Dodged a bullet

[nakneker]

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.

 

[muleystalker]

What service did you use to run the check?

 

[1shot]

Nice job on doing your "due diligence".

 

[hoz53]

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.

im glad you came out ok on the deal. Good Job and thanks for reminding us to be careful. was this a purchase on here with a person with a good trade count? I purchased a 1K scope from a guy off here with a low trade count once. it all came out good but i found out all i could along the way.

 

[Big Mc]

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.

The first thing I would do with my refund is buy a POWER BALL ticket.. LOL Good for got lucky.. Tommy Mc..Good for you !!!

 

[ourway77]

I have had numerous dealings w/o a hitch but I put a WTB for a barrel that is hard to come by I received an E-mail from sales1001 who said he had what I wanted So I let my guard down and jumped at it My Bad he asked that the funds be sent priority mail and too give him the tracking number and send it too a Denise Avery, 3781 Hwy 77 Russellville AL 35654 I tried to contact him a reply to the e-mail he sent me to no avail I lost $180.00 I have no one to blame but myself but all it takes is to let your guard down once and you get burned I did contact the postal inspectors they took the information but heard no more From now on I will only deal with those with a high post count Since then I have found this woman cashes the POMO for this low life

 

[a1712]

If there is ANY doubt, there is NO doubt. Brian.

 

[nakneker]

What service did you use to run the check?

I used truthfinder. There is several that do about the same thing though.

 

[nakneker]

im glad you came out ok on the deal. Good Job and thanks for reminding us to be careful. was this a purchase on here with a person with a good trade count? I purchased a 1K scope from a guy off here with a low trade count once. it all came out good but i found out all i could along the way.

This actually took place on another forum. He had 63 posts but I couldn’t find a feedback tool on that other forum. I think the feedback tool is useful here on this forum, I’ll still do business with someone who has a low count or even no count but my guard goes up.

 

[JBT47]

im glad you came out ok on the deal. Good Job and thanks for reminding us to be careful. was this a purchase on here with a person with a good trade count? I purchased a 1K scope from a guy off here with a low trade count once. it all came out good but i found out all i could along the way.

I don’t think nak is saying the guy had a good trade count on here.

 

[nakneker]

I don’t think nak is saying the guy had a good trade count on here.

I tried to make myself a little clearer. thanks JBT.

 

[slm9s]

Glad you didn't send the big check!

On money orders I was told you can write the sellers name and then "or" and put your name in case of situations like this and then you can cash it with no problems.

 

[Just Dave]

Had a similar deal a few years ago, only off armslist .. Guy wanted the MO made out to his girlfriend, because he had lost his ID,, OK
So I google earthed the address, which showed me, what looked like a crappy apartment building near a commercial district.
I did the "street view" and found the name of a auto repair shop across the street and down a few , looked up their number, and called.
The guy that answered, laughed after I told him what was going on , and said " I wouldn't send anything over there" and implied that people lived there, but it was shady AF .
.
Say no more, I moved unto another deal.
.
On a positive note, I was looking for an old AI mag on here, and was advised by another member a different brand may work for me.
After a short exchange of messages, he decides to send me one of his, to try before I buy one, and pay shipping, plus restocking fee.

I look over my transaction history ( which shows like 3 transactions total) , and figured he either knows someone I know, or is just a very trusting soul.
It should arrive today, and I will try it to make sure it will work tonite, and return it immediately with something for his time.
Just awesome to think we can still trust most people on their word ,, but ya gotta watch out for the snakes as well I suppose.
.
Good detective work !

 

[nakneker]

Had a similar deal a few years ago, only off armslist .. Guy wanted the MO made out to his girlfriend, because he had lost his ID,, OK
So I google earthed the address, which showed me, what looked like a crappy apartment building near a commercial district.
I did the "street view" and found the name of a auto repair shop across the street and down a few , looked up their number, and called.
The guy that answered, laughed after I told him what was going on , and said " I wouldn't send anything over there" and implied that people lived there, but it was shady AF .
.
Say no more, I moved unto another deal.
.
On a positive note, I was looking for an old AI mag on here, and was advised by another member a different brand may work for me.
After a short exchange of messages, he decides to send me one of his, to try before I buy one, and pay shipping, plus restocking fee.

