Is Karatbars a Scam? A Golden Investment Opportunity EXPOSED!
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Is Karatbars a Scam? A Golden Investment Opportunity EXPOSED!

Welcome to my Karatbars review!

An MLM company that sells gold bullions? You're probably thinking I'm crazy for even saying something like that. But in reality, a company like that exists. That company is Karatbars.

First of all, I must Congratulate you for taking your time to do your own research before buying into any "seemingly good" product.

That's the way to avoid scams and find the legitimate way to make money online!

Let me be completely transparent with you, I'm not associated with Karatbars in any form.

So, rest assured that I'm not here to pitch or sell anything to you.

Instead, I'm here to reveal what makes Karatbars unique from all the other MLM companies and what makes their gold-en opportunity tick.

Is Karatbars a scam? 

We'll find out in this article. 

Karatbars Review Summary

Product Name:  Karatbars 

Founder: Harald Seiz

Product Type:  Gold Investment MLM

Price:  Package prices vary (from $135 for Bronze Package to $800 for Gold Package)

Best For:  People who are familiar with gold and commodities trading, and who are capable of trading these products

Karatbars Review Summary Image

Summary:  Karatbars International is a legitimate MLM company that sells gold bullions per gram. But I would not recommend their business opportunity to anyone. First, they have scam warnings from countries like Canada and Netherlands. People from these countries are advised to not invest in the products. Second, their gold price per gram is higher than global market price, which would make this difficult to trade and get your money back. 

Rating: 30/100

Recommended:  No

More...

What is Karatbars?

Karatbars International is an MLM or Multi-Level Marketing company that operates in the mining and metals industry.

The e-commerce side of the company was developed and launched by Harald Seiz in 2011.

Karatbars International Homepage

The company is currently located in Stuttgart, Germany, with another office in Munich, Germany.

To date, the company has provided its business opportunities to across 70 countries and plans to expand to over 194 countries worldwide.  

Why Would You Even Buy and Sell Gold?

The motivation why anyone would buy gold stems at small quantities is to counteract the effects of inflation, currency depreciation, and economic instability.

Gold is considered to be a universal investment that’s accepted anywhere, and can be converted easily even in times of economic problems.

Karatbars Product Line

Karatbars is unlike any other MLM company because its main product is gold. The company sells small quantities of 24 ct or 999.9 pure gold Atakulche bars.

Karatbars International sells small quantities of 24 ct or 999.9 pure gold ATAkulche (or minted) bars.

Karatbars Product Line

These are produced by an LBMA (London Bullion Market Association) and GDL (London’s Good Delivery) refiner known as Atasay Jewelry, under the Atasay Group.

The one unique thing about Karatbars gold is their packaging, with each piece of the precious metal containing the assayer’s signature and stamped with a valid trademark.

The gold bar unit is embedded and heat-sealed in like a credit card (which also has a UV-protected film).

To add to the visual appeal, there are hologram acorns on the bar’s reverse side, which is also a security feature. The hologram also contains a graphic bar code with details of the item and its certificate of authenticity.

Karatbars makes it easy for anyone to invest in gold because they are sold in small denominations, starting as low as 1 gram. These are so small that they are sealed into a plastic card.

Do The Products Work?

Karatbars is one of the few MLM companies that got into the gold and investments business.

But since this is a product that has absolutely no function, it’s going to be based if they’re real or not.

I have not stumbled across any review that says anything about Karatbars gold being fake, mostly because their provider, Atasay, is an accredited refiner and has stringent standards to uphold.

However, it’s worth noting that the biggest problem associated with Karatbars gold is their quality, according to some sources.

While their gold isn’t any different from other companies, their gold can’t be used to make any jewelry because it’s a soft metal.

So, if you’re just looking for gold with absolutely no purpose at all, then you can’t go wrong with Karatbars.

Jerry Huang, Founder of Smart Affiliate Success

I'm Jerry!

I Created My Own 4-Figure Monthly Passive Income at just 21 Years Old!

4 figure monthly passive income

How To Make Money With Karatbars?

With any MLM company, Karatbars is no different when it comes to the opportunities it provides to its distributors to earn income.

This is how you’ll earn with Karatbars:

  1. Commissions – direct, unilevel, and binary commissions.
  2. Bonuses and incentives
  3. Karatbars Gold Fund

How To Get Started With Karatbars?

