Be especially cautious about any reply you get to a "WTB" ad. I lost a nice chunk of $ to a scammer over a gun I was thrilled to finally "find", and I consider myself fairly web-savvy.
These days, I won't do deals with sellers that don't have perfect (and established) trader ratings and even then, I won't even consider buying unless I have a photo of the item, with a piece of paper in it with that day's date, and my name on it. Won't guarantee you won't get scammed, but at least you can establish if the seller has the item to begin with. Making that request would have spared me that loss. BTW, the police and my bank did absolutely nothing, and I was able to provide the scammers email address, phone #, screen caps of our correspondence, bank information the EMT went to, etc. TOTAL waste of time. You're on your own when it comes to getting ripped off.
You'd be surprised at how fast the communication trail runs cold when you request the photos that way. Huge red flag.
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