Imagine any business thinking that they could beat Google at their own game. Well this is exactly what many people are thinking about a Gold IRA dealer by the name of Regal Assets. This is not a new company, although they are certainly generating a lot of action about some interesting techniques they might have used. Tyler Gallagher, head of Regal Assets, seems to have been able to shown the folks at Google they know how to 'beat' them at their own game. Yes, Matt Cutts and Amit Singhal might have some more work to do in order to improve the integrity of their search engine.

Regal Assets has been accused of doing something a little unorthodox. Normally, such businesses want to focus on obtaining reviews about their services. This is nothing new, but there are many who have now suggested the company might have actually written a number of reviews about their competition! Although this has not been proven, writing false reviews about competitors is something many people would consider a dishonest strategy. It might actually be illegal, although it is certainly a gray area.

This task was carried out by the company hiring someone named Kelly Felix, if you believe a lot of the discussion going on this topic. However, others have pointed out that once these reviews for the competing sites were completed, another step was taken. There was a very powerful and glowing review written in favor of the Regal Assets company and services. Of course, every company wants such a glowing review and have even been know to pay others to write such reviews. What people really want to figure out now is are these methods legal? Does writing reviews that downgrade competing businesses constitute a type of fraud? Or is this something which the authorities have no business attempting to regulate?

There are a number of key figures watching these events. At Google, Matt Cutts and Amit Singhal should be very concerned since, if this is true, their search engine results are being manipulated.

Even if the people at Google are not overly concerned, you would think some politicians and those in the law enforcement business might be interested. At the very least, they should be thinking about looking into the matter and finding out exactly what may have happened. Some of these political figures may include:

Kamala D Harris, California Attorney General

Eric Schneiderman, New York Attorney General

Marsha Jones Moutrie, City Attorney, Santa Monica, CA

It is also interesting to note that the New York AG has made a pretty big name for himself as a type of fraud buster. By not investigating or even making any kind of statement regarding this situation do they perhaps share some of the blame should we see some fallout?

While taking some politicians for a ride and maybe even fooling people in the law enforcement game is one thing, misleading consumers is another thing entirely. If it were just Matt Cutts and other well-heeled politicians being led astray most of us would probably not give this a second thought. Unfortunately, should these fake reviews be proven to have been written by Regal Assets, it would mean that ordinary investors are also being fooled. Even if not fooled, then a less sophisticated investor or consumer might not realize there was some chicanery used. They might not understand exactly what happened.

We could ask the question about whether a couple of possibly faked reviews is really this big a deal. Is it? One of the reasons why people have taken notice of this is because there have been more than 200 different sites created for this specific purpose. That is more than just a 'couple' of reviews. If these are all fake reviews for the intended purpose of damaging competitors, that is certainly enough to give them a bad name when potential investors or customers look up those companies in the Google search engine.


OK, so if you would like to conduct your own investigation into this matter, there is a simple method. Just go over to the Google search engine and then type in a few key words. These key words could be: Regal Assets, gold dealer reviews, or gold IRA reviews (capitalization really doesn't matter). 

The first thing you should notice is exactly how the company has more or less taken over. The first couple pages of the results for any of these search terms are basically dominated by Regal Assets. That is very unusual, especially since we are talking about only actual written content. 

One of the main goals of Google is to give their searches valuable

information. The results need to be relevant. When everything on a search results page is pointing to the same company, this is normally considered to be a problem by Google. Because of this, you might think it is a little strange they have not yet acted to take a greater degree of control over the situation. Many people have asked this same question, hoping that something can be done before possibly misled investors end up losing a lot of money due to higher fees or simply deciding upon a company that might not be in their best interests. 

In the interests of actually finding out a bit more information, I decided to conduct my own personal investigation of Regal Assets. This simply involved making a phone call and some inquiries of their company, suggesting I might be interested in buying a few gold bullion coins, which could be held by my IRA. Sadly, I was a bit disappointed with the results of this call. The company gave me a quote which was more than double the price of several other reputable gold IRA dealers with whom I have done business in the past.

This higher than expected quote was a bit shocking, especially when you consider many ordinary IRA investors will not have the same level of familiarity with this industry. In other words a typical retiree or retirement investors won't know that while Regal Assets is charging 8 percent above the gold spot price, there are other companies who only charge a premium of 4 or 5 percent. 

