Exclusive: Glenn Beck's Golden Advertiser Under Investigation

[groundloop]

Source: ABC News

Authorities in California said today they have opened an investigation into Goldline International, a company that pioneered the practice of weaving its sales pitches into broadcasts by popular conservative political personalities -- including two former presidential candidates and Fox News host Glenn Beck -- to sell hundreds of millions of dollars worth of gold every year.

"There are two main types of complaints we're seeing," said Adam Radinsky of the Santa Monica City Attorney's office, which has launched what it described as a joint investigation with the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office.

"One is that customers say that they were lied to and misled in entering into their purchases of gold coins," he said. "And the other group is saying that they received something different from what they had ordered." .....

The promotional strategy appears to have been beneficial both to Goldline, which boasts $500 million in sales, and to such conservative figures as Beck and former presidential hopefuls Fred Thompson and Mike Huckabee, all of whose broadcasts are peppered with Goldline advertisements.



Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/glenn-beck-fox-hosts-golden-advertiser-goldline-investigation/story?id=11197000

[brewens]

1. Nail Goldline but do not let the suckers recover a damn dime!

Anyone that watches that crap and supports it's sponsors deserves to be fleeced!

[Ian David]

5. They also advertise on Stephanie Miller, Thom Hartmann and Ed Schultz. n/t

[Doctor_J]

15. No. Thom flogs ITM Trading

So does Malloy

[Ian David]

16. Hmm... thanks. n/t

[no limit]

20. That's funny because I swear I heard Thom promoting goldline directly

[Doctor_J]

24. I have been listeing almost daily for 6 years

and have only heard ITM ads. They could be affiliated to Goldline though.

[David__77]

17. They market to whoever they think is paranoid.

I just don't think precious metals is the best place to go for the everyday investor...

[TheWatcher]

26. So those who invest in Precious Metals are "paranoid?"

What a completely ignorant statement.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

2. Is it only conservatives who peddle this stuff?

I've heard Thom Hartmann and Ed Schultz pitching gold. Schultz's pitch is rather annoying because he uses the stimulus and bailouts as a source of inflation and a reason to buy gold......on a show where he advocates for same.

[ladywnch]

3. I thought it was a different company they shil for. I know Randi Rhodes

hawks for some gold company too. I don't know what company that is either.

[Recursion]

6. It plays into the conservative myth that gold is intrinsically valuable

Which sort of gets to their whole mistaken view of currency and economics in general.

[Bluenorthwest]

8. Hartmann always says the dollar is doomed, so buy gold

And frankly, I'd not do that for money. "The world is going to hell, and if you can not afford to hoard precious metals like I can, you are fucked." I've really never needed money so badly that I would try to scare people out of theirs. And I've done commercials, many of them. I'd not do that.

[Gormy Cuss]

4. "Exclusive" --that's a laugh. It's the topic of the cover story in the current issue of Mother Jones

They have added content on the web site too.
http://motherjones.com/

[Recursion]

7. I would love a DU moratorium on threads whose titles lead with "breaking" or "exclusive" NT

[damntexdem]

9. It never rains but it ... golden showers.

A bit of a set-Beck.

[FarLeftFist]

10. 'Selling Out' is the new 'Keeping it Real'

[SunnySong]

11. 1978 called the want their headline back....

Gold Bugs have been ripping off the stupid for generations...

Nothing new under the sun it seems.

[bloomington-lib]

12. I have always wondered

if gold is so much better why are they trying to get me to trade my money for their gold? Seems like they should hang on to it, but I'm no expert in economics.

[brettjv]

22. At first blush, that's a really insightful observation ...

It's like, yeah, why would they do that?

Thinking about it a bit more deeply though it probably comes down to the seller having bought it at a lower price than they can sell it to you for now, and thus there's an immediate and finite profit for them to sell it to you, rather than continuing to take the risk of it not going up or going down in the future.

Basically, they profit for their risk taken in the past (which was the goal of taking said risk in the first place), and put you into the position of risk instead of them.

[safeinOhio]

13. If you are going to buy or sell....

I have used Northwest Territorial Mint online. They actually pay a premium on buying bullion coins that pays for shipping and insurance. Try to get spot price at any local buyer.

[dixiegrrrrl]

14. I am dying to know what they received that was different than what they ordered.

[Loudmxr]

18. When you ordered from Huckabee you got this gold painted plastic Jesus for the dashboard.

And you had to glue it on yerself!!!:grr:

[snooper2]

19. People really are suckers out there....How do they think this place turns a profit?

Beck pimping this shit ( I believe Mark Levin does as well ) and people call in...

Really, you are going to buy gold from an A.M. radio station ad. Really, you are that fucking stupid....


"Zoanne Martz of Sacramento says the same thing happened to her with Goldline when she was persuaded to buy $13,000 of overpriced Swiss gold coins. Each one priced at $250 dollars.

I was recently laid off so I was looking for getting back some of my money and I found that the most I could get back for one of those was $207 now," she said.

And that's despite the fact the price of gold has almost doubled since she bought the coins three years ago. "I just really felt like, I kind of, that I was suckered. I really was. And I really felt that this was a reputable company that I could feel pretty safe with."

Goldline said it looked into each case Monday, and found that while both customers had initially complained, the company believed they wound up satisfied. And one of them – Goldline did not identify which one – was provided "a number of written disclosures at the time of purchase that went even further than Goldline's ordinary written disclosures," and yet went ahead with the purchase anyway."

[SnakeEyes]

21. Unless there actually is fraud and deceit by Goldline

Then I'm not going to feel sorry for a few complainers that got into gold coin investing without understanding it. It's why advertising has the disclaimers that it's not for everyone and do your research first.

It's not like this is a flyby night company. They been around a long time and they and other gold coin companies are advertised on right, moderate, and left outlets including Thom Hartmann, Ed Schultz, Stephanie Miller.

[daleo]

23. You don't have to be a wingnut to be a gold bug

But it seems to help. It makes it easy for right wing scam artists take them to the cleaners.

[Nevernose]

25. Read this month's Mother Jones for in-depth coverage n/t

N/t