Ok, maybe this is not a new scam, but it is a new one to me and felt obligated to share/warn others. Ive bought, sold and traded a lot of guns over the years but always in person with cash and never had to ship a firearm. I recently posted a firearm for sale on Armslist for $1,200 dollars. (From Pennsylvania). I was contacted by a gentleman by the name of Eric Stevens from Florida. The communication started off somewhat normal. He said that he would be sending me a cashiers check for the $1,200 plus $25 for shipping. I gave him an address to send the check and requested his ffl info for shipping and told him that I would wait for the funds to "clear" before i ship anything. I was not familiar with cashiers checks so i did some looking and found out that the check is directly from the bank. So the funds would be somewhat guaranteed right? Wrong. A couple days later, Eric sent me another email stating that the check had been sent but the bank screwed up. He requested 2 cashiers checks. One for me and one for his cousin, but the bank wrote one check and sent it to me in the amount of $3,000.50 dollars. He then asked if he could trust me to deposit the funds, take out the $1,200 for the gun, $25 for shipping and additional $35 for holding the gun for him. Nice guy right? Then he said that he would give me further instructions on how to send the excess funds to his cousin. At this point, he still had not sent me his ffl info. Again, not being familiar with cashiers checks, i did some more digging and found out that this is pretty much a scam. Maybe a well known scam. I don't know. First time, I've ever encountered this. I sent him a long email explaining that i did not feel comfortable with this, that the whole situation was sketchy and that if this really was legit, to cancel the check and issue a new one for the correct amount and send me his ffl info. I have not heard back from him and as of today, i have not received a check yet. And if i do receive the check, it will not be deposited. I will give it to my bank to be destroyed or voided. This may be an old or well known scam, but it is a new one to me so i just wanted to share.
- Thread starter Scott14
- Start date
What they know is the bank will almost always hold the funds till the check clears. What they are hoping for is that you will have enough balance and send the difference back. By the time your bank says "Hey this check isn't legit" you are out the cash you sent as a "refund".
Pretty standard scam....In any event ALWAYS wait till the bank clears the check, and the funds are 100% deposited.
Pretty standard scam....In any event ALWAYS wait till the bank clears the check, and the funds are 100% deposited.
See if the FBI will assist in catching this dude.
Fraud by mail is FED.
Contact the issuing bank if you see a check.
Fraud by mail is FED.
Contact the issuing bank if you see a check.
Old scam.
Had someone try that on me 4 years ago.
He got all pissy when I told him “ sucks to be you if you planned on me doing this”
Wished him the brsy of luck in his scams and moved on.
Another of I got is saying they are deaf and about a tty operator. Deleted that one as well.
Had someone try that on me 4 years ago.
He got all pissy when I told him “ sucks to be you if you planned on me doing this”
Wished him the brsy of luck in his scams and moved on.
Another of I got is saying they are deaf and about a tty operator. Deleted that one as well.
SAME shit happened to me last week, except I didn’t fall for it. Same cashier check shit, but dude wanted me to zelle money to someone else for a gun. I told him no fucking way am i getting remotely involved with a gun purchase with 2 parties i do not know. So while waiting on his check that was supposed to arrive, he texts me. Told me the amount was for more than what i was selling. A lot more. I responded by saying “i told you I wouldn’t do that”.
anyways, after thinking about it for a few minutes i told him to cancel his check or id return to sender it and he could pay paypal f&f or piss off. Never responded.
odd part, i had tracking for the check. This guy was in texas(supposedly) but check was coming from cali. Its like 5 days late and still stuck in cali, its very odd.
dude even sent me a pic of his dl and some weird id, sent me a link to his YouTube channel and asked me to follow. Im sure no e of that was his info, which i was aware of that possibility.
anyways, after thinking about it for a few minutes i told him to cancel his check or id return to sender it and he could pay paypal f&f or piss off. Never responded.
odd part, i had tracking for the check. This guy was in texas(supposedly) but check was coming from cali. Its like 5 days late and still stuck in cali, its very odd.
dude even sent me a pic of his dl and some weird id, sent me a link to his YouTube channel and asked me to follow. Im sure no e of that was his info, which i was aware of that possibility.
Fbi is too busy corrupting elections and trying to unseat a duly elected president.
They got no time for actual crime
Most of this stuff can be avoided with phone calls. Not emails. Not texts. Calls. Old school. I bailed on a purchase here on an action because a seller would not talk on the phone. He messaged me that he has been on this site for years and never had to do it. He would not call me and would not give me his number. I told him to keep it.
Yea, scam written all over that. I currently selling some musical equipment on our local Craigslist and one of the first responses was the same thing. Send too much money, hold a certain amount out for my time and trouble, and then send the rest to whoever. The wrinkle I had not seen/noticed before was that some company would pick up the items and ship them to him. RRRRRight. How do yo spell delete?
Ol’ crooked Eric hits all my armslist postings. Always Florida, always cashier checks.
I have sold things to other states in armslist, but you have to be careful. Always get their FFl info first and call the FFL before accepting payment. Never send the item before payment completely clears, usually scammers go ghost when you want their phone number and try to call them to talk about the transaction.
I ended up selling that lower to a young man in Kentucky, we texted a while he gave me a real deal FFL, sent me pictures of the money order and the postage with his address etc. everything went fine. It’s doable, but it’s more work for sure.
I have sold things to other states in armslist, but you have to be careful. Always get their FFl info first and call the FFL before accepting payment. Never send the item before payment completely clears, usually scammers go ghost when you want their phone number and try to call them to talk about the transaction.
I ended up selling that lower to a young man in Kentucky, we texted a while he gave me a real deal FFL, sent me pictures of the money order and the postage with his address etc. everything went fine. It’s doable, but it’s more work for sure.
