Recently, a comment in the Rants and Raves column referred to television commercials in which a company was offering to buy gold. Many of us have seen these advertisements. The way it works is that you mail them your gold and they are supposed to mail you back money.

The ranter noted that he only got a very small portion of what he would have gotten had he sold his gold rings locally. Now he wants his gold back and he’s still waiting.

While noting illegal may have occurred, one should be aware that the best transactions are those in which there is a mutual agreement on a price and the swap of valuables (product and payment) is simultaneous unless prior criteria has been establish for trust and integrity.

The public should be acutely aware that there are all sorts of business deals out there that should require severe thought and even investigation before you get involved.

Particularly be aware of scams on the internet whereby people claim to live in foreign countries and some member of their family has died and they won’t you to help them get money out of the country. What they are doing is introducing you to a scam that will steal your identity and your cash. Don’t go there. Don’t give them any information. If you do, you’re likely to lose.

These offers have “bogus” and “con” written all over them. Many of us get five or six of these a day, several times a week. Strangely, we do not read where our federal agents have set up stings to try to catch these people. Maybe it’s offshore and they can’t touch them, meaning your defense is your own intelligence.

Ironically, these people ask that these offers be kept confidential when they’ve been mass mailed.

The key words are “caution, caution, caution!” There are people out there who will take your stuff.