LOST $1500.ON A SCAM INTERNET SALE*************************************

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ebrem

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Hello

I was in contacted by seller of a revolver which I was interested in buying, he contacted me asking me if I was interested in one he had for sale. He forwarded photos, price, (very well priced) and did not send his phone # or never did.

I was rushed to leave for a couple of weeks, so I sent him 2 US Postal Money Orders, had my FFL Dealer email him his FFL, which he (seller) asked to be delivered this way. He said he was an FFL dealer.

I found the photos of this revolver (Identical photos) and serial# on Face Book. This gun is owned by another person in his collection posted by him on his Face Book Blog..
It was then obvious to me that he lifted the photos sent them to me etc.etc.etc.
I emailed him and confronted him and told him this is interstate fraud, and this will be investigated, etc.. Five minutes later after I sent this email today he shut down his email.
He will be cashing the Money Orders tomorrow (Monday).
I know I will be contacting the Post Office but is there any other resource.

Can anyone make any suggestions as to what I can do, not what I should have done, I knew I SHOULD have done all the correct steps to take in the first place, I knew better.
Greed got ahold of me, that good price etc..
Please help, if you can.
Thank you.
 
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If I were in your shoes, I'd contact the Local Police Dept. and talk to Chief of Police and also Post Master of the city where you sent the Money order.

Did this person answer your ad on the Forum for MANURHIN MR 73 ? Are they a Forum member?
 
Am I missing something? Do you have his FFL #, or does your FFL have it??
 
Most police outfits answer the phone 24/7. I’d call the postal inspectors NOW and ask if they can help. 1-877-876-2455

https://postalinspectors.uspis.gov/contactUs/phoneus.aspx

Hopefully some of this forum’s LEOs will have better advise, but get the ball rolling. How do you know the scammer has received your money orders but not cashed them yet? A stop payment can be placed on most other types of checks and money orders. Maybe that can be done with postal money orders also.
 
Wow, man I am sorry to hear that. As others have suggested, contact your local law enforcement and generate a report. That way the report becomes the documented basis for pursuing other avenues with other agencies. I would also contact the post office. They need to be aware that there are postal money orders being redeemed in connection with a felony crime (obtaining property by false pretense). I would possibly also contact the BATFE, but in my experience they are WAY less than helpful. In fact, way less than helpful might be giving them too much credit.

I would also post all the seller's information you have in order to prevent someone else from falling victim to the same scheme.
 
Internet scams involving lifted pictures are becoming more common. Go onto Cars.com and look at some of the high end cars. You will quickly find that the pictures do not match the location of the alleged seller. Type in that make model and year and hey presto you find it on a dealer's website in another state. When I was looking for a particular car in 2011 I found a few of these scams and called them out.
 
Postal inspectors is the way to go. By using USPS money orders he's committed a felony, and they are the only people likely to take action IMO.

Call IMMEDIATELY. There is no stop payment on a money order, that's kind of the point of them, but they may be able to flag them in their system or take other time sensitive action if they choose to investigate.

I doubt ATF will help b/c I doubt this person is a FFL (and no gun was really transferred). He claimed to be one to you but it sounds as if you never got a FFL license from him or a FFL #. If you have a number or get one in the future you want to verify ATF maintains a public site to check to make sure a FFL is current and valid.

https://www.atfonline.gov/fflezcheck/

What was the email domain? If it was a yahoo/google etc. they may have a fraud reporting option where you could file. Even though those emails are somewhat anonymous, they will have IP data that could be traced.
 
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Did you send the M/Os to a physical address or a PO box? Did you leave them blank or fill in his name? Unless he has a fake ID to cash them it's likely his real name. I have canceled a money order before that was apparently lost in the mail. They charged me 12% and refunded the rest. It came back a couple months later as undeliverable and I shredded it.
 
You can also google his city or town and the words "Police Dept". Call the no emergency number and they may go visit. I had the same thing happen on ebay. The cops visited the guy and called me from his house. I told him in front of the police that if i had the item in 48 hours I would drop the charges.

It worked out fine.
 
I'm sorry that happened to you. That stinks. I despise how a few screw-ups make people have to be distrustful of others.

