explains why. It says: "Fraudulent precious metals dealers push the idea of retirement plan rollovers for one simple reason: That's where most people have the bulk of their investing dollars."

Every CFTC dealer case filed from 2020 to 2023 describes the victims as elderly or retirement-aged. The money came from IRAs, 401(k)s and the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP), the 401(k) for federal workers. Safeguard Metals targeted people 59 and older, says a complaint by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the federal investment regulator (¶16, meaning paragraph 16).

The gold IRA rollover itself is not the problem. A legitimate gold IRA rollover moves money custodian to custodian, and a scam uses the same paperwork.

11 Warning Signs of a Gold IRA Scam#

Eleven warning signs, each taken from a real case, show that a gold IRA sale may be a scam: one sign means slow down, and two or more mean stop. The first 5 are fear of frozen accounts, advice to sell your stocks, premium coins, percentages instead of prices and free metal. The last 6 are "IRS-approved" claims, home storage, celebrity trust, rushed deadlines, calls after a free kit and metal missing from your statement.

1. They say your IRA or 401(k) could be frozen or seized#

A seller who says a new law lets your bank or broker freeze your IRA or 401(k) in a crash is using a script the SEC's complaint calls false. Safeguard Metals used it, says the SEC's complaint of February 1, 2022, and lost final judgments in 2025.

Agents recommended "up to 20%" in metal but "regularly invested 100%" (¶31). At Safeguard's 64% average markup, a $300,000 account bought about $182,927 of metal, a $117,073 loss on day one. At 20% ($60,000), the loss would have been $23,415.

The CFTC alleges that Fisher Capital used the same fear (filed April 25, 2023; pending as of September 29, 2026). Its flier calls it a lie that putting "all your retirement savings in precious metals is safe and secure." The spread alone "can range anywhere from 30 to 300 percent or more," it says.

What to do: hang up and call your IRA provider yourself. SafeOunce gives the full answer to can my 401(k) be frozen or seized, law by law.

2. They tell you to sell your stocks, funds or annuities#

A coin seller who tells you to sell your stocks, funds or annuities is giving investment advice, and the CFTC says that person must be registered. Registered means licensed with the SEC, FINRA or your state. The CFTC's test: telling you "what to buy, how much, or when to buy or sell" is investment advice.

The SEC charged Safeguard Metals as an investment adviser, a person paid to advise on securities (stocks, bonds and funds). Its agents took part in calls to cash out "mutual funds, annuities and other securities" (¶43). The pitch used a fake Series 7 claim (the stockbroker's license), a false name, "Jeff Hill" (¶12, ¶22), and a fake $11 billion in managed assets.

Texas regulators ordered GSI Exchange to stop steering money from stocks and funds into self-directed IRAs, the kind that can hold metal (2021; consent order 2023, no admission). The CFTC describes one customer who paid "nearly $150,000 in commissions and fees" on a $300,000 rollover (advisory 8215-20, 2020).

What to do: look the person up on BrokerCheck and the SEC adviser search, or ask your state securities regulator.

3. They push "premium", "exclusive" or "semi-numismatic" coins#

Being steered from plain bullion to "premium", "exclusive" or "semi-numismatic" coins is the costliest sign: it is the switch behind the two largest gold IRA cases since 2020. Numismatic means collector coins. The CFTC and FINRA write: "'Semi-numismatic' is a made-up industry term that really has no special meaning."

In the Metals.com case, the CFTC alleges that over 90% of investor money went into Royal Canadian Mint Polar Bear and British coins. The CFTC's figures, quoted by the court, put alleged average spreads at 91% to 128% (Doc 911; pending, trial set for March 1, 2027). In the Red Rock Secured case, Canadian Red-Tailed Hawk coins carried markups of 91.89% to 129.97% over Red Rock's cost (CFTC consent order, April 23, 2024).

Those Hawk coins were IRA-eligible bullion: eligibility was the cover, and the price was the harm. At a 130% markup, $100,000 buys $43,478 of metal.

What to do: ask for 1 oz bullion coins or bars with a written price per coin. SafeOunce shows how numismatic coin upsells are priced, coin by coin.