You undoubtedly already understand that someone like Matt Cutts and even Kelly Felix will not really need to worry about paying twice what they should. But we should all be worried about the retiree who really needs to get a better deal, or someone else who can't afford to be fooled simply because they were unlucky enough to read a potentially falsified review and believe it. What would you think if this was your father or grandfather who was duped? How much could such a thing really cost people in terms of higher fees or lost income?

We can also take a look at other places which have some data regarding the Regal Assets company. Once you get outside their network of potentially false blogs and sites, take a look at their Trustlink reviews. This is a very popular consumer oriented site, similar to the Better Business Bureau. What is striking about the reviews you will find here is there amazing consistency. There are literally hundreds of five star (their best level) ratings.

Anyone who is even a little familiar with the precious metals and IRA industries knows this is incredibly unusual. Normally, there is a wide range of consumer and user opinion. To have such a consistently high rating is something you would be well within your sense to question. Additionally, you should wonder about the people who have supposedly left these ratings and reviews. The problem here is the fact that most of them only provided a single review: for Regal Assets, of course. It is almost unbelievable that someone interested in finding the best deal for their IRA money would not be interested in investigating and reporting on other companies. Most legitimate and honest customers, we have seen, do indeed provide several reviews for different companies. 

Check out their Trustlink review, too.

After reading and examining many of these websites and reviews it might look like there is something going on. That makes it all the more interesting as to why none of these lawmakers have done any real investigation. No matter whether it was Los Angeles County Attorney General Kamala D Harris or the Santa Monica City Attorney Marsha Jones Moutrie would launch such an investigation, it is probably something for which there is enough evidence to at least consider. 

Perhaps the big fraud buster, New York Attorney general Eric Schneiderman would be interested in taking a look into this? After all, it would a great way to continue keeping his name in front of the public, and he could probably turn this into an issue of national importance should he be convinced there is something worthy of such attention. 

Then again, perhaps it would be more appropriate for one of the more 'local' attorneys or politicians to conduct such an investigation? Burbank City Attorney Amy Albano or even Santa Monica Attorney Marsha Jones Moutrie would be good possibilities for leading such a charge. As it now stands, no one seems to be particularly interested in taking the first step. Maybe they don't think anything of concern has occurred? Or maybe they simply don't care?

Despite the failure of the many politicians and law enforcement officials to take any action, it looks as if many 'normal' people are starting to ask questions themselves. There

has been quite a lot of interest generated on this topic in recent days, as can be evidenced by a quick check of some online forums. Maybe this will end up spurring Google, or one of the people named above to consider a more formal look into what might have actually happened? You can see some of theseat Google Product Forums.



It is not just the few people who might have been looking for a gold IRA that have noticed Regal Assets, either. There are also people who actually do online marketing and make their business on the internet who have also started noticed this. This is a slightly more sophisticated group due to the fact that they have become more familiar with false and fake reviews. Yes, that sort of thing has been used before, and this group has started to take notice of what might be happening here with Regal Assets.



The debate also continues on several other sites. One of the best places to look at when researching any company or service is the Ripoff Report. This is a great place where you can see a number of legitimate reviews and information. Just be ready for a lot of complaints. If you take a look at these forums, you will see a lot of enlightening information. Take a look for yourself at the Ripoff Report.

Specifically, these discuss scams in the gold IRA arena. There is quite a lot of information here that can help your own research into this matter. One of the themes and topics of discussion is at what point should our public officials become involved in such situations.



If this situation has captured your attention, then there are some things you can do. Just as with a political campaign or issue, make your own opinion known. Contact your respective political official, or one of those already listed above. Tell them exactly what you are concerned with and why you think they are needed. This is certainly an industry which depends very much on trust. The trust that customers have for the company, and also the trust they have that the information discussed in most of the online reviews is at least balanced. 

If it were shown that a company had unduly influenced the writing of reviews, that could be considered a big black mark. This would be something ripe for an investigation. Tell these public officials you would like to find out what actually happened. If it turns out something did happen, then they need to hold these companies accountable. Taking advantage of investors and retirees is not going to be tolerated.