Gold has always been one of the most fundamental and reliable investments, but a recent case in Portland uncovered just how easily counterfeiters and scammers exploit that trust. In August 2025, local police arrested a woman accused of selling over $43,000 worth of fake gold bullion to unsuspecting buyers. These weren’t massive bars — they were small, 1–20g bullions, with market value at $100 to $3,000 each.
What happened in Portland?
Woman Arrested for Selling Counterfeit Gold [Aug. 19, 2025]
- Who:
- Suspect: Christina L. Duncan, 37, Portland, Oregon
- Investigators: Portland Police Bureau (PPB) North Precinct Neighbourhood
- What Happened:
- Duncan is accused of selling over $43,500 worth of counterfeit gold to multiple buyers since 2023.
- One victim reported losing $22,000 across 4 transactions (Dec 2023).
- At least five additional victims were identified, losing $21,500 total.
Source: https://www.portland.gov/police/news/2025/8/28/woman-arrested-selling-counterfeit-gold-additional-victims-sought
What makes Gold Bars an exceptional target for counterfeiting and scamming?
This scam specifically targets small, non-professional investors who are often influenced by financial influencers promoting gold as a “safe haven” asset. For many, these purchases represent personal savings, and unlike fake luxury, the impact of buying a fake gold bar is much more direct.
The likelihood that the Portland case is a one-time case, where the lady had been producing the fakes herself, is close to 0%.
With Gold, the uncomfortable truth is that the only 100% reliable test for verifying a gold bar’s purity is destructive testing (melting the bar and performing a fire assay). Anything else e.g. ultrasound, XRF scans, or density measurements, only offer partial certainty and the counterfeiters know this.
There are 4 key aspects that counterfeiters take advantage of:
- Gold prices: Unlike any other market, Gold Bars of various brands are approximately of the same value (market value of Gold +/- fraction of % for packaging).
- LOW Production costs: A regular metal, gold-plated bar can mimic the weight, density of a real one, with gold plating providing the “cover-up” for the non-destructive testing methods.
- Accessible professional packaging: Fake bars always come in packaging from well-known Swiss refineries, complete with forged certificates and serial numbers, that often return vague “unable to verify” respons in case you attempt to authenticate the fake. Production of 500 or 10.000 blisters is a matter of a few hundred euros - returning value in millions.
- Easy selling & Investor psychology: Buyers assume that fancy packaging equals authenticity, and if there is a good supporting story of urgency-selling, even a suspiciously low price may look like an unmissable opportunity, rather than a red flag. Selling gold for good price is comparably simpler than selling fake handbag or shoes.
Not all FAKES are equal.
Unfortunately, we get too used to hearing about fake watches, handbags, perfumes or other consumers goods. But what makes these small “fake gold bars” fundamentally different from let’s say “fake handbag”:
- Failure of purpose: A luxury bag is ultimately functional product - failing that purpose means minor impact on the life of the consumers. Gold investment bar is meant to store & grow long-term value, often the savings - failing this purpose wipes out savings of the customers instantly.
- Timeframe: With fake hand bag, you may know it from the beginning or never find out. With fake gold scams, the user will most likely find out in the worst moment of attempt of liquidating the assets.
- Impact: While impact of fake bag hurts the brand reputation;
What makes this trend exceptionally dangerous?
Several external and macroeconomic factors make this fake gold bar scam a threat that should not be ignored.
- Rising need - Inflation drives global demand for reliable physical assets to preserve value.
- Reputation of GOLD STANDARD - Gold is a tangible, real asset and globally traded commodity, primarily used as a store of value, portfolio diversifier, and inflation hedge.
- Soaring gold prices, making small bars hyper-lucrative for counterfeiters (they don’t use real gold on input)
- Social media trends are drawing in less-experienced buyers and supporting the promotion of unreliable online sources.
- Slow detection: These counterfeits can sit in your vault for years before being flagged, which extends the opportunity for the sellers, who, themselves, may not be aware they are selling fake gold (as it’s unlikely they have access to professional testing facilities)
If you’re investing in physical gold, these steps can save you from devastating losses:
- Know the Market Price: If it’s well below the official BUY price, it’s a red flag. Anyone can always liquidate genuine gold at market rates — they won’t sell it to you for less.
- Buy from Trusted Sources: Stick to well-reviewed, established dealers or buy directly from recognized refineries.
- Prefer Bullions with Authentication: Even if verification tools are inconvenient, USE THEM. The effort is worth your savings & many brands provide more and more reliable and easy-to-use Authentication Protocols.
- Require transparent Service Terms: Work with sellers offering clear return policies and buyback guarantees.
What Brands should do?
From the external market analysis by our team, lot of amazing security and protection has been done by several market leaders.
One common mistake we see is the survivorship bias - Brands tend to empower only their trusted customers and partners. Stakeholders who are already legitimate and buy from trusted sources, selling trusted products.
Mitigating the risks of counterfeiting, and making a statement of non-negotiable reliability, brands need to provide Publically-Accessible-Authentication-Protocols <PAAP> - a reliable, robust tool and protocols for ANYONE, ANYWHERE, ANYTIME to authenticate their products, at scale, without a need for any manual interventions in the early stage.
Trust is earned with empowerment and preparation, not in courtrooms with post-mortem litigations after a counterfeit outburst occurred.