4. They quote a markup percentage, not a price per coin in writing#

A written range such as "2% to 33%" does not protect you: in three major cases, buyers were told far lower markups than regulators later found or alleged. Metals.com agreements disclosed markups "generally between one percent and five percent" for bullion and 17% to 33% for collector coins (Doc 911; the case is pending). New York's attorney general alleged that Lear Capital told customers about 2% to 3% but charged up to 33% of the price (petition, June 17, 2021).

In a recorded "confirmation" call after the sale, Lear asked: "Do you understand that the ask to cost fee is 33 percent, yes or no." Lear settled for $6 million without admitting wrongdoing. Safeguard agents said "the only way Safeguard made money was by taking a 1% commission" (SEC ¶33), while agents earned 8% to 10% and markups averaged about 64%.

A dollar price per coin shows the truth. In an SEC example, a Red Rock buyer paid $150,000 for 4,000 coins, $37.50 each; Red Rock's cost was $16.35 a coin. At a round 5% bullion markup, $100,000 buys $95,238 of metal, but at 130% it buys $43,478: $51,760 less.

What to do: get the dollar price of each coin before you pay. A spread of 33% of the price needs a 49.3% rise to break even, so compare any quote with honest gold IRA markups and spreads in 2026.

5. They offer "free silver" or years of free fees#

Free silver is paid for inside the price of the coins you must buy: a 10% bonus on coins marked up 30% still leaves an 18.2% markup. Gold IRA promotions on seller homepages on September 29, 2026 offered "up to $15,000" in free silver or "up to 10% back" on coins the seller picks. One fee waiver required a $200,000 rollover with at least 60% in proof coins, polished collector versions that cost more than bullion.

A 10% bonus beats plain bullion at 5.9% only on coins marked up 16.5% or less. Ten years of waived account fees are worth about $2,800 to $2,900, about 3% of $100,000. Red Rock promised a bonus "upwards of 15%," which the CFTC alleged was "nowhere near" reality. Even a full 15% bonus on a 130% markup leaves you 100% over metal value.

What to do: compare the metal you get per dollar, bonus included. SafeOunce shows how each of the free silver gold IRA promotions is paid for.

6. They call the coins, the vault or themselves "IRS-approved"#

The IRS approves no coin, dealer or vault, so "IRS-approved" is a sales phrase; its only list names 73 companies allowed to act as IRA trustees (April 1, 2026). These are nonbank trustees, companies the IRS lets hold IRAs although they are not banks (Treas. Reg. 1.408-2(e)). The IRS itself says "there is no list of approved investments" (Retirement Plan Investments FAQs).

The only metals business on the IRS list is Lone Star Tangible Assets, LP, approved November 30, 2023. Most metals custodians are instead trust companies licensed (chartered) by a state. The correct term is "IRA-eligible": 26 U.S.C. 408(m)(3) exempts named coins and bullion of the required fineness from the ban on collectibles.

No vault is "approved" either; the law requires bullion "in the physical possession of a trustee." Red Rock, Safeguard and Fisher Capital all used IRA eligibility to win trust.

What to do: treat the phrase as a warning. People search for "IRA-approved" precious metals, but the tax code sets only short, exact eligibility rules, listed in IRA-approved precious metals.

7. They say you can keep your IRA gold at home#

Keeping IRA gold at home makes it a taxable withdrawal, even through an "IRA LLC", as the U.S. Tax Court ruled in McNulty v. Commissioner (2021). An IRA LLC is a company your IRA owns and you manage. A distribution is money or property taken out of an IRA. In McNulty, 320 Gold Eagles bought for $374,000 in 2015 and kept at home were taxed as a distribution of their cost (157 T.C. No. 10; docket 1377-19).

Take a married couple with $80,000 of other taxable income. Taking $50,000 of IRA coins home adds about $8,920 of federal tax (2026 brackets). Under age 59 1/2, the 10% additional tax on early withdrawals raises that to about $13,920.

What to do: refuse any home-storage plan. SafeOunce checks every home storage gold IRA pitch against the ruling.

8. A celebrity, pastor or political host is the reason to trust them#

A famous face tells you who was paid to read the ad, not what the coins cost, and the CFTC warns that scammers also fake celebrity endorsements. Its 2024 flier says: "Fraudulent metals dealers target their ads to political or religious programming just to gain your trust. Fraudsters sometimes steal the images of popular personalities and fake endorsements."

