GunBroker.Com not safe

[malercous]

GB apparently gets hacked often. I contacted a seller (or so I thought. The reply emails looked identical to GB emails) & we made a deal on a Colt SAA. I sent payment ($1650.00) & never heard back.

I contacted the seller (fortunately a dealer) by other means. It turned out that I was the 4th victim he's had within the last month. The only way to tell was by the return email address. His was (XX)[email protected]. The fake responses came from (XX)[email protected]. A lower case L looks very similar to a lower case I. I did not catch that because, well I wasn't looking for it as the return emails looked identical to GunBroker emails.

I reported this to GB, & they did nothing. You can't call them (unless you want to "upgrade" for $50.00. Which even then it's not easy to speak with a live human). GunBroker said they'd look into the issue, but all they did was send me another email asking me how great their (non-existent) customer service was.

Long & short of it is: GB is not a trustworthy site, use it at your own risk, because they do not care if you get ripped-off.

 

[alwslate]

My experience with GB when I've had a couple of issues with sellers is they will side with the seller every time. After all, that's who they make money from. I've had some really good transactions over the last 20 yrs or so with GB sellers and buyers. But it's up you to know what you're doing. If things don't seem quite right somehow don't just plunge ahead anyway and expect GB to be watching over you.

 

[VictorLouis]

OUCH, that's sorry to read about.

 

[mojave30cal]

Sorry to hear about your GB misfortune. That sucks! Thanks
for the heads up.

 

[H Richard]

These are just a few of the reasons why I now only sell off my guns via an Auctioneer on-line via proxibid. The amount I pay in fee's to the auctioneer are far below the hassle and cost of my trying to sell myself and having to ship myself. The "hassle-factor" is something I avoid at all costs.

 

[Rammer Jammer]

Wait. Did you set up a deal outside the bounds of a typical Gunbroker transaction?

If so it's not surprising you got scammed and not Gunbrokers fault.

 

[quikdraw67]

Wait. Did you set up a deal outside the bounds of a typical Gunbroker transaction?

If so it's not surprising you got scammed and not Gunbrokers fault.

That's how I read it too.

If you didn't complete the sale on GB, you can't blame them for you getting scammed.

 

[Beemerguy53]

GB apparently gets hacked often. I contacted a seller (or so I thought. The reply emails looked identical to GB emails) & we made a deal on a Colt SAA. I sent payment ($1650.00) & never heard back.

I contacted the seller (fortunately a dealer) by other means. It turned out that I was the 4th victim he's had within the last month. The only way to tell was by the return email address. His was (XX)[email protected]. The fake responses came from (XX)[email protected]. A lower case L looks very similar to a lower case I. I did not catch that because, well I wasn't looking for it as the return emails looked identical to GunBroker emails.

I reported this to GB, & they did nothing. You can't call them (unless you want to "upgrade" for $50.00. Which even then it's not easy to speak with a live human). GunBroker said they'd look into the issue, but all they did was send me another email asking me how great their (non-existent) customer service was.

Long & short of it is: GB is not a trustworthy site, use it at your own risk, because they do not care if you get ripped-off.

The United States Secret Service investigates internet phishing schemes and similar financial crimes. I suggest you contact the USSS field office nearest you ASAP and see if they can help.


United States Secret Service

 

[Beemer-mark]

GB has so many scammers selling guns you need to be real, real careful. I almost got scammed on a SAA a few months ago. Scammers will lift the pictures and descriptions right from a legitimate seller on a another site. I still buy guns but I pretty much only do business with real businesses and call them before I mail money. Easy to google the business to get the real phone number.

 

[Beemerguy53]

GB has so many scammers selling guns you need to be real, real careful. I almost got scammed on a SAA a few months ago. Scammers will lift the pictures and descriptions right from a legitimate seller on a another site. I still buy guns but I pretty much only do business with real businesses and call them before I mail money. Easy to google the business to get the real phone number.

I did exactly that before my last GB purchase...great advice.

 

[Jon651]

GB apparently gets hacked often. I contacted a seller (or so I thought. The reply emails looked identical to GB emails) & we made a deal on a Colt SAA. I sent payment ($1650.00) & never heard back.

I contacted the seller (fortunately a dealer) by other means. It turned out that I was the 4th victim he's had within the last month. The only way to tell was by the return email address. His was (XX)[email protected]. The fake responses came from (XX)[email protected]. A lower case L looks very similar to a lower case I. I did not catch that because, well I wasn't looking for it as the return emails looked identical to GunBroker emails.