Just as an idea, why don't you list the town he's from? There are a lot of LE guys on here, who knows, you might get lucky and have a fellow forum member with jurisdiction where he lives.
 
Did you have a street address? Do a Google maps lookup and see what kinda neighborhood your dealing with, also I always do a search on the guy and the FFL.....you can find amazing stuff on the web.

Hope things turn out OK for you.
 
Admin Edit:
I removed the name and address posted here.
Till you know if that person is involved and not just an innocent person whose address was scammed, it is not prudent to post it.
bluegrass hit the exact possibility in Post # 21-
bluegrassarms said:
It comes down to whether this is just someone who decided to do you wrong or a professional scam artist. If it's a pro they will probably intercept the mail and not have direct ties to the person you sent it to, work up a fake ID, cash them at a grocery, etc. If it is the person living there or immediate relative, etc. then there's a chance as long as the Postal service does the legwork.
Click to expand...
_______________________________________

Thank you all for your support. I did contact the local Postal Inspector who is investigating this. He feels it could be a National, or possibly an International scam, with the MO going to the address sent to and then possibly cashed by a second party that is unaware of the scam.

The person I had email contact with was Lessing, and the Money Orders were to be made out to Vick XXXX
I was in constant contact with a Lessing by email so I mistakenly wrote the MO's to Lessing not Vick. The Postal Inspector said it looks like there is a {a person by that name} living at that address.

He did say it looks like there may be a person by that name living there. I contacted the local PO and the Postal Inspector contacted the surrounding PO's.
The MO's can be cash at grocery stores etc. So they are still gathering information. It look like a slim chance for any positive outcome on my part. I don't like learning this way from my mistake.

I will keep you posted.
 
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For some reason I been very weary of someone contacting me for a purchase when he says he has what I'm looking for. If he said he has his ffl license if you still have that message print it out and put a package together with all the info and call the batf. That's fraud bag him, tag him and jail him. Let the batf work with the usps for his address and info. The usps check should show were it was cashed and deposited. It can't be that hard to trace.
 
Bummer about the money! If these are professionals they may be hard to track down, but if he is just an amatuer he probably got himself into something he really didn't want to tangle with.

I bought an ejector for a Luger from The Luger Man just outside of Philadelphia. I paid $100 for the part plus shipping with a money order. When it became apparent he wasn't going to ship or return my money I contacted the Postal Inspectors. I supposed it got a low priority because it was only $100, but after about 9 months total I got a package I had to sign for. Inside was a very nice Luger extractor. Of course by then I had bought another. I figured the Postal Inspectors told him to either ship the part or return the money.
 
Sorry for your problem. Its hard enough to trust anyone nowadays without something like this happening. You've really got to watch out. Recently, when I posted a WTB on another site. I received this reply:

"hello i have what you want to purcharse and its in safe condition kindly contact me back"

That is exactly how I received it & it raised all kinds of doubt to me. I steered clear of the seller.:confused::eek:
 
I purchased a few guns from GB AND GA plus from forum members in the past. So far 100% of them have been honest. Dishonestly won't deter me but I'm careful when I can be. I do go by my first gutt feeling. If I second guess myself I turn and burn.
 
I use a simple sanity check. I ask the emailer to snap a photo of the item with an identifiable note visible (i.e. your email addy on a postcard with the gun) 99.9% of people who do not reply, or take the picture are fakes plain and simple. Of course face to face is always nicer, and you stand a chance of making a new gun buddy....

Hope all works out for you... I do like Postal MO because it is the safest way to send cash...
 
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radar1972 said:
I must be an old fuddy-duddy, because the only way I have ever purchased a gun (or ever would) is in a face-to-face transaction where I can physically inspect it first.
Click to expand...

Even then, this day and time, you have to be wary. I've sold a few guns face to face, and I've always dealt with long-term members of the forum where I've advertised the gun for sale, so I felt OK about dealing with them. I have to admit, though, it's crossed my mind about being robbed, so I always make the exchange in a very public place.

If it was a new member, or someone for some reason that I felt some concern with, I'd just ask them to meet me at one of the gun shops I frequent (they have agreed to do this for me, and will even handle the transfer, if desired.) If the buyer balks at that, then I tell him no sale.
 
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