Affinity fraud means targeting people through a group they trust, such as a church. The CFTC's March 20, 2024 release named "affinity fraud techniques, purposefully targeting people with specific political and religious beliefs."

Endorsements are paid contracts: on September 29, 2026, three large sellers' homepages named 16 spokespeople. Lear Capital calls its spokesman "a Lear Customer and Paid Spokesman."

What to do: judge the written price, not the voice. SafeOunce tracks who is paid in celebrity gold IRA endorsements, seller by seller.

9. They rush you, and the cancellation window is 24 hours to 7 days#

Pressure to sign on the first call is a scam sign, and many dealer contracts give you only 24 hours to 7 days to cancel. The CFTC warns that fraudsters "create false urgency." A cancellation window is the time you have to undo an order.

The table below shows the windows in documents read on September 29, 2026.

Sign a 24-hour order at 3 p.m. Monday, and the window closes at 3 p.m. Tuesday, often before your 401(k) money arrives.

What to do: never sign on the first call. Learn how to cancel a gold IRA order and the account itself, in writing.

10. The calls and texts start after you ask for a "free kit"#

A "free gold IRA kit" form usually gives the seller permission to call and text you with autodialers, so the wave of calls that follows is by design. An autodialer is a machine that dials numbers automatically. Birch Gold's 2026 kit form requires a phone number, and its consent text covers "pre-recorded/artificial voice communications and messages, ringless voicemails, and auto-dialers."

Some contracts also add consent to calls even if you are on the Do-Not-Call Registry, the federal list that blocks most sales calls. About 19,280 people kept getting Goldco texts after replying "STOP." Their class action, a suit for a whole group, won final approval of a settlement on March 26, 2026 (Summerton v. Goldco Direct, W.D. Wis. 3:23-cv-00238).

Federal law lets you sue for $500 per unlawful robocall, up to $1,500 if the caller broke the law on purpose (47 U.S.C. 227). In SafeOunce's reading, the Telemarketing Sales Rule (16 CFR 310.6(b)(5)) still covers these calls, although you asked for the kit.

What to do: ask for information by email only. SafeOunce explains how to stop gold IRA cold calls and robocalls.

11. Your metal is not on your IRA custodian's statement within about 28 days#

Treat it as an emergency if your coins are not on your custodian's statement, under your IRA's name, within about 28 days of payment. That is how the Regal Assets and Rosland Capital losses began. The 28 days comes from a CFTC delivery test for metal bought with borrowed money (advisory 8215-20). For an IRA purchase paid in full, it is a yardstick, not a legal deadline.

Washington's securities regulator used that yardstick against Rosland, which shipped IRA metal 33 to 168 days after payment (consent order, August 4, 2022, $20,000, no admission). Rosland filed a liquidating Chapter 11, a bankruptcy to wind the company down, on July 2, 2026. It owed about $60.8 million to about 617 customers and had $212,661.60 in cash on August 6, 2026: 0.35% of what it owed.

Regal Assets told customers their metal sat in their own "sub-accounts" at a depository, a storage vault; the CFTC's complaint says these were only entries in Regal's books. In November 2021, Regal held $347,724 in cash against at least $7 million of metal owed. Crown Bullion sent fake invoices to custodians it "hand-picked" (CFTC 8784-23), and at First State Depository the vault itself was the fraud.

What to do: get the statement from the custodian and the holdings list, the item-by-item record of your coins, from the depository itself. SafeOunce's 6-step check shows how to confirm it: is your gold really in your IRA.

The Real Cases: 8 Gold IRA Fraud and Enforcement Actions Since 2020#

Since 2020, regulators have brought 8 major cases against gold IRA sellers, and six CFTC cases alone involved about $380 million, mostly from retirement accounts. The legal terms in the case table mean the following.

• Allegation: a claim not yet proved in court.
• Consent order or decree: a court-signed settlement; "no admission" means "without admitting or denying" wrongdoing.
• Liability by consent: the company accepted responsibility; the amount is still to be set.
• Default judgment: a ruling against a company that does not show up.
• Restitution: money a court orders paid back to victims.
• Rescission offer: an offer to undo the sale and refund the buyer.

