Introducing FakeBullion.com

[escher]

This whole conversation could have been discussed in PMs instead of junking up this thread

So sorry, I sent a PM instead.

[BotanicusRex]

eBay 1 oz. AGE fakes:

Showing up offering eBay bucks - don't bite
Lists as Unc... pics are of fake proofs

http://www.ebay.com/itm/113216756191
http://www.ebay.com/itm/113216639037

[natsb88]

eBay 1 oz. AGE fakes:

Showing up offering eBay bucks - don't bite
Lists as Unc... pics are of fake proofs

http://www.ebay.com/itm/113216756191
http://www.ebay.com/itm/113216639037

eBay reporting thread is over here: viewtopic.php?f=68&t=30659

I will forward these to the eBay contact

[BotanicusRex]

got it.. thanks

[Rik Bitter]

These schmoes need to talk to Nate. He's miles ahead of them already with fakebullion.com.

(Temecula, California) November 29, 2018 — The Anti-Counterfeiting Task Force (ACTF) accomplished major victories combatting fakes and educating the public about counterfeits in the marketplace in 2018, according to ACTF Coordinator Beth Deisher. She envisions continued success in 2019 following the recent major reorganization of the group’s parent organization, the Anti-Counterfeiting Educational Foundation (ACEF).

http://news.coinupdate.com/png-leaders-step-up-fight-against-fakes-with-anti-counterfeiting-educational-foundation/

[natsb88]

These schmoes need to talk to Nate. He's miles ahead of them already with fakebullion.com.

(Temecula, California) November 29, 2018 — The Anti-Counterfeiting Task Force (ACTF) accomplished major victories combatting fakes and educating the public about counterfeits in the marketplace in 2018, according to ACTF Coordinator Beth Deisher. She envisions continued success in 2019 following the recent major reorganization of the group’s parent organization, the Anti-Counterfeiting Educational Foundation (ACEF).

http://news.coinupdate.com/png-leaders-step-up-fight-against-fakes-with-anti-counterfeiting-educational-foundation/

I have been in touch with a few members of this group. They are more focused on law enforcement education/assistance and working with the big manufacturers and grading companies on trademark enforcement. They help arrange expert witnesses for counterfeit/fraud cases and they've helped take down a few larger importers of counterfeit coins. They have worked with CBP on checking imports and with the Secret Service on reclassifying US gold and silver coins to be valued by metal content rather than face value, which dramatically increases the documented value of counterfeit fraud cases and makes them a higher priority with more serious charges. They also assist with some educational exhibits at coin shows and educational seminars for law enforcement.

They have expressed interest in working together, but so far really only via me attending meetings / coin shows or being available as a witness. I have a day (and night and weekend) job and I'm not in a position to take the time (or sacrifice the income and incur the expenses) of traveling. Plus I just don't like traveling . So I will continue the bottom-up approach, trying to reach dealers and stackers and collectors directly with information on identifying fakes, while they continue the top-down approach to try to slow the importation of counterfeits and catch and punish those who fraudulently sell them. I think the two strategies complement each other.

[natsb88]

So life is crazy busy and I have been slacking on this website.

But I've put a good 50+ hours into it over the last three weeks.

Unfortunately a lot of that effort was behind the scenes and won't make much difference on the front end.

I migrated the site to a different host. The previous architecture was good in that it was structured to allow for lots of redundancy and growth. It was bad in that it was essentially unmanaged and required a lot of attention and maintenance that I'm not good at and got tired of dealing with. Some upcoming changes scheduled for February and March would have broken the site so I was at a crossroads and decided to move it.

The new host should be more than sufficient for the level of traffic the site currently receives, but more importantly, it requires much less attention from me on the back end and has some customer support for the specific CMS I am using. So going forward, when I have an hour or two to throw at the site, it will be more for new content creation and less for boring back end maintenance.

After the move I spent lots of time getting the content management software and a dozen different plug-ins from a dozen different authors up to date, which was necessary to get the site to run on a newer version of php.

As part of that process I had to replace the filter/search module for the Fake Bullion Database. The new filter looks a little different but functions similarly, and the database now has a keyword search feature, something that was lacking on the old filter.

I also added a cryptocurrency gateway to the membership/donation system. Select cryptos (currently BTC, LTC, ETH, NEO, PIVX, and QTUM) can be used for the Yearly (non-recurring) and Lifetime options, and for straight donations. I could use some help testing this if anybody is willing to throw a little crypto at the site.

I got caught up on six months worth of Google alerts and added a dozen stories to the News section.

I also got rid of the ads. The only ads running were referral ads. They only paid if a customer clicked through and bought something within a set time frame. The payouts for those programs have steadily decreased, and they haven't generated any revenue for the last 2+ years. If a company is interested in some kind of sponsorship deal in the future, I will certainly entertain it, but for now, the ads are gone. That also allowed me to rearrange things a bit to work better with the new database filter layout.

But it also means I am relying 100% on donations and memberships to keep the site afloat.

Please check out the site and let me know if you find anything amiss. I welcome feedback on the new database filter and anything I may be able to tweak to improve the user experience.

Now that the bulk of the boring web development stuff is out of the way, the next work session will be focused on adding new items to the Fake Bullion Database

A big thanks to all of the existing donors for sticking with me through the slow times and helping to offset the bills.