Extremely Weird purchasing experience

Marshal Tom, a lot of us here have stories similar to yours.

Last June, I responded to an ad on Facebook from LL Bean, advertising a sale on their legendary Bean Boots. The ad was on Facebook...and it was from LL Bean...so it had to be legit, right? Wrong.

I paid for the order with my debit card, and my bank immediately emailed me to warn me that this was possibly a fraudulent transaction. I called LL Bean (I'm a regular customer) to ask about it, and they told me that scammers had copied their catalog pages and were ripping people off.

I notified my bank, and they immediately credited my account with the amount I paid -- $82 -- in the fraudulent transaction.

As for your case, I respectfully suggest you contact your local field office of the United States Secret Service; one of their areas of jurisdiction is credit card fraud and similar financial crimes. Good luck to you.

Cyber Investigations | United States Secret Service
 
Beemerguy53 said:
Marshal Tom, a lot of us here have stories similar to yours.

Last June, I responded to an ad on Facebook from LL Bean, advertising a sale on their legendary Bean Boots. The ad was on Facebook...and it was from LL Bean...so it had to be legit, right? Wrong.

I paid for the order with my debit card, and my bank immediately emailed me to warn me that this was possibly a fraudulent transaction. I called LL Bean (I'm a regular customer) to ask about it, and they told me that scammers had copied their catalog pages and were ripping people off.

I notified my bank, and they immediately credited my account with the amount I paid -- $82 -- in the fraudulent transaction.

I fell for the same add on Facebook .I payed with PayPal after a month I reported it to Pay Pal and got refunded my $75.00.
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I'd say these characters are offshore and there is nothing to be done.

I was scammed about 35 years ago, even though I figured myself as a semi-street wise NYer.
Sent a deposit of $350 to a dealer in Oklahoma, who represented himself as a Dakota dealer. Called Dakota to confirm that he was dealer. Yes, he was. ( I forget the name of the couple running the company, but I was indeed speaking with the wife(update:her name was Norma))She even went as far to say that as long as I had proof of payment to him, it was considered secure by them. Paid by USPS m.o. Dakota later gave me the serial number which they claimed they would never do without having the deposit. Apparently, the dealer did send some deposits in, but not all of them. Time passed and production was delayed. If the dealer had any good intentions, they evaporated along the way. The dealer absconded and was eventually arrested in another state. I believe that he did time.(about 10 guys were stung by him)
Dakota welched on their promise. When the rifle was finally completed, they told me :No credit for the deposit and btw, the price of the rifle went up in the meantime. I let them keep it.
I swore that I would never own a Dakota after that, but one day I stumbled across a magnificent Model 76 from an estate at my LGS, which was definitely underpriced. It came home with me, and a some years later, I sold it for twice what I paid. That guy got a bargain himself, however selling expensive rifles is no easy task, and I had a better investment to pursue at the time.
 
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s&wchad said:
I don't know they can do that.
Here's their written policy:
........

I suspect they would take a dim view on automatic knives, but I do know Blade HQ sells them and lets you pay with Paypal. Strange...
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It helps to free yourself from the notion, popular in the gun culture but largely nonsense, that there are nefarious anti-gun motivations behind the corporate policies pertaining to any dealings with guns.

In the real world, these are mostly driven by concerns about potential legal liability. In a few cases, there may be marketing considerations, like wanting to appear “progressive” (which today means anti-gun) to an important customer base.

Beyond that, neither Paypal nor any other business entity gives a flying fart whether you buy and sell machine guns or automatic knives.

So as long as you don’t call your outfit “Dangerous People Killers Inc.” or something else obvious, it has been my experience that Paypal transactions go through just fine.
 
Absalom said:
It helps to free yourself from the notion, popular in the gun culture but largely nonsense, that there are nefarious anti-gun motivations behind the corporate policies pertaining to any dealings with guns.

In the real world, these are mostly driven by concerns about potential legal liability. In a few cases, there may be marketing considerations, like wanting to appear “progressive” (which today means anti-gun) to an important customer base.

Beyond that, neither Paypal nor any other business entity gives a flying fart whether you buy and sell machine guns or automatic knives.

So as long as you don’t call your outfit “Dangerous People Killers Inc.” or something else obvious, it has been my experience that Paypal transactions go through just fine.
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Maybe so, but as a longtime seller on eBay I'm not willing to test it and have my accounts locked and not be able to sell there.
 
Once you use Paypal friends and family option to pay....that money is gone.
Paypal says thats why they call it "friends and family";only use it for..friends or family. Period..kiss your money goodbye..

A year ago, I "bought" a Ben Shostle engraved dagger from Global Gun Sales...online..it all looks very legit...BUT,it's not...and they got my money..I got zip. Matter of fact, they are still online and "selling".
Have a look yourself. Pathetic..

Paypal was sympathetic..BUT..not responsible.
They know their system is being used for theft..yet nothing is done about it.Even more pathetic..
 
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It's a scam. If you use the "friends and family" option to pay for goods you have no recourse if the "seller" disappears. If you complain to PayPal they will cancel your account for fraud since you used it to help the seller circumvent PayPal's policies.

There is a good chance that you will lose your money on this.

It's easy to spoof legit websites, it happens all the time.
 
This is not completely accurate. Under a previous Presidential administration, the firearms industry was included in "Operation Choke Point" which was ostensibly aimed a Pay Day Lenders and other shady financial operations.

It put a lot of pressure on financial institutions to deny purchases of firearms and associated products by people legally buying those items.

Some operations went along voluntarily, others were coerced.

Even though the program officially ended in 2017, some banks still operate under the same policies they enacted while the program was still in effect.