The table below lists the 8 cases with their status on September 29, 2026.

Every case above, and older ones back to 2008, is dated and sourced in our tracker of gold IRA enforcement actions.

The six CFTC cases are the table's first six rows; the Metals.com and Fisher Capital figures are still allegations.

In cases such as Crown Bullion, custodians paid the dealers' invoices as normal. Custodians "generally do not evaluate the quality or legitimacy of any investment," warn the SEC and NASAA, the association of state securities regulators. SEC charges against the custodian Equity Trust were dismissed on June 27, 2016 (Initial Decision No. 1030). A custodian that pays a dealer's invoice is not checking the price for you.

Failed firms are a separate risk. Besides Rosland (sign 11), customers filed on August 28, 2024 to force Oxford Gold Group into Chapter 7, a bankruptcy that sells off what is left. What happens to your account when a seller collapses is covered in failed gold IRA companies.

Told 1%-5%, charged up to 130%: what the paperwork said vs what regulators found#

Buyers in five cases were told of markups from about 1% to 33%, or none at all, while regulators found markups up to 130% over cost. In the pending Metals.com case, the CFTC alleges average markups of 116% to 213% over market price on its three main coins.

The gap can be measured two ways. If a dealer pays $1,000 for a coin and sells it to you for $2,000, the markup over cost is 100%, and the dealer keeps 50% of your price. The table below sets what each seller said beside what regulators found or allege.

In every case the written range was wide enough to cover anything, false or missing.

Who do gold IRA scams target, and how much do victims lose?#

Gold IRA scams target people near or in retirement, and in seven cases the average victim put in about $43,000 to $175,000. The table below divides each case's money by its victims.

The averages are rough, because most figures are minimums. Eight of the ten largest retirement-account cases and failures involved Los Angeles-area firms.

Red Rock sold to federal workers with a guide it called "The #1 TSP Playbook," turning a normal TSP to gold IRA rollover into its sales pitch.

Has the CFTC charged any new gold IRA dealer since 2023?#

No. The CFTC's press-release list shows no new charges against a retail gold or silver dealer since Regal Assets in September 2023, checked through September 29, 2026. Later releases resolve older cases, such as the Red Rock and Safeguard judgments (CFTC list). SimTradePro, a pooled fund trading gold and silver contracts rather than coins, was charged September 30, 2024, so it is not counted.

The CFTC's power over gold is also contested. On July 21, 2025, the Metals.com court held that the law "does not encompass precious metals as commodities because they are neither agricultural products nor movie tickets." On August 3, 2026, it reversed itself, bound by a 1978 higher-court ruling, CFTC v. Muller.

For you, no federal agency licenses gold dealers, so your state regulator and your own paperwork matter more. The gaps, agency by agency, are mapped in who regulates gold IRA companies.

What Does a Gold IRA Scam Cost? The Math on $100,000#

A gold IRA scam costs you the hidden markup on day one, 39% to 57% of every dollar in the proved cases, plus years of waiting to break even. At Safeguard's 64% markup, about 39 cents of each dollar went to the seller; at Red Rock's 130%, about 57 cents. Melt value is what the metal in your coins is worth at that day's spot price.

A scam takes money in 4 layers, listed below.

1. The markup on day one. You pay more than melt value, and that money is gone.
2. The buyback gap when you sell. In one contract form several sellers share, a $40 coin sold at a 20% spread cost the dealer $32. The dealer's buyback bid is about $30.50: 76% of what you paid.
3. Swaps that restart the markup. A swap trades your coins for other coins, with a new markup. In Patterson v. Lear, a customer alleged that $377,375 of coins became platinum worth about $141,527 by December 31, 2018. That is a 62.5% loss in 14 months.
4. Years lost waiting to break even. At a 130% markup, the metal needs 17.1 years of 5% yearly gains to repay what you paid.

You can test any quote for all four layers in the gold IRA break-even calculator.

Why is my gold IRA statement lower than what I paid? Custodians value metal near melt, so at a spread of 33% of the price, the first statement shows 67% of what you paid.

In the Texas GSI Exchange case, one investor paid $267,293.60. On December 31, 2020, about 5 months later, the custodian valued the metal at $195,361.39: 26.9% less.

