Is selling gold in cyberspace illegal?

Is online buying and selling of gold illegal and dangerous?

The perennial challenge between traditional businesses and the modern form of those businesses that are conducted online is not a new issue. It is natural that this challenge is even hotter when it comes to buying and selling expensive goods like gold. Especially these days, with the instability of various markets for investment, the return to gold as a reliable investment has increased again. The corona virus has also made people cautious about visiting stores, providing a suitable platform for online buying and selling of gold. On the one hand, traditional gold traders see the prevalence of online transactions in this field as a threat to their industry. On the other hand, there are opportunists who take advantage of the situation for their own nefarious purposes. As a result, we see a significant amount of news and rumors every day about the unreliability of online gold markets. But what should people do? As some traditional gold and jewelry industry officials say, are online transactions illegal and unreliable and can lead people into the trap of fraudsters, and should we avoid these types of transactions?

A business with a virtual business license is legal

Ali Sheshgelani, head of the inspection commission of the national union of virtual businesses, in relation to the claim of illegality of any kind of online gold transaction, said: "In the space of disagreement between traditional business unions and online businesses, some exaggerated statements are always made. The statement that all types of online gold buying and selling are illegal is of the same exaggerated type. Not only gold, but in any industry, when a license is issued based on the law of the guild system, and a business has been able to obtain the conditions for obtaining a license, its work is legal and it does not matter whether it sells gold or clothing or anything else." Sheshgelani, emphasizing that the mission of the virtual business union, which was launched in 2017, is to grant business licenses and monitor and deal with all businesses operating in cyberspace, continued: "This union is formed based on the guild system law and performs all the duties that need to be done to identify and verify the identity of a business." He also stated that when a business has a trust symbol, it means that there is a real person with a verified identity behind this business, saying: "When we legally grant a business license, this business is legal and when some people may claim for their own benefit that all these businesses are illegal, they confuse people and cause some opportunists to prepare illegal platforms for people's transactions. But it is clear that if someone says that licensed businesses are illegal like unlicensed and unidentified businesses, he himself has made an illegal statement and if so, no stone will be left unturned." Naturally, the main beneficiaries of traditional gold markets, more than anything else, consider the online market as a competitor to their business and, looking at the rapid spread of online markets, they fear that in the coming years, the prosperity of online gold buying and selling markets will make their gold shops less prosperous and less customer-friendly and the empire of market pricing will also be out of their hands. But on the other side of the story, there are opportunists who, using people's easy access to Telegram and Instagram, set up colorful pages and channels and intend to buy and sell gold outside of any supervision. Although this type of transaction has become common in other areas such as clothing, handicrafts, and household items in recent years, no one certainly recommends trusting such pages and channels for gold market customers, and in fact, most of the cases that traditional gold market officials warn about happen in this context. But are reputable sites that are under strict supervision of executive and supervisory bodies and are engaged in gold transactions also unreliable and should not be bought from them as gold industry officials claim?

How do we know if a gold selling site is reputable and trustworthy?

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