PayPal issued and still does credit cards and lines of credit. As such, it came under those rules. At the time Ebay owned PayPal and had a policy for a while of not allowing sales of firearm parts, including magazines. They will now, but only up to 10 rounds and still don't allow standard capacity magazines to be sold if those magazine are more than 10 rounds.



Absalom said:
It helps to free yourself from the notion, popular in the gun culture but largely nonsense, that there are nefarious anti-gun motivations behind the corporate policies pertaining to any dealings with guns.

In the real world, these are mostly driven by concerns about potential legal liability. In a few cases, there may be marketing considerations, like wanting to appear “progressive” (which today means anti-gun) to an important customer base.

Beyond that, neither Paypal nor any other business entity gives a flying fart whether you buy and sell machine guns or automatic knives.

So as long as you don’t call your outfit “Dangerous People Killers Inc.” or something else obvious, it has been my experience that Paypal transactions go through just fine.
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Tom - Not real familiar with the ins and outs of Pay Pal, but for money to be sent via PP, doesn't the receiving e-mail account have to be linked to a valid bank account? I would have to suppose PP has that information.

If it were possible to get ahold of it, you may have recourse dealing with the bank itself, or local / state / federal LE doing the same, assuming its a US bank?

Larry
 
All done with no recourse. I went to my bank today and found that the funds were gonzo. I have done everything that I could to followup on this and there is nothing I can do at this point. I have bombarded them with kind works today telling them how much I appreciated their business practices, if you know what I mean! They advised me not to contact them any further with my threats and I told them that I was only just getting warmed up!
 
Marshal tom said:
Alright guys, here is the punch line. I can not believe that with my experience I could have ever been this foolish. I have never been ripped off in my life and spent many years trying to prevent others from having it done to them while in LE. All sorts of bells and whistles went off during the process telling me to bail and I most assuredly should have done so. I am totally embarrassed to say that I let this happen to me and the result is that I lost $700 in the process. I have now decided that I am going to make these guys a hobby. I will be contacting ATF, FBI and everyone else that I can think of to try and put these pieces of excrement out of business.
Their site is a photo shopped scam as is the address and all that they do in terms of payment , shipment and everything to do with the normal course for business. I anyone has any suggestions on how to proceed with my endeavor, please comment. Thanks for being kind enough not to call ma all types of stupid with your replies although I could read between the lines and would have thought the same if in fact I had not commented on it!!!
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You think we've never screwed up? You're just man enough to admit it.
 
Be aware that some sellers might tell the buyer that paypal F+F saves them the 3% fee that paypal would normally apply to a sale transaction.
This is true, but there is a trade off.
That said, I've received some substantial amounts via F+F from distant unknown buyers for various things, and it worked out well for all involved.
(no doubt because of my feedback and rep on a number of sites.)
That might sound strange,but a buyer has no more protection with a check, and I'm just an individual without the ability to process a credit card, so...
I probably lost one sale over the years by not being able to process a card (never presented myself as a dealer,so strange when the guy asked for that) but I think that was mostly due to the fact that the buyer didn't have the loot to buy the gun, and needed to put it on a card. No matter, another guy soon came along.
 
Marshal tom said:
Alright guys, here is the punch line. I can not believe that with my experience I could have ever been this foolish. I have never been ripped off in my life and spent many years trying to prevent others from having it done to them while in LE. All sorts of bells and whistles went off during the process telling me to bail and I most assuredly should have done so. I am totally embarrassed to say that I let this happen to me and the result is that I lost $700 in the process. I have now decided that I am going to make these guys a hobby. I will be contacting ATF, FBI and everyone else that I can think of to try and put these pieces of excrement out of business.
Their site is a photo shopped scam as is the address and all that they do in terms of payment , shipment and everything to do with the normal course for business. I anyone has any suggestions on how to proceed with my endeavor, please comment. Thanks for being kind enough not to call ma all types of stupid with your replies although I could read between the lines and would have thought the same if in fact I had not commented on it!!!
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Very sorry it turned out that way. I applaud your approach to making them pay. With your experience and a little help from the alphabet soup folks there ought to be a few things you can do. Good luck!
 
I can not believe the lengths these people have gone to to scam people.Just this morning they sent me a message with shipping information from an outfit called Go RunnerLLC based in San Fran that is a scooter delivery service. They went so far as to put in a tracking number with delivery information etc. I called the place and spoke with a guy who said that they were aware of Berlusconi, that they do not deliver out of state and had reported them to the police as well. He said that they had apparently made up/ photo shopped a complete web page.
 
I've been tempted to do deals with shady sellers, but I somehow have resisted and haven't been scammed, yet. I have had a couple of sellers with good ratings do some very odd things, like Paypal payment, WU money orders only (He got all worked up when I wanted to send USPS MO's as I already had bought 2 that made up 95% of the purchase price). I don't know what he had against the Post Office, but it didn't matter as the gun was fine and it all worked out. I really wanted to ask him why not USPS money orders, but just let it go.

He reminded me of an old guy who asked me about stereo equipment years ago and his reaction to the mention of Yamaha as a good brand was kind of odd. It turned out he had some irrational hating of Japan and Asia in general. He ended up buying stuff made in Europe for a lot more $$, and never explained what the hating was all about. He wasn't in the military due to a birth defect of his foot, and his dad fought in Europe in WWII, so I don't know, but his procedures kept me away after that one buy. People are strange.
 
I think you should contact your AG, if they get enough complaints they will look into it.

BTW as mentioned earlier the address is to Aim Surplus which is legit.

Everybody gets stung once, so chalk it up to experience. These folks are stealing a lot of money from unwary customers.

700.00 in Tunisia or India is a fortune and the risk is very low compared to other crimes.

Take care,
 
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