I reported this to GB, & they did nothing. You can't call them (unless you want to "upgrade" for $50.00. Which even then it's not easy to speak with a live human). GunBroker said they'd look into the issue, but all they did was send me another email asking me how great their (non-existent) customer service was.

Long & short of it is: GB is not a trustworthy site, use it at your own risk, because they do not care if you get ripped-off.

Gunbroker itself is not actually being hacked, per se. Anyone with an average computer and too much time can reproduce emails that look exactly like ones from ANY business - I see them all the time in my spam folder. Checking the return email address is a big tip-off - they usually come from an independent email provider like google.com, yahoo.com, hotmail.com or others that are lesser known instead of directly from @gunbroker.com. The moment I see something like that, regardless of how good the email looks, I know it's a scam.

The fact that there are scammers trolling GunBroker is no more surprising that the scammers who haunt eBay or Amazon, or a million other sites where people spend their money. Just checking my spam folder today and I can see fake emails from Bank of America, eBay, Wells Fargo (whom I don't have an account with), and even the Crown Prince of Nigeria!

 

[Rifleman200-10X]

Due diligence. I've bought and sold hundreds of firearms and other items on Gunbroker with minimal problems. And the very few I've had were non-paying buyers, and Gunbroker had my back every time, and made it right with me.

 

[glowe]

Sorry for saying this, but I would be very careful making accusations about Gunbroker seeing you worked outside the system and got stung. With only 7 posts here in the last 6 years, I wonder about your motives as well.

It is just not right to blame GB, who has an extensive system set up to protect buyers and sellers and are not there to lure in the gullible. When someone works around the system that is set up to protect them and gets stung do not blame GB but maybe blame themselves. Heck, even this site that has great security, still gets crooks who cause trouble until they are found and kicked out.

As for those who only buy from businesses, that is their decision, but being a private seller all one has to do is look at the feedback and contact the seller if interested in something they offer for sale. First, feedback represents maybe half of all transactions because many do not give feedback and is a very good way to judge a seller. Contacting the seller is another great way to validate the seller. Also look for Verified Members (the green checkmark). I can state with experience that for those who only buy from businesses on GB have are missing some great firearms from honest collectors who are also sellers.

 

[1sailor]

If you're looking at an item listed by a private seller, ask them for a very specific photo. If they can provide that then there's a much better chance that they actually have the item. If they can't well... why not?

 

[Absalom]

Wait. Did you set up a deal outside the bounds of a typical Gunbroker transaction?

If so it's not surprising you got scammed and not Gunbrokers fault.

Indeed. I have the same impression reading your description:

GB apparently gets hacked often. I contacted a seller (or so I thought. The reply emails looked identical to GB emails) & we made a deal on a Colt SAA.

Gunbroker is set up to bid on auctions, not to "make deals". Your description sounds like you tried to scam Gunbroker.

Gunbroker is a gun show table. What criteria to use in deciding which auctions to bid on is the buyer's responsibility.

I have yet to read a "blame Gunbroker" thread where the blame didn't fall upon the complainer's miscalculation of risk or lack of due diligence.

 

[pawngal]

Go thru Gunbrokers checkout system from your account not from some random email.

 

[JH1951]

GB apparently gets hacked often. I contacted a seller (or so I thought. The reply emails looked identical to GB emails) & we made a deal on a Colt SAA. I sent payment ($1650.00) & never heard back.

........
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Long & short of it is: GB is not a trustworthy site, use it at your own risk, because they do not care if you get ripped-off.

I feel bad that you have been taken for a substantial amount of money. But, please add some clarity for me with respect to this transaction. As I read it, you struck a purchase deal with a GunBroker seller, for an item listed on GunBroker, but your deal was outside of the BunBroker confines. Then, after things went south, you asked GunBroker to help you resolve the mess, and they did not jump to attention immediately to resolve your problem. And for these reasons you label GunBroker "not a trustworthy site....because they do not care if you get ripped-off." If I am wrong, please correct me.
Due diligence is your friend whenever dealing with someone that you do not personally know. And if the other party is complicit in circumventing the 'set parameters', they share in whatever problems you encounter (or may even be part of the problem itself).

 

[Golphin]

I have bought from GB and Gun International with no issues but only deal with sellers that take credit cards. I am not going to do anything online with a person I don't know for more than $100. with anything other than a credit card.

 

[Rifleman200-10X]

I'm afraid I have to side with the majority of the replies, if you made "a deal" outside of Gunbroker's system, which certainly seems to be carefully set up to protect both the buyer and seller, I find it difficult to feel sorry for you if you got "took". I currently have a feedback rating of 429 on Gunbroker, 100% positive, no negative or neutral. I'm actually sort of offended at your blaming Gunbroker for your lack of, once again, "due diligence ".