Membership is free to get into Karatbars, but in order for you to avail of their commissions, you need to purchase one of three packages.

Karatbars How To Get Started Package

Karatbars doesn’t have any starter kit, but they do have a list of possible packages for you to choose from. Each package goes up in price depending on the content, product, and bonus features that you want.

  1. Bronze Package - $135
  2. Silver Package - $350
  3. Gold Package - $800

The VIP package was discontinued on December 2015 based on numerous sources.

Then, you also need to pay for shipping and you still need to buy your own supplies, which vary from country to country.

Karatbars Compensation Plan

Karatbars' Compensation Plan is 25 pages long and looks to be very complicated. I can only imagine the details that a sales representative or distributor needs to share in order to close the sale.

Insert Karatbars Compensation Plan

1. Package Commission

Package commissions are paid out to distributors each time they sell a new package to a distributor they recruited.

  1. Silver package commission: 60 EUR or roughly $70*
  2. Bronze package commission: 150 EUR or roughly $170*
  3. Gold package commission: 300 EUR or roughly $340*

* - Based on current Foreign Exchange rates from EUR to USD.

2. Unilevel Commission

Unilevel commissions are offered to distributors at a percentage of the money spent by their distributors they recruited below them and depending on the rank.

Karatbars Unilevel Commission

The lowest rate that a distributor makes at unilevel commission is 0.5% and the highest being 5.5% commission.

3. Binary Commission

Binary commissions are offered to distributors on what was spent by their downline through a binary compensation format.

Insert Karatbars Binary Commission

These are paid out generationally once each leg has met the minimum number of units sold.

4. Worldwide Turnover Bonus

How this pool is paid out to distributors is unclear, and their compensation plan can’t help explain it.

It appears to be a percentage bonus pool that’s composed of 95 cents for every gram of gold that Karatbars sells.

5. Gold Pool

This pool is made up of 1% of Karatbars International’s lump-sum gold purchase, which I believe counts both the package purchases and gold purchase over 50 EUR or $55.

To qualify for the Gold Pool, a distributor must have three unilevel legs that generated at least 9000 points each.

The points are then divided by 1000, which provides the number of shares in the Gold Pool that distributors may qualify for.

I won’t go deep into the details and intricacies of their compensation plan, but this video should help:

Tired of MLM? Check out my #1 Recommendation Here!

Karatbars Ugly Truths Revealed

#1 - Fraud Warning From Other Countries

The first thing that I want to bring up is that Karatbars has been issued a scam warning by the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), which is a financial regulatory body and the equivalent of the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) in Canada.

Karatbars AMF Warning

Another country that issued the same warning was Netherlands through the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (the equivalent of the AMF).

Much like commodities and anything that belongs under the financial industry, companies need to be regulated and registered before they can take on investments (regardless of form).

What makes this interesting is that the scam warning issued by Canada’s AMF was triggered by a citizen who reported it to be nothing but a Ponzi scheme.

Karatbars Review Canada

The warnings may be a few years old, but it does make you wonder about their business operations. 

If you’re looking for a legitimate business investment that would consistently pay out, I would look at affiliate marketing.

#2 - They Are Jacking Up Their Gold Prices

Karatbars is jacking up their gold prices per gram by as much as $30 per.

As of this writing, their price per gram is around 57 EUR or roughly $65.

Based on the global market price (which closed as of October 29 1700H), it’s at $39.47 per gram.

That’s a $25.53 difference from the global market price, and I can’t figure out why they would even price it that.

They’re not that different from any other gold company, and they also can’t afford to spike it up when they’re in a competitive industry either.

This would make it difficult for anyone who bought gold from Karatbars to make a profit out of their gold because they are losing money the moment they trade it. 

So, if I bought 10 grams of gold from Karatbars at $650, I would lose $255.53 if I were to trade it to someone else. 

What I Like About Karatbars?

#1 - Product is Authentic

As I mentioned earlier, there’s no issue with the authenticity of their products.

The gold bars are embedded into a heat-sealed UV protective plastic card and are insured and shipped with a reliable courier.

The ATAkulche bars are produced by an accredited refinery and each gold bar is stamped with a valid trademark and signed by the Assayer.

Is Karatbars a Scam?

On the surface, Karatbars appears to be a legitimate company that sells gold, which in itself is a lucrative industry. However, I would not recommend their business opportunities to anyone for the following reasons:

First, they got warnings from Canada and Netherlands’ finance regulatory bodies.

