Scam Alert

[Handloader109]

Just be careful. Anyone that mentions zelle gets me to run.

Sent from my SM-S908U using Tapatalk

[ShooterAZ]

In addition; never, ever post your personal information such as your phone numbers or your personal email addresses on the open forum. This creates just another opportunity for Scammers to rip you off.

[M-Tecs]

If you are contacted by someone that is not the seller and has 0 posts asking you to contact them by email for a faster response. Report the PM to staff and PM the seller to verify it was them. 90% chance it is a scammer.

If they were only so unsophisticated it would be easy.

Anytime it seems odd contact the mods for an IP address check. If the case I reported here a member was hacked and a fake ad. was posted by a trusted member that I had done many transitions with. I replied IN THE AD in S&S that I would take it. Almost immediately I was contacted to send a zelle or venmo payment.

This is from the hacker. Payment and speech pattern was different from my pervious transitions with the actual member. "I only accept zelle or venmo. Thank you.

Sending with Zelle is very simple.

I will give you my zelle mail and you will send it.

After I stated no zelle is recieved this

After receiving the payment I will give you my email address and you can send him your FFL information.

Will you pay with Zelle now?

followed by

I already sent you $230. I already know this. 204 AR barrel

My account has not been hacked.


That was backwards since I had purchased it and not sold it.

I reported it and Reloader Fred did an excellent job dealing with it as shown below. I did remove the hacked members name and replaced it with #####

M-Tecs,

Thank you for reporting the posts in S&S. It does indeed appear to be a scam, as the IP is from Europe. We're checking into it now.

Reloader Fred
CB Staff

M-Tecs,

I've spent a couple of hours on this, and I'm convinced the two ads were placed by a hacker using a VPN in Germany. The responses I got to my inquiries to ###### came via the VPN, which ###### has not used previously, and were worded in such a way as to raise even more suspicion in my mind that I was conversing with the hacker. It appears his account has been hacked sometime after Sept. 5th, as that's when the IP changed to a VPN.

That was a good observation on your part, and you've most likely saved yourself and other members a lot of money in reporting it.

I'm leaving on vacation tomorrow and I've referred this case to the other moderators and to Administration. They will try to stay on top of this, but if you get any other communication from someone representing themselves as ######, be sure to report it, especially if the messages are "strange", or "different".

Thank you again for your report.

Reloader Fred
CB Staff

This is the ad that was posted in S&S under a long time trusted members page. It had pictures also

The K-22 Outdoorsman was teh predecesor to the K-22 Masterpiece. It was made between 1931 and 1939. This pistol would look good in any S&W collection.IT is in 22 caliber and has a 6 inch barrel. The blueing is real nice as seen in the pictures. Price is $480 shipped.. Payment to Zelle or Venmo. It will be shipped from my FFL to your FFL


Attachment 304244Attachment 304245

[JSnover]

Sounds good until you actual have to submit a claim. I have and it takes forever with a massive amount of effort with a 50/50 chance of actually recover your money.
...
USPS insurance for lost items in no better.

I'll second that. I didn't get scammed, the driver literally gave my package to someone else but never scanned it off the truck, so there's no way of knowing where it went. USPS paid about 40% of the insured amount. USPS/Insurance IS a scam.

[trebor44]

Due diligence on YOUR part is the name of the game. The digital world is NOT your friend, it is the "postcard" of old. Buying things online has become a game of chance (gambling). Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose! AND no one or organization is going to "help" you recover what you donated to the nefarious! Recall the value of a "bird in the hand"! I sell online and buy online and it is annoying to get taken! But it does and will happen!

[2TM101]

I always wondered what that was. With computers, if I don't know what it's for, or what it does, I don't mess with it.

I'm probably an outlier for being a 66 year old Novell engineer. The ancient precursor to web forums like this in the pre-1993 non-internet days was dial up BBS and I used to run a multiline one of those. My life after 2001 was flying and computers. Didn't really get into guns until blood pressure meds took me out of the sky. I had kind of burned out on them by the time I retired.

I'll never fire as many rounds as a hobby as I did for work, even though I work armed. Yup, I'm an armed computer system engineer.

[Remmy4477]

Got scammed right before Thanksgiving last year.

A whole $10 with a USPS money order.

I buy and sell antique lighting as a hobby, sold an original lamp wick to a guy, sent me a postal mo for payment. $10, wife put the wick in the mail forgetting to take the mo with her that day. I tried to cash it the next day at the PO.

PO said it had already been cashed around January of 22 and this was a counterfeit mo. I was like WOW, just for a 6 dollar lamp wick.