WARNING: SCAMMER ALERT ARMSLIST!

[Mark Biggerstaff]

To all AH’ers. Be aware of a Scammer working ARMSLIST web site. He is posting a CZ 550 African Safari 300 Win Mag For Sale! I got scammed by him already and wanted to warn all my fellow AHers. The gun was listed as for sale in Florida last week and I took what I thought was all the necessary precautions and purchased. Seller has quit responding to texts. Now this morning the same gun with same description and same pictures is listed for less money and located in San Antonio Texas . I know it is a scam. I researched some more and found same gun with same pictures on Gunbroker as sold over two weeks ago.
Here is pic of ad.

 

[BnC 04]

Armslist is infested with scammers. Unless it's a local face to face transaction I shy away.
Thanks for the heads up.

 

[WebleyGreene455]

Armslist is one that I just can't deal with anymore. I've found several scams and also had one irritating experience where a guy decided not to sell me a SPAS-12. We were all set one day and not for it the next; thankfully I didn't send him any $$. He did actually have the shotgun, just didn't want to sell after all. But it turned me off to that site unless it's a licensed dealer using it as an extra platform for sales.

 

[Mark Biggerstaff]

Well I learned my lessons. I will keep you all updated on how this plays out. ATF has been notified and was very interested

 

[sestoppelman]

Its called Scamslist for a reason you know..

 

[smokepole]

That site is full of scams. Take notice. Good luck

 

[BeeMaa]

I've stopped using Arms List for this very reason.
Thanks for the warning.

 

[375Fox]

Do other sites such as gunbroker give you any kind of purchase protection?

 

[ms86]

Yeah in my experience, Armslist is not a reliable place to go purchase. I never use it. Here in Texas we have TexasGunTrader which is a little better but you have to be careful and ask lots of questions of prospective buyers/sellers. And even then, there is a risk. I pretty much exclusively buy guns via GunsInternational (or off reputable forums) and particularly from dealers who I feel can be trusted (either by reputation or through having a dialogue about the guns in advance). On GI I typically find you can negotiate the prices in a way that you cannot do on GunBroker. With GB, some sellers will offer inspection/return periods, others will not. If there is indeed a scam, GB has some provisions for helping you out, but I think they would be pretty hard to act on in practice.

 

[AfricaHunting.com]

When shopping online there is always a risk that the seller is a scammer with nothing to sell and that the photos of the item for sale were just stolen from someone else on the internet so one tip to avoid getting scammed with that method is to ask for specific photos. Ask the seller to send you a couple of unusual very specific photos of the item for sale, for instance if selling a rifle ask the seller to send you a picture of the rifle with their thumb covering the end of the barrel and another with their hand holding the scope. You can certainly suspect that something is not right if they won’t do this.

 

[Bullthrower338]

When shopping online there is always a risk that the seller is a scammer with nothing to sell and that the photos of the item for sale were just stolen from someone else on the internet so one tip to avoid getting scammed with that method is to ask for specific photos. Ask the seller to send you a couple of unusual very specific photos of the item for sale, for instance if selling a rifle ask the seller to send you a picture of the rifle with their thumb covering the end of the barrel and another with their hand holding the scope. You can certainly suspect that something is not right if they won’t do this.

I always ask them to have a naked 18 year old blond pose prone with the gun, this way you know you have a motivated seller if he complies.lol
Bad deal Mark! Hope it all works out. I sent the new listing an email and haven’t received a response. People like that should get drug behind a truck for screwing honest people out of hard earned money!

 

[krish]

Yes Armslist is not reliable place to buy. There are lot of scams.

 

[AfricaHunting.com]

I always ask them to have a naked 18 year old blond pose prone with the gun, this way you know you have a motivated seller if he complies.lol

That would really add to the shopping experience!

 

[sierraone]

I almost was scammed on this site about 5 or 6 years ago. Fortunately for me, I was able to determine the scam before it went too far. I have never used armslist since then.

 

[CoElkHunter]

To all AH’ers. Be aware of a Scammer working ARMSLIST web site. He is posting a CZ 550 African Safari 300 Win Mag For Sale! I got scammed by him already and wanted to warn all my fellow AHers. The gun was listed as for sale in Florida last week and I took what I thought was all the necessary precautions and purchased. Seller has quit responding to texts. Now this morning the same gun with same description and same pictures is listed for less money and located in San Antonio Texas . I know it is a scam. I researched some more and found same gun with same pictures on Gunbroker as sold over two weeks ago.
Here is pic of ad. View attachment 349191

Just curious, did you pay with a USPS money order? And if so, can’t you cancel the money order whether it was cashed or not and get a refund?

