So.... using Armslist (the Craigslist of guns) site for the Yoop, I posted a gun for sale. All kinds of fun stuff ensued.
Red flags:
1- I posted the ad very late at night. Within 10 minutes I got an email from some dude wanting to know if the gun was still for sale. Like I had been inundated for offers at 3 AM!
2- Dude said he was from Kentucky. Shopping the Yoop site at 3 AM?
3- So there is a couple of back and forth emails where he wants a price reduction and I offer to pay for shipping if he wants the gun. His language is very formal English, with no slang, typos or internet abbreviations.
4. He sends me a copy of an FFL where he wants the gun shipped. I google the FFL holders name and city and find his obituary. The FFL holder DIED last year.
So.. all this smells like 3 day old fish. But I wanted to see how far he would go with it. I play along.
I ask for a USPS MO for payment. He wants to do a Cashiers Check. Fine! And he mails one to me. Sent Priority Mail from a small town PO with a return address from another small town PO. $1500 bucks. For a $400 gun. He wants me to wire him the difference using Walmart.
The Cashiers Check is from a small town Credit Union in a western state. I call them. No surprise to learn the check is fake. The whole thing is a variation on a long running online scam.
This is my rant:
Getting someone interested in going after this asshole was like pulling teeth. Lots of Federal law violations here, involving fraudulent interstate commerce or mail fraud. Not to mention the fraud involving an FFL.
When I talked with the Credit Union involved, they said this was an ongoing scam that had hit them multiple times and the FBI was investigating. I ask for the investigating FBI Agents phone number. They did not know it. I asked from their fraud depts. phone number. They don't have a fraud dept.
Next call was to BATFE. Their response? Call your local cops. Right. Thanks for nothing.
So a series of calls was then made to locate the family of the deceased FFL holder to bring them up to speed on this. I find out the gun shop is still in operation and reach the manager. He tells me this is an ongoing scam and he has even received an un-ordered gun from someone who fell for this. The manager tells me he has reported all this to the BATFE. I give the manager all my info and tell him to forward it to BATFE. And that's where it all stands now.
This, my invisible SF friends, is the problem with these scams. No one wants to go after the people who pull this shit off. And that's why it goes on with impunity.

I was going to make a joke and ask if the gun was still for sale, but that probably would have been funny.

Good on you for spotting the scam in time. IIRC the prosecution rates for stuff like this are so low it's insane. And folks wonder why we have so many issues.

quote:

Originally posted by CD228:
I was going to make a joke and ask if the gun was still for sale, but that probably would have been funny.

Good on you for spotting the scam in time. IIRC the prosecution rates for stuff like this are so low it's insane. And folks wonder why we have so many issues.

But the Left firmly believes that passing one more Federal gun law will fix the problem.

I do admire your stamina putting up with the shenanigans. I understand the motive was LE follow up.

I just delete & block that kind of nonsense.

I wanted to see some enforcement action taken but what really pissed me off was the fact that this FFL holder had died recently and I thought that involving his name in this low rent scam was beyond shitty.
And hindsight being 20/20,it was kinda risky. I had to come up with some personal info to get the scammer to play along. Maybe no real threat but its crazy out there.

I had a similar thing happen to me. I got a fake check for twice what I was asking for the gun and the "customer" wanted me to send him the difference.

I told him that I would only ship to a verified US FFL after checks cleared.

I still have the fake cashiers check somewhere.

I called the FBI and they told me they wouldn't bother with any fraud less than a couple hundred thousand dollars........... :-/

..... and of course I still have the gun too. Never got a verified FFL.

So, you're from the yoop huh?

YouperSIG,

I am pleaze to inform you that you have receive a largest inhairitence from your verified Uncle from Uganda. I know it is surprsing but he moved hear long ago and left everything to you! The amount is over $1 Million US.

Please send your bank accounts routing and account numbers for a verified transfer of all funds to you in 7-15 business days.

Thank you,

Yaheeeb Frumunder
1sT Bank of Uganda
Manager

<HUMOR>

One of the biggest scams going on those types of sites. My wife had the same thing happen on craigslist with a sewing machine. I'm sure his check was no good and then you send him money back and your out that cash plus when his check bounces your in for that as well.

Hey, at least he didn't try to sell you the Mackinac Bridge.........'cause us taxpayers already own it.

Send him a unpurchased walmart card

Setup a face to face at Walmart.
Shoot
Shovel
Shut-up

I don't think he wanted the gun. He wanted the $1100 difference. He would have disappeared before ever involving a firearm.

I don't think it's fair to assume NO one is interested in this.

There are several fraud teams from different agencies going after this stuff depending on particulars.

But you may be surprised just how OFTEN this happens. If they put the same due diligence in EVERY case then NOTHING would get done.

It probably seems like most everyone ignored you, and that's unfortunate, but I damn sure don't want to pay for enough investigators to handle every case of fraud.

This is common on armslist. I had one for sale and got a reply from an idiot with the email address "divineallahisgod".

Still have the gun.

RMD

As silly as it seems, the agency who may be the most concerned/willing to do something is the Postal Inspector since he used the US Mail to further his scam.

As to FBI, ATF, local PD simply a matter of time and resources. Bigger fish to fry and very little to follow up on makes it a tough case. I can get the frustration, but I can also see the agencies point in spending time and resources on a thin case that 99% of prosecutors would decline charges on anyway.


As to Armslist, thankfully in my area it has yet to devolve into bang-bang.craigslist.scam

I’ve used it to buy/sell locally and since WA now requires all private transfers to go through FFL it is hard to pull a scam. However would never consider it for a transaction that involved shipping whether I was buying or selling.

it has nothing to do with armslist, happens on craigslist and other sites for listing items for sale.

Neighbor put up some motorcycle parts, got the same email, and after some discussion he agreed with me, he was being scammed, guy mailed him a check, kept emailing about it, sent it for $1000 over, the check was on a Connecticut Utility Company account, big flag that someone is using a Utility company business account for motorcycle parts.

Some of the conversations were classic, the buyer couldn't remember what he bought, so he referred to "the items" and was having a guy come by and pick up the stuff his "mover" and my neighbor was not to give the money to the mover. He forwarded the check, some phone numbers from texts, emails etc to the Power company.

A week later I'm posting a used Dryer for sale and bingo, less than an hour later I get the "is it still for sale" response.

THey are running some kind of spider/bots that look for new ads and hit them with the scam.

quote:

Originally posted by YooperSigs:
I wanted to see some enforcement action taken but what really pissed me off was the fact that this FFL holder had died recently and I thought that involving his name in this low rent scam was beyond shitty.
And hindsight being 20/20,it was kinda risky. I had to come up with some personal info to get the scammer to play along. Maybe no real threat but its crazy out there.

It is beyond shitty but not to those devoid of shame or morals. Those people are equal too, ya know!

Thankfully, being responsible insulates us from the worst effects, but not without effort.