These warnings are not to be taken lightly because these regulatory bodies deemed their activities to be illegal and unregulated, which is a big deal in the world of finance.

Second, their price per gram of gold is higher than the global market price by as much as $30. This would make it impossible for anyone to trade their gold and get their money back. 

When you’re in an industry that’s both lucrative and competitive, you need to be at pace with whatever the global market price is.

But with Karatbars, their price per gram of gold is almost twice as much as the market price and with absolutely no reason behind it.

How I Make A Living Online?

I'm not a fan of MLM, not because it's illegal or not profitable, but because of all the restrictions and the expensive costs involved.

Instead, Affiliate Marketing is my top recommended business model for anyone to make money online.

The reason is simple...

  • You don't have to recruit anyone to make money
  • You have the freedom to promote any products you want and not being restricted to only promote the products from one MLM company
  • It's Free to get started

In fact, with affiliate marketing...

I've personally created a 4-Figure Monthly Passive Income Stream and become financially independent at just 21 years old without any College degree or working experience!

Through my own hard work, I went from a broke restaurant waiter to living my dream laptop lifestyle in less than a year's time...


If you want to discover the secrets of how I did it at such a young age, click here!

Justin Hagen
 

Justin has worked as an SEO and content specialist for the last 9 years. His success in the industry has allowed him to graduate from college, pay for a wedding, and pay for their first car. He recently joined Jerry as a writer for the Smart Affiliate Success blog.

Click Here to Leave a Comment Below 8 comments
Karatbars Scam - December 2, 2019

USA, Germany and Soth Africa warnings
Germany

BaFin issues cease and desist order to immediately stop and wind up unauthorized electronic money business in Germany

https://www.bafin.de/SharedDocs/Veroeffentlichungen/EN/Verbrauchermitteilung/unerlaubte/2019/meldung_191111_Karatbit_Foundation_en.html

South Africa

FSCA warns the public against Karatbars International GmbH
https://www.fsca.co.za/News%20Documents/FSCA%20Press%20Release%20warning%20against%20Karatbars%20International%20GmbH%2011%20November%202019.pdf

USA
‘Gold-Backed’ Crypto Token’s Promoter Investigated by Florida Regulators

https://www.coindesk.com/gold-backed-crypto-tokens-promoter-investigated-by-florida-regulators

Reply
Amer - November 21, 2019

To the fellow below, I have sold my gold back at least twice to the company without any problems. As for not receiving gold, thousands of customers worldwide receive their gold daily. If it was a serious problem in service, Im sure you would hear plenty of complaints about missing gold.

Maybe it was during a turbulent time when Karatbars had the problem with Marvin Steinberg? He is the thief who stole billions of coins from the company and conducted a smear campaign against them to manipulate market prices. Many people were delayed with receiving their coins and operations were slowed down during this time. Anyway, Marvin Steinberg was recently arrested in Dubai and is now in jail.

Karatbars always delivers their gold and pays out their commissions on time, this has been a consistent experience.

Reply
    Justin Hagen - November 27, 2019

    Thank you for your feedback and your insight on Marvin Steinberg.

    Reply
Roberto D - September 29, 2019

Unfortunately I have been a customer of theirs for years, was an affiliate and referred this company to a couple of friends. It wasn’t until I tried to take out my money that I realized that they are a scam. They have refused to buy back the gold AND they have also refused to send the gold to me and my friends despite countless email communications and calls. I have compiled all of the evidence including phone conversations to prove my case.

If you go to https://karatinfo.site/ you can also learn more about their SCAM. STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY. I AM IN THE PROCESS OF STARTING A CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT AGAINST THEM.

Reply
Daniel - September 26, 2019

Just another one of these blog articles online targeting perfectly legitimate companies and writing negative reviews so that they can simply push their own product. The level of inaccuracies here is simply shameful

Reply
Jay - July 15, 2019

KARATBARS KARATGOLD KCB KBC ICO COINS SCAM REVIEWS!

Don’t BUY or PROMOT Karatbars or Karatgold ICO because karatbars is misleading and they mislead me.

Below are my experiences.

If you buy into it, you will end up in the same situation I am in right now. Keep away from karatbars.com and karatbars international.

I purchased karatbars ICO in April 2018(this is July 2019) and karatbars support told me that my karatbars ICO is missing.

