nakneker
Gold $$ Contributor
I’ve never lost money or experienced fraud on this forum and two others I buy and sell on. A couple of weeks ago a guy had a scope for sale I wanted, a Steiner M5. I asked him if he would allow me time to sell a Bushnell DMRII and then pay the balance, I would send a 200.00 deposit to him to hold the scope. We agreed on the deal and I sent the 200.00 in the form of a Postal Money order.
I sold the Bushnell shortly thereafter. I notified him, he was polite. However he asked me to send the balance to a different address and asked that I make this money order to him instead of the name on the previous money order, he said he was visiting family and wanted to make it simple. He said the name on the first money order was his wife, it was a girly name. I got that weird feeling you get when things don’t jive. So I tried to find the original name and address I sent the 200.00 deposit to, wouldn’t check out. I couldn’t find the name matching the address. I then googled the address he asked me to send the balance to, it showed a building that looked vacant. I told him I didn’t feel comfortable sending 1800.00 with the way things had gone, with the changes he had asked for. So he was nice and sent me a copy of his gun license from his state. That should do it I said. I still had the bad juju feeling so I paid a fee and did a search on the name and address on the gun license. Well a name came up that was a match but the D.O.B. was off by two years. Also, if you held a straight edge to the left side of the lettering on the license the address was out of line, stuck out to the left, thats odd for a state issued license. I sent him an email and said I couldn’t get comfortable and I was out of the deal. I told him I did a search and the date of birth on the gun license didn’t match up. He was polite and said he understood, I told him to keep the deposit for his troubles. Then on Friday my deposit came and was sitting in my PO Box with a note saying nobody lives here by that name.
Moral of the story. Do your homework. If you don’t feel comfortable don’t feel obligated. Lastly, spending 40 bucks on getting some info is easy and may save you some heartache. Now I just have to see if the Post Office will refund the 200 bucks. I have the receipt and stub off the money order. Happy buying and trading people, most everybody is a good guy but there are some bad apples bobbing in the bucket.
I sold the Bushnell shortly thereafter. I notified him, he was polite. However he asked me to send the balance to a different address and asked that I make this money order to him instead of the name on the previous money order, he said he was visiting family and wanted to make it simple. He said the name on the first money order was his wife, it was a girly name. I got that weird feeling you get when things don’t jive. So I tried to find the original name and address I sent the 200.00 deposit to, wouldn’t check out. I couldn’t find the name matching the address. I then googled the address he asked me to send the balance to, it showed a building that looked vacant. I told him I didn’t feel comfortable sending 1800.00 with the way things had gone, with the changes he had asked for. So he was nice and sent me a copy of his gun license from his state. That should do it I said. I still had the bad juju feeling so I paid a fee and did a search on the name and address on the gun license. Well a name came up that was a match but the D.O.B. was off by two years. Also, if you held a straight edge to the left side of the lettering on the license the address was out of line, stuck out to the left, thats odd for a state issued license. I sent him an email and said I couldn’t get comfortable and I was out of the deal. I told him I did a search and the date of birth on the gun license didn’t match up. He was polite and said he understood, I told him to keep the deposit for his troubles. Then on Friday my deposit came and was sitting in my PO Box with a note saying nobody lives here by that name.
Moral of the story. Do your homework. If you don’t feel comfortable don’t feel obligated. Lastly, spending 40 bucks on getting some info is easy and may save you some heartache. Now I just have to see if the Post Office will refund the 200 bucks. I have the receipt and stub off the money order. Happy buying and trading people, most everybody is a good guy but there are some bad apples bobbing in the bucket.