Safeguard agents told buyers in advance that statements would show the "melt value," not the "actual value" (SEC ¶37). SafeOunce explains why a gold IRA statement shows less than you paid, line by line.

How much metal does $100,000 buy at each markup?#

$100,000 buys about $94,429 of gold at a plain-bullion markup of 5.9%, but only $43,478 at the 130% top markup in the Red Rock case. The table below shows, at 7 markups, the metal you own, a next-day sale value and the years needed to get back to $100,000.

Rates are illustrations, not forecasts. The next-day column treats dealer cost as metal value and uses the shared contract form's bid, about 4.7% below cost. The years ignore fees and that discount, so the real wait is longer.

Could your gold IRA be one of these cases? A 7-question check#

Answer these 7 yes-or-no questions about your own purchase: each describes a tactic from a real case, and two or more yes answers mean stop and check. The 7 questions are listed below.

1. Were you told your 401(k), IRA or TSP could be frozen or seized? (Safeguard, Fisher Capital)
2. Did the talk move from bullion to "premium", "semi-numismatic", "limited" or "exclusive" coins? (Metals.com, Red Rock)
3. Does your paperwork give a percentage range instead of a dollar price per coin? (Metals.com, Lear, Safeguard)
4. Did the seller choose the custodian for you? (Crown Bullion, Safeguard)
5. Is your first custodian statement more than 10% below what you paid? (Red Rock, GSI Exchange, Lear)
6. Is the metal missing from your account at the storage vault (depository) 28 days after payment? (Rosland, Regal)
7. Were you asked yes-or-no questions on a recorded "confirmation" call? (Lear, Safeguard)

Two or more yes answers: stop buying, and ask the custodian, not the seller, for a statement and a holdings list. Then call your state securities regulator, and keep every invoice, email and call note.

How Do You Avoid a Gold IRA Scam? 5 Things to Get in Writing#

You block most gold IRA scam tactics by getting 5 things in writing before any money moves: coin price, buyback price, yearly fees, exit fees and cancellation terms. The CFTC and FINRA tell buyers to get "all fees, costs, commissions, and agreed retail price in writing BEFORE signing" (2024). Federal telemarketing rules also require the seller to disclose "the total costs ... and the quantity" before you pay (16 CFR 310.3(a)(1)(i)).

The 5 things to get in writing are listed below.

1. Get the price per coin and how many dollars it costs above the spot price (the premium over spot).
2. Get the dealer's buyback price for the same coins, as if you sold "tomorrow," the test the CFTC and FINRA suggest.
3. Get every yearly custodian and storage fee, including after any free period.
4. Get every exit fee, the charge to leave: sale, transfer and account closing.
5. Get the cancellation window, what starts it and whether bullion is covered.

You should also control the call with six lines.

• "What is the premium over spot, in dollars, for each item?"
• "How are you paid on this sale?" (Safeguard claimed 1%; its agents earned 8% to 10%.)
• "Is anything you recommend not plain bullion?"
• "Please email the invoice before I pay."
• "What is your full legal name and license number?"
• "I don't make decisions on the first call."

A refusal on any line is a reason to choose a different gold IRA company. For more, see the 12 questions in how to choose a gold IRA company, with the answers that should stop you.

Which gold IRA company is considered the safest?#

No regulator rates gold IRA sellers, so no company is officially "the safest": the safest choice is a seller whose prices, contract and record you can check in writing. Safety means five things you can verify, listed below.

• Plain bullion, not "premium" coins.
• A written dollar price for each coin.
• An independent custodian, one you choose rather than one the seller picks.
• A depository account in your IRA's name.
• No regulator order or court judgment against the seller.

Lists of the best gold IRA companies should rank on these checks. SafeOunce ranks sellers on real cost and legal record in best gold IRA companies; no company can pay to change its place.

Lear Capital held a Better Business Bureau (BBB) grade of A+ as of September 29, 2026, after $14.25 million in public settlements without admission.

Check who wrote any ranking, too.

Every rated seller, including those that failed, is listed under gold IRA companies.

How do you check a gold IRA company's record?#

Check a gold IRA company's record in 5 free places: BBB complaint texts, the NFA and SEC lookups, your state securities regulator, BrokerCheck and CourtListener. The 5 places are listed below.