 

[500 Nitro]

I weed out the obvious scammer by looking up the zip code and finding out what county they are located in, then telling them that my brother in law works in the next county over and will be over to pay for and pick up the weapon in person for me in the next day or so when his shift is over with the county sheriff's office, ( you never hear back from them and the add is taken down real fast)
If it look legit I have them meet at a FF dealer that I have talked to in the area with the weapon, who will already have my cashiers check, He then will check and inspect the weapon for me and pay them. The fee is usually around $20.00- $35.00 for him to inspect it and ship it to my FFL dealer (I pay the shipping charges $25.00- $65.00.)

I think your brother in law needs to pick it up for you when his shift is over next time.

 

[sestoppelman]

Do other sites such as gunbroker give you any kind of purchase protection?

Yes, but it may take some hoops to jump thru. One site, Gun Auction or Auction Arms as it used to be called was ZERO help some time ago when I paid for a black powder revolver, and never received it. They just told me oh well. I didn't lose much but I was pissed off!
There are no guarantees really, just have to be careful and that isn't always enough to keep the scammers at bay.

 

[CoElkHunter]

Yes, but it may take some hoops to jump thru. One site, Gun Auction or Auction Arms as it used to be called was ZERO help some time ago when I paid for a black powder revolver, and never received it. They just told me oh well. I didn't lose much but I was pissed off!
There are no guarantees really, just have to be careful and that isn't always enough to keep the scammers at bay.

I believe you can get a refund, even if it was cashed by the scammer? Here's what happened to me recently. This wasn't a scam, but I thought it was at the time. On April 14th I mailed a Western Union money order to a seller for a handgun I purchased on Gun Broker. On the 21st, I contacted the seller by phone and he stated he hadn't received the payment yet. By the 24th, he stated he still had not received the money order, so I contacted Western Union and cancelled the money order and sent the seller a USPS money order via priority mail and tracking number. He got the USPS money order and sent the firearm to my FFL. He called me on the 29th and stated he received the Western Union money order and would shred it. It took 14 DAYS for the USPS to deliver my original letter! Never again! The USPS is screwed up with this virus thing, and the ONE damn letter I mailed in a month with a payment in it, couldn't get delivered! Use ONLY the Priority Mail with a tracking number! It's worth the $7.95. But, Western Union had previously told me I could get a refund even if someone had cashed the money order fraudulently as long as I had filled out the information on front to the seller. It's the same with USPS money orders.

 

[sestoppelman]

Yes that's true, but that's a USPS thing, not a gun site thing. GB is willing to help some, but you have to really want to do it. Got burned on a rifle on GB a while back, seller wouldn't respond, never heard from him again. Got GB involved. Took forever to get anything going, and when last seen they wanted me to send the rifle to a FFL of their choice to get the rifle examined, on my nickel, and I would have to pay return shipping unless they agreed the rifle was a POS which it was, a pitted unshootable Mauser. I told GB to just forget the whole thing, I didn't want to spend another dime on it. I sold it for parts on GB and made about a third of my money back. Pays to be cautious.
I never send more than small amounts of money or checks in the mail without Priority with tracking. USPS is better than FedEx! I had a rifle shipped from PA recently, that got stalled about 5 hours from delivery! Got scanned 4 times in OR, before heading to WA. Took over 10 days!! I talked to Fed on the phone and all they could say was "don't be concerned". On the other hand, even recently stuff I have mailed USPS is getting delivered ahead of schedule, go figure.

 

[CoElkHunter]

Yes that's true, but that's a USPS thing, not a gun site thing. GB is willing to help some, but you have to really want to do it. Got burned on a rifle on GB a while back, seller wouldn't respond, never heard from him again. Got GB involved. Took forever to get anything going, and when last seen they wanted me to send the rifle to a FFL of their choice to get the rifle examined, on my nickel, and I would have to pay return shipping unless they agreed the rifle was a POS which it was, a pitted unshootable Mauser. I told GB to just forget the whole thing, I didn't want to spend another dime on it. I sold it for parts on GB and made about a third of my money back. Pays to be cautious.
I never send more than small amounts of money or checks in the mail without Priority with tracking. USPS is better than FedEx! I had a rifle shipped from PA recently, that got stalled about 5 hours from delivery! Got scanned 4 times in OR, before heading to WA. Took over 10 days!! I talked to Fed on the phone and all they could say was "don't be concerned". On the other hand, even recently stuff I have mailed USPS is getting delivered ahead of schedule, go figure.

I don't know what the answer is? Like I mentioned to you before, I've only bought three firearms off GB and two were from dealers. A credit card for payment might be best, cause your not liable for the charge if its a fraudulent sale. But so many sellers don't take them? I know this handgun I bought , the private seller was an FFL (which I didn't know) and he mailed the gun via USPS to my FFL. I check the seller's ratings on GB, but maybe that can be fraudulent too? I guess buyer beware OR know the seller from previous transactions? Oh yeah I forgot, after requesting the refund from Western Union on April 19th, I just received it today, minus a $15.00 processing fee!