Can you imagine that? Missing ICO?

I have a first hand experience of this. I purchased Karatbars ICO in April 2018(over One year today).

I do not have access to it because karatbars support told me the coins are missing.

I have asked them how can it GO missing when it has already been paid for? They never had any answer.

Since 2018, I have emailed support@karatbars.com, help@karatbars.com, support@karatbank.io, support@karatpay.net, support@karatgold.io, mail@karatbank.io, support@karatbank.info, info@karatbank.sg for my missing ICO purchase. None of them seem to know where my purchase is.

I have replies from Alexandru Mocanu (Karatbars) , Andrei Paraschiv (Karatbars) , Cristian Golumbovici (Karatbars) , Robert Szirovicza (Karatpay) , Irina (Karatbit Exchange) , Rutchel Garcia Help , Laura Nieto , Farida Akhounzada Help ,

Praneem Subba Help , Nelli Toboc , but the issue is that the purchased ICO coins are still missing since 2018, so the

support tells me.

I have also called their numbers +49 (0) 711 25 266 091, +49 (0) 711 128 970 00.

They told me that the coins I purchased in 2018 are missing.

Read reviews here: https://ethanvanderbuilt.com/2014/09/11/karatbars-scam-yes-it-is-in-my-opinion/comment-page-1/#comments

Read reviews here: https://behindmlm.com/companies/karatbars-international-to-launch-karatbank-coin-ico/

This is shocking for a supposed to be a multi-million dollar compamy. They can’t manage people’s $100, $200, $1000 or whatever amount of ICO coins you purchased.

As of today 02 July 2019, I am still trying to get hold of somebody from karatbars network to tell me where my KBC ICO purchase is. Nobody seems to know.

Karatbars is not a very good company to do business with. They are scam. You must avoid them by all means. They tell you to buy Karatbars ICO. It is a SCAM.

After you give them your money, you do not and cannot have access to your coins because I don’t have access to mine because they are missing. This is my situation right now.

How can that be possible? To me, they are a bunch of scammers. Forward this to Harald Seiz if you know him, see him or have his email address.

I will keep you posted on my Karatbars Karatgold ICO purchase SCAM.

Reply
    Justin Hagen - July 15, 2019

    I’m sorry to hear about your experience with Karatbars!

    Reply
Martin - June 20, 2019

I am a Karatbars affiliate in Canada. I perused your article and would like to correct you on a couple of items.

Number one; the Warning from “Canada” was not from the whole country but originated in the province of Quebec, a well known “pain in the ass” for the rest of the country. In that province some early “affiliates” were misrepresenting the company and were trying to hand out investment advice, something the company frowns on.

Number two; The price of gold that is quoted several times a day from various sources is the wholesale price of gold at the refinery door, to get that price you need to purchase way more than a single ounce, more like a whole kilogram bar. The smaller sizes of gold the company produces are higher priced because of the higher production costs and those are sold at retail. Retail prices of products all around the globe are typically 30% to 100% higher than the wholesale price and sometimes even more.

You did not mention that Karatbars also markets gold in increments as small as a tenth of a gram and has those bars embedded in in currency size bills similar to the Canadian 5 dollar bill. Those are marketed in 0.1, 0.2, 0.4 and 0.6 gram sizes. You also made no mention of the company’s mission which is not only to market small amounts of gold but for that gold to become a world wide currency, which unlike the fiat currencies around the globe does not loose it’s purchasing power due to “inflation” which is actually a devaluation of the fiat currency. To compound your errors you made no mention of the company’s presence in the “Block Chain” world of Crypto currencies. In that world they have a coin called KBC which at this writing is trading at 11.87 cents CAD. The company promises that on July 4, 2019 one hundred KBC will be directly convertible into 1 gram of physical gold.

I have been an affiliate of this company for two years now and have never seen the Karatbars organization fail to keep it’s promises. To make it even more interesting “Forbes Magazine” Exposes Karatbars as one of “10 Blockchain Companies To Watch In 2019” If you doubt me the link is below.

http://www.amiranews.com/business/forbes-exposes-karatbars-as-one-of-10-blockchain-companies-to-watch-in-2019/?fbclid=IwAR3FhfAajAXlZWVT0n0QR1FrJWR_b9lyel0GvDG6JBZQzWbnONTKgMQ2tjE

Thank You

Reply

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