• BBB complaint texts: the complaints, not the grade; accreditation is paid.
• NFA BASIC and the SEC Action Lookup: past actions by the National Futures Association (NFA BASIC), which registers futures firms, and the SEC.
• Your state securities regulator: orders and complaints, found via NASAA.
• BrokerCheck: whether the salesperson holds a license.
• CourtListener: free federal court dockets (courtlistener.com).

Also look up the seller's legal name with your Secretary of State, and the custodian's charter on the IRS trustee list or your state banking roster. SafeOunce walks through every lookup in how to check a gold IRA company.

"Not registered" is normal for metals dealers and proves nothing alone.

Your custodian does not vet the dealer or the price either.

A BBB grade needs care, because 90 of its 100 points relate to complaints. SafeOunce explains what BBB ratings for gold IRA companies do and do not measure.

How to Report a Gold IRA Scam: Which Agency Handles What#

Report a gold IRA scam to your state securities regulator first; add the CFTC for price lies, the SEC for securities advice and the police for missing metal. The table below matches 8 problems to the right agency, with contacts checked on September 29, 2026.

One CFTC route rarely helps. Reparations, the CFTC's own claims process, work only against firms "registered under this chapter," within two years, with a simpler track up to $30,000 (7 U.S.C. 18). In plain English: most metals dealers are not registered, so file a tip, a report that can start an investigation, instead.

Before you report a gold IRA company, gather your invoice, statements and call notes. The full decision tree is in how to report a gold IRA company.

You should report even if you do not expect money back. States may sue "on behalf of its residents" (7 U.S.C. 13a-2), and 30 states joined the CFTC against Metals.com. A whistleblower, an insider who reports fraud, can receive 10% to 30% of the money collected in CFTC cases with sanctions over $1 million (7 U.S.C. 26(b)(1)).

Can you get your money back from a gold IRA scam?#

Sometimes, but usually only in part: regulators recover the overcharge, not what you paid. In the largest open case, victims had been paid 11% of approved claims, its receiver reported. Your best odds come from cancelling inside the contract window, in writing, the same day.

Metals.com victims with approved claims got a first $8 million payment about May 1, 2025, about 4 years 7 months after filing. The court's receiver reported in May 2026 that this equals 11.07% of $72,260,999 in approved claims, and that 93 claimants died while waiting (Doc 1022).

Settled cases reached a money order in a median of about 12 months. Cases the companies fought took 3 to 6 years or more. Act fast: the contracts of American Hartford Gold, Preserve Gold, Lear and Monex set a 1-year claim deadline (September 2026).

Beware of paid offers to recover your loss: "fraud-recovery scams are a form of advance-fee fraud," the CFTC warned on July 30, 2024. You pay up front for money that never comes. Arbitration is a private hearing many dealer contracts require instead of court. For cancellation, arbitration and restitution step by step, see get your money back from a gold IRA company.

What Other Gold Scams Target Retirement Savers?#

Five gold scams with a current case or warning are premium-coin markups, frozen-account fear pitches, dealer failures, fake "government agent" courier pickups and paid "recovery" offers. Only the first 3 involve an IRA. The dated case or warning behind each is listed below.

1. Premium-coin markups: the Metals.com civil trial is set for March 1, 2027.
2. Frozen-account fear pitches: the Fisher Capital case is pending.
3. Dealer failure and non-delivery: Rosland filed Chapter 11 on July 2, 2026.
4. Government-impersonation courier scams: FBI warning of January 29, 2024.
5. "Recovery" offers after a loss: CFTC warning of May 14, 2025.

Gold bar courier scams#

No government agency or bank asks you to buy gold and hand it to a courier. The FBI counted over $55 million lost this way from May to December 2023. Posing as government or bank staff, scammers tell people to "liquidate their assets into cash and/or purchase gold, silver, or other precious metals." A courier then collects the metal (FBI IC3 PSA I-012924-PSA, January 29, 2024).

Victims are mostly 60 or over. The FBI: "The US Government and legitimate businesses will never request you purchase gold or other precious metals." SafeOunce explains how gold bar courier scams work and who they target.

