Possible Scam Alert

[Ron In MD]

Another possible scam avoided.
Been reading scam alerts here on the forum, and other forums too.

Here's one I do believe is a scam some guy tried on me recently.

On another site I posted a "WTB XXX" in the classifieds section.
Another member PM'd me an email address and possible lead to a man in Ohio.

I sent an email of inquiry and interest.
I received a reply with pictures of an Stainless Steel XXX at a cost of $300.00 including shipping. Bells went off big time, first off it was way too cheap. I played along for awhile. I offered to send him an USPS Money Order, but he only wanted PayPal, Zelle or Venmo.
We exchanged several emails about payment. Things didn't add up when he said this, OK on the MO.Now remember this guy supposedly lives in Ohio, but wanted me to send the MO to his wife in Indiana. When I searched the address the name he gave didn't come up as belonging to the address he gave. He never did tell me his address.
I declined his offer and told him that he had a nice pistol and shouldn't have any problem selling it.

Like everyone says, buyers beware.

 

[BC38]

Yeah, on a high dollar, gun related item (or any kind of commercial website) only accepting Zelle, PayPal, or Venmo is a BIG red flag.
When you pay for anything gun related by any of those 3 methods you have ZERO recourse when they take your money and don't ship the item you wanted to purchase. So they have your money and they ship you nothing, and there isn't SQUAT that you can do about it. It basically amounts to you handing cash to an anonymous stranger because they tell you they are going to give you something in return - but with no one to hold them accountable and no way to get your money back when they don't follow through.

 

[Tom S.]

On another site I posted a "WTB XXX" in the classifieds section.
Another member PM'd me an email address and possible lead to a man in Ohio.

If you review our "Scammer Warnings" in the WTB section you will see that nearly all of them contain similar MO:

"Contact so-and-so, he has what you are looking for." nearly always followed by a Gmail email address.

 

[s&wchad]

I certainly hope you reported the PM to the staff on the other forum. Not everyone is able to spot the red flags. These crooks need to be identified, banned and have their private information made public.

 

[Ron In MD]

I certainly hope you reported the PM to the staff on the other forum. Not everyone is able to spot the red flags. These crooks need to identified, banned and have their private information made public.

I guess that I should do that. I don't want to falsely accuse anyone. It might have been an honest mistake on the members part. But then I could just let the administrators of the site sort that out.

 

[s&wchad]

I guess that I should do that. I don't want to falsely accuse anyone. It might have been an honest mistake on the members part. But then I could just let the administrators of the site sort that out.

Exactly! Board administrators have access to some of their private information and have ways to check them out. There's no harm and no foul if you're wrong.

 

[Tom S.]

I guess that I should do that. I don't want to falsely accuse anyone. It might have been an honest mistake on the members part. But then I could just let the administrators of the site sort that out.

That is precisely how we operate here. We rely on members to report suspicious replies to WTB ads and use our own methods of investigating them. As I mentioned, you will find numerous Scammer warnings place in the WTB section and if you look, you will see we credit whoever reported the scammer to us.

Moderators have no access to member's PM's or emails, so we have no idea if a scammer is contacting members. Scammers rely on this anonymity to carry out their despicable deeds and reporting them is the ONLY way we can catch them, ban them and warn others! I cannot over stress how important it is to report these scumbags!

 

[BigBoy99]

So they have your money and they ship you nothing, and there isn't SQUAT that you can do about it.

If you sent the person anything via the US Mail, file mail fraud charges. I sent a person a USPS MO payment by First Class mail for payment but he didn't ship. I contacted the US Postal Inspectors and filed mail fraud against the person. A few months later I got a frantic call advising that he was shipping the items. He was being threatened with prison time. When I receive the items, I withdrew the Mail Fraud charges.

Admittedly this was years ago and with all of the electronic transactions now days, the USPS mail isn't be used so Mail Fraud isn't really occurring.

 

[Ron In MD]

If you sent the person anything via the US Mail, file mail fraud charges. I sent a person a USPS MO payment by First Class mail for payment but he didn't ship. I contacted the US Postal Inspectors and filed mail fraud against the person. A few months later I got a frantic call advising that he was shipping the items. He was being threatened with prison time. When I receive the items, I withdrew the Mail Fraud charges.

Admittedly this was years ago and with all of the electronic transactions now days, the USPS mail isn't be used so Mail Fraud isn't really occurring.

And this is the reason that I have only used USPS MO's. Or cash when meeting FTF at an FFL's store front.

I alerted the mods at the others site.

And just today I received another PM there from a new member who just joined TODAY (Jan 15, 2023). Wanted me to call him in Georgia.
Nope, ain't gonna happen.


One down (permanent ban) and one to go.

 

[326MOD10]

If it doesn't seem right then run!!

Many of the better organized scammers will take a Money Order. That MO is mailed to a legitimate person/address here in the US.

That person believes that they have a legitimate job where they cash your MO, take their cut and then send the rest to whoever.

The scammer is constantly hiring new people, through legitimate websites, because the turnover is constant.

Had a case once where $20,000 a month being sent to Nigeria this way.