BEWARE of Scammers on here & Other Forums.

[Zuludog]

Recently posted a WTB ad on the buy & sell here and the EE on another forum. Had lots of positive and helpful responses pointing me in the right direction but I also got a suspicious one too. Seller joined this month and had ZERO POSTS!! I was VERY skeptical but decided to do some sleuthing.

I asked for pictures and got some off of a retail site in ON. BIG FLAG!!

I asked why he was selling and he said it was to fund something else & that the gun was "presented to him" by his father in law. Who sells a gift? Who sells a collectable like a CZ Canadian Edition and who uses the term "presented to"? MORE FLAGS!!

Phone number was from an escort service in Winnipeg. BEWARE OF SELLERS USING 204-514-5874

I told the mods about this and they told me the IP address he was using was from BC. This guy told me that he was from RIVERTON MB. If you search these forums apparently the scammers use this town in their stories all the time. So BEWARE of sellers claiming to be from Riverton, MB.

Obviously this WAS a scam so and this thief had been passing off someone else's PAL as his own. I ended up tracking down the original owner of the PAL and he unfortunately had just been scammed and given "my scammer" a picture of his PAL, that this guy was trying to use on me.

So please, please be careful. This low life has been deleted here but who knows how many account he or she has on here and elsewhere.

My scammer was using the name Albert Richard from Riverton, MB.
Unfortunately the real Albert got scammed by using a PAL with the name
Michael James from Saskatoon?

The scammer used the following email address panamagreenlanders@outlook.com for contacting Albert and me. He was also using the screen name Suzukiman on other EE's.

The RCMP have been contacted in NB where Albert lives and while I hold little hope that this scum bag will be caught I hope that by making his info public that no one else will get burned.

[overhere]

Every one here should spam his email

[tazzy]

I know Albert and he was ripped off for $800 of his hard earned money. I hope the thiefs balls rot off.

[catnthehat]

ANYBODY who has any suspicions whatsoever, please ht the triangle for us or PM us when your flags go up.
We will do whatver we can from our end.
Cat

[CaberTosser]

Keep in mind people that its easy for scammers to spoof other phone numbers as they appear in your call display. I've received phone calls on my cell phone from telemarketers that showed the incoming number as my very own cell phone number. Of course most of us know that scammers will also frequently provide scans of a PAL that are not their own ID, its just the ID of someone else they also scammed. It does bear repeating for others who have not yet heard of this trick. Its almost to the point where you'll need to ask the other party not only for their PAL, but a photo of their face next to the ID with a custom hand written note with the date on it also in the pic. I've actually taken to putting tape over the number on my ID recently, that was for a DL# but I'll do it for the next PAL request too.

[Zuludog]

Originally Posted by tazzy

I know Albert and he was ripped off for $800 of his hard earned money. I hope the thiefs balls rot off.

I hope so too. Only positive for me aside from avoiding being scammed was meeting Albert.

[Quinn]

I too have been scammed on here for $1500 recently.

In hindsight, everything is 20/20, but I feel ashamed to admit it. Similar story, IP was from B.C, fake PAL, fake details, and questionably fake pictures. Similar Outlook email.

Few things I've learnt, although I remain hesitant to buy anything sight unseen anymore:

1) We all don't like giving out personal information, but generally we're all in this together. I'll gladly provide other forms of identification to others for peice of mind. Ie, I just purchased an Accuracy International on CGN and we both shared our drivers licence, etc. The seller ended up being awesome and restored some faith for internet purchases.

2) Get a picture of the PAL/identification WITH the item being purchased. Search the pictures on the internet to make sure they aren't fake. You can do searches and check picture data (google it) to find out what it was taken on, when, and sometimes location data. Free programs check this. If they don't match the sellers location, buyers beware.

3) Don't trust emails like HOTMAIL and OUTLOOK. These e-mails dont share header information which restricts IP tracking which can then be used to find exactly location of user.

4) Talk to the seller by getting a phone number.


Any seller thats honest will provide more details to prove purchase is legit. I'm asking for it now and will have no reservations if others ask me.

With today's technology there are also PLENTY of ways to contact a person. Doesn't hurt to double check PAL identifcation by sending a message to their facebook account, etc. The seller could easily verify this way. Another simple step which makes fraud more difficult.

If the OP has the IP of the user, I'd be interested if you could share it with me.

[catnthehat]

The very best of course, would be to get a buddy in the area to go over and check it out!
Cat

[Zuludog]

I don't have the IP address. Pixel Shooter is one of the mods here and he checked it out for me. Maybe he has a way to get it to you?

[Zuludog]

Originally Posted by catnthehat

The very best of course, would be to get a buddy in the area to go over and check it out!
Cat

Or tell them that you are going to do this. This should help eliminate the scamming.

[redblack]

I always try to buy/sell my guns locally to avoid getting scammed. It may take a little longer but at least I won't lose a pile of cash.

[catnthehat]

It's not is guns either , there are scam artists for anything!
I had a member offer to sell me a chainsaw a while back .
I had another member go check it out because I was too far way and turn' know the guy.
Turns out it was a great saw and a fantastic, honest member!
Cat