 

[Imissedagain]

If a seller does not take credit cards using an escrow service might be prudent.

 

[malercous]

I DID NOT TRY TO MAKE A DEAL OUTSIDE OF THE GUNBROKER WEBSITE (Why do so many people think that?) I contacted the seller thru GunBroker, I did not try to go outside of the website. All I did was make an offer on a revolver, which I did (again) via GunBroker. I was not trying to subvert the website at all. The return emails all looked identical to GunBroker emails. Everything seemed proper; there was no red flags or warning signs. I wasn't trying to "cheat" GunBroker at all.

Beemerguy: thanks for the info, I'll check into it, but this wasn't phishing, it was a straight-up hacking. And from what I can tell, the federal gov't isn't interested in my problems (prolly cuz they're under-funded & I'm a nobody).

Jon651: No, the GunBroker most definitely was hacked, the real seller told me that himself as I was the 4th victim he's had in 1 month. My email went thru GunBroker, it did not make it to the actual seller as the hacker intercepted it & responded to me. With GunBroker emails which were identical to GunBroker emails. This was not my first (or 10th) time buying/selling guns there.

The seller had hundreds of positive feedbacks & was a FFL dealer with a retail firearms business. I did not reply to an ad from a private seller.

Glowe: Sure, I'm not a big poster here, but what "motives" would you think I have for posting about being ripped-off on GunBroker? It most certainly is right to blame GunBroker since: 1. they did not have any protective measures in place to prevent this (They couldn't hire an internet security company like every other internet business does?) & 2. They should have made this right to me. It was their website that was hacked & it was because they were too cheap to ensure they had a secure website.

 

[BigBoy99]

How was payment made and how was your payment sent? If you used the USPS First Class mail and/or you used USPS Money Order to pay for the item, file a mail fraud claim with the USPS Postal Inspectors. It worked in my case and I got what I had purchased. The seller called me and asked if I could drop the mail fraud case as he was being threatened with prison time. I told him the claim would be in place until I received what I had ordered. A week later, my stuff arrived and I dropped the claim.

 

[chief38]

I hate to say it but ANY WEBSITE is no longer safe and requires caution and common sense when using! Hacker's and Scammer's are usually smarter than the honest guys and they always figure out a way.

As many here know, there have even been scammers right here on our website!! The Internet is a double edged sword - it cuts both ways!

 

[ejr10mm]

Ouch. I've used it only once and it went smoothly.

 

[Valmet]

Been on GB since Sept 2000. It changed ownership in the last year (hence taxes, additional fees and an abundance of scammers). I only utilize it if I'm 100% sure. If it's a new seller with little/no feedback I steer clear.

 

[Beemer-mark]

Gunbroker itself is not actually being hacked, per se. Anyone with an average computer and too much time can reproduce emails that look exactly like ones from ANY business - I see them all the time in my spam folder.

No, GB itself is being hacked. Fraudulent GB accounts stolen from honest accounts, pictures and descriptions from other sights. Yes an email from outside GB is suspicious on itself. But then again when I buy from a business I often get an email with an invoice.

 

[len917]

When you get an e-mail, hover your pointer over it. It will give you the actual e-mail address.
G-mail click the "to me" under the email address and it will give you all the info you need about the sender

 

[Muss Muggins]

If a seller does not take credit cards using an escrow service might be prudent.

I'm just spitballing here, and I'll admit that I only spent about ten minutes searching the interweb, but can you point me to an escrow service that does things besides houses and really expensive cars?

 

[Muss Muggins]

I guess I'm confused. I am aware of two options on Gunbroker. "Buy it now," which I thought had a fixed price, and participating in the auction. I always figured anything else was "going outside of Gunbroker." But I could be wrong. I've always won or lost the auction. Sending an email for a "buy it now" gun seems like cheating . . .

 

[Absalom]

I DID NOT TRY TO MAKE A DEAL OUTSIDE OF THE GUNBROKER WEBSITE (Why do so many people think that?) I contacted the seller thru GunBroker, I did not try to go outside of the website. All I did was make an offer on a revolver, which I did (again) via GunBroker..

To reiterate, just because you make a direct deal by using Gunbroker's e-mail does not mean you're not scamming Gunbroker. The ONLY way to buy on GB is to bid on the auction or buy now. Anything else cheats GB out of the fee for their services of providing the platform.