Gold and silver programs that promise interest#

Physical gold and silver pay no interest, so a program that promises monthly income on your metal is taking a risk you cannot see. Argent Asset Group's "Maximus" silver lease, which promised payments for lending out silver, ran through First State Depository, the vault that was itself the fraud. CFTC orders in June 2023 set $112.7 million in restitution plus a $33 million penalty. On June 17, 2025, the vault's owner got 65 years in prison.

In National Coin Broker's "Silver Lease Program," investors "were told that they would earn a monthly dividend between 3.9% and 5%." The CFTC won $6,923,919 in restitution and an $11.5 million penalty (release 9124-25, September 15, 2025). Monex's "Atlas" accounts (borrowed money, not an IRA case) ended in $33 million restitution and a $5 million penalty, without admission (December 19, 2022).

The short answer to does a gold IRA pay interest is no.

Fake review sites and paid "best" lists#

Some gold IRA "review" and "scam warning" pages are written by gold sellers, or paid each time they send a seller a lead, meaning your contact details. A site paid this way is called an affiliate.

On September 29, 2026, two of the nine results for "gold ira scams" were sellers' own pages, and the top result carried affiliate-tagged links. For "precious metals ira scams," the first and eighth results were one gold company CEO's paid press release on two newspaper sites.

Augusta Precious Metals publishes its "Prime" affiliate pay: $200 per qualified lead, plus 8% of premium-coin sales and 0% on bullion (terms read September 29, 2026). So a site earns more when readers buy premium coins. FTC rules require paid links to be disclosed "clearly and conspicuously" (16 CFR 255) and ban fake reviews (16 CFR 465, effective October 21, 2024).

Test any "best gold IRA" page in 60 seconds with the 6 questions below.

• Is there an ad or partner block above the list?
• Do the links redirect through paths such as /go/ or /pr/?
• Does the page say who pays it?
• Does it publish its weights and dates?
• Does it show companies it rejected?
• Does it discuss markups and contract terms?

Two or more "no" answers to the last four mean the page is advertising. Separately, Orion Precious Metals alleges, in a suit filed June 29, 2026, that money.com rankings are paid; no ruling is known as of September 29, 2026. SafeOunce shows how to spot a paid ranking in are gold IRA reviews paid.

Gold IRA scams FAQ#

Seven short answers follow.

Is the free gold IRA kit legit?#

A free gold IRA kit is a real sales brochure, not a scam, but the form that sends it usually lets the seller call and text you with autodialers. Birch Gold's 2026 kit runs 24 pages. See what is inside free gold IRA kits and who calls next.

Is a guaranteed buyback legal?#

Sellers' own contracts say no: five of them state that the law does not let them guarantee to buy your metal back. They are American Hartford Gold, Lear, Preserve Gold, Oxford Gold Group and American Bullion. Augusta's FAQ (September 23, 2026) says it "cannot legally guarantee it will purchase or trade metals you own." Compare what gold IRA buyback programs actually promise.

Is my custodian "IRS-approved"?#

Probably not, and it does not need to be: most metals custodians are state-chartered trust companies, while the IRS list names 73 nonbank trustees (April 1, 2026). Banks and state-chartered trust companies qualify under 26 U.S.C. 408(n) without that list. Learn how to check a custodian's state license (charter) in "IRS-approved" gold IRA custodians.

Can the government confiscate the gold in my IRA?#

No current law allows it, and the CFTC lists "The government can't seize collectible coins" among the lies scam dealers tell. The 1933 gold order (Executive Order 6102) is covered in can the government confiscate your gold.

Does a BBB A+ rating mean a company is safe?#

No: 90 of the BBB's 100 positive points measure how a company handles complaints, customer reviews are not scored, and prices are not checked. An A+ covers scores of 97 to 100, and accreditation is paid.

Someone offered to recover my losses for a fee. Is it real?#

Almost certainly not: the CFTC calls paid "recovery" offers advance-fee fraud, and its own watchdog office never calls with such offers. A second CFTC warning (May 14, 2025) says: "The CFTC Office of Inspector General will never contact individuals with offers to recover money lost to investment scams."

What if my parent is being pressured into a gold IRA?#

Sit in on the next call, ask for the 5 written items above, and call your state securities regulator or the FINRA Senior Helpline (844-574-3577) if refused. See what to do when a parent is pressured into a gold IRA.