I look over my transaction history ( which shows like 3 transactions total) , and figured he either knows someone I know, or is just a very trusting soul.
It should arrive today, and I will try it to make sure it will work tonite, and return it immediately with something for his time.
Just awesome to think we can still trust most people on their word ,, but ya gotta watch out for the snakes as well I suppose.
.
Good detective work !

I too have had many positive experiences on here, it’s good to point it out, far outweighs the bad. First time I’ve dealt with dishonesty.

 

[JBT47]

I too have had many positive experiences on here, it’s good to point it out, far outweighs the bad. First time I’ve dealt with dishonesty.

Thank you for posting nak. I too have had very good experiences on here. But we all need to be vigilant for scammers and air it out when it happens.

 

[carlsbad]

Your scammer radar sense is your best defense. Some have it much better than others. Yours is good. I had a similar issue when I had my coin business. Guy wanted me to send a $500 coin to "his boss" but the address was a warehouse. More questions didn't add up and I just passed on the sale.

When buying, you can get "cheap" insurance for 3% just by paying with paypal. I've been both the seller and buyer on paypal scams (scammer on the other side) and in every case paypal has stood by and protected me--once for $10,000 on another coin issue.

So tell him you'll pay with paypal and you'll add the 3%. If you never get the scope, paypal will refund your money, even if the scammer manages to steal the money from paypal. If the seller won't take paypal, move on. I know some legitimate sellers won't take paypal either but then that becomes their loss, not yours.

--jerry

 

[nakneker]

Your scammer radar sense is your best defense. Some have it much better than others. Yours is good. I had a similar issue when I had my coin business. Guy wanted me to send a $500 coin to "his boss" but the address was a warehouse. More questions didn't add up and I just passed on the sale.

When buying, you can get "cheap" insurance for 3% just by paying with paypal. I've been both the seller and buyer on paypal scams (scammer on the other side) and in every case paypal has stood by and protected me--once for $10,000 on another coin issue.

So tell him you'll pay with paypal and you'll add the 3%. If you never get the scope, paypal will refund your money, even if the scammer manages to steal the money from paypal. If the seller won't take paypal, move on. I know some legitimate sellers won't take paypal either but then that becomes their loss, not yours.

--jerry

This guy wanted a Postal money order, wouldn’t take anything else.

10,000.00 coin being backed up is impressive. I e never dove in the coin world but it has always fascinated me.

 

[carlsbad]

The coin deal was a return request. A guy bought $10k worth of a hot gold coin (on ebay) that was going up fast in price. 2 months later it turned around and he wanted to return it. I told him no (and a few other choice words). He filed a chargeback with Amex and Amex took the 10K from paypal, didn't even make him return the coins. I got a notification of the chargeback from paypal, called them up and they said I was covered--that's what the 3% they charge goes toward covering.

--Jerry

 

[hoz53]

The coin deal was a return request. A guy bought $10k worth of a hot gold coin (on ebay) that was going up fast in price. 2 months later it turned around and he wanted to return it. I told him no (and a few other choice words). He filed a chargeback with Amex and Amex took the 10K from paypal, didn't even make him return the coins. I got a notification of the chargeback from paypal, called them up and they said I was covered--that's what the 3% they charge goes toward covering.

--Jerry

i havent checked paypals policys lately but dont they have a policy of not allowing transactions on certain firearm related items? i just purchased something more generic for 500.00 and used paypal. ive since received the item no problem but i paid with them so i was covered.

 

[hoz53]

I too have had many positive experiences on here, it’s good to point it out, far outweighs the bad. First time I’ve dealt with dishonesty.

i have had many positive experiences here to. i havent lost any money yet here. i do sometimes pass on a low tradecount. it can be a catch 22 for new sellers they need a trade count but its hard to get one so i try to help with that at times.