That's a typical scam always get a cashiers check written from the bank not from the person account so the bank is guarantee the funds.
When they want to send you more then what your asking is when I usually respond with the name ,address and phone number of my local FBI Office. I always wonder how many checks the Agent received from the scammers trying to buy my stuff.
When they want to send you more then what your asking is when I usually respond with the name ,address and phone number of my local FBI Office. I always wonder how many checks the Agent received from the scammers trying to buy my stuff.
I bought an unfired Sako TRG two weeks ago off armslist and a unfired Tikka last year. All out of state. Both really good guys. You just have to pay attention. If someone wants to sell something they will spend a little time on the phone.
I have gotten one or more of these types of emails for every single gun I have listed on Armslist. Same deal, just ask for FFL (which they never give) and I tell them payment MUST be sent via paypal or no sale. I haven't ever gotten a response from that. Seems to work so far.
Exact same message I got. I was sure this was a scam. But again, i wanted to share in case somebody else, maybe a little more vulnerable to B.S. didn't get caught up in this mess.
Yep good on ya, it’s easy to get tricked occasionally and good people get scammed by these trash all the time
Stuff like this just down right pisses me off because it's jackoffs like this that ruin it for the honest people out there. Makes it really hard to trust and verify someone. Not impossible. But, you have to be on your toes and put a little extra work in.
I find 90% of buyers and sellers on Armslist are scammers.
WARNING: It takes 10 business days for a check to truly clear. When your bank makes your funds available, they are actually loaning you the money until the actual check clears which is about 10 business days. Anytime before that, your money is subject to withdrawal from the bank if the check is not good.
WARNING: All forms of bank checks and money orders (except USPS) can be cancelled.
WARNING: Paypal is anti gun and if a gun related transfer has a problem and they find out it was related to guns, they will lock your account for many months. I don't understand why any gun person would do business with them.
US Postal money orders are the only money order that can not be cancelled, but they can be counterfeited. While not perfect, it is the safest money transfer other than cash.
WARNING: It takes 10 business days for a check to truly clear. When your bank makes your funds available, they are actually loaning you the money until the actual check clears which is about 10 business days. Anytime before that, your money is subject to withdrawal from the bank if the check is not good.
WARNING: All forms of bank checks and money orders (except USPS) can be cancelled.
WARNING: Paypal is anti gun and if a gun related transfer has a problem and they find out it was related to guns, they will lock your account for many months. I don't understand why any gun person would do business with them.
US Postal money orders are the only money order that can not be cancelled, but they can be counterfeited. While not perfect, it is the safest money transfer other than cash.
I too wonder why anyone on this site uses paypal. We should ALL be figuring out a different venue. Wasn't McMillan working on something like this, some time ago?
I get it but for me, it isn't worth the trouble. I have tried to buy a couple of items only to back out because it felt fishy. I have two buds that got burned.
There are too many other places to buy from that don't require the oversight.
So i sent this guy 2 emails. First one saying i didn't like the situation, it's sketchy, it's a scam, etc. No reply. Then i asked again for his ffl dealer info and his phone number. No reply. Then out of nowhere, he sends me an email with a tracking number for the check and asks me to let him know when its deposited. Really? I replied and again asked for his phone number and ffl info. No reply. This idiot isn't even making an effort anymore to convince me it's not a scam. haha. Idiot.
Hotline | USPS Office of Inspector General
Report it. Likely won't go anywhere, but the more info they have the better.
Or here: https://www.uspis.gov/report/
Never reported fraud before, so honestly not sure which is the best/correct one.
Never reported fraud before, so honestly not sure which is the best/correct one.
I see stuff in the For Sale areas that I’ve wanted to buy but when it says paypal only, no exceptions, I move along.
I had a certified check come to me from my fathers estate when he died and the bank locked that up for two weeks since a lot of fraud is done with certified checks.
@Keel Haul , my condolences for the loss of your father.
As to the 2 week hold for clearing a certified cheque, I'm good with that. Buying or selling.
As to the 2 week hold for clearing a certified cheque, I'm good with that. Buying or selling.
UPDATE: This is good......He sent me his FFL dealer info. Gold Mine Pawn LLC. Out of curiosity, I called. Really nice lady answered the phone, and i asked if they were an ffl dealer. She said "yes, is this related to Eric Stevens?" I started laughing. She went on quite a rant about this guy and actually she found out it is an organization from Nigeria. She posted a complete warning about this guy/organization with the multiple names they use on her website. (https://goldminepawnllc.com/). She has already reported them to the FBI, ATF, Post Master, etc. Super nice lady.
I was trying to sale a truck on craigslist one time and had the same shit happen. Old boy was going to send me the cashiers check and pick up the truck later. He never asked me any questions about the truck other than is it still available. I knew better, told him cash face to face. Never heard from him again.
I can't count the number of scammers I have encountered in both buying and selling. Problems with ebay, problems with paypal, it's endless (and paypal SUCKS for sellers, they always side with lying buyers). I don't usually buy person to person on the internet anymore unless its from an online community of regulars that have a history that can be traced or verified.
The 'pay you more than you want' for ANY reason and have you refund me the difference is always a scam.
Checks can be easily scammed, I forgot exactly what happened to a friend of mine, but he received a completely fake check from a bank that didn't even exist, he was told by his bank it cleared, then funds revoked 4-5 days later, then he was told the check was fake. It was too late at that point. You can't trust most regular bank tellers to even know when the check has TRULY cleared (but the bank manager will know)
The advice above to wait 10-14 days on any check, is great advice, even a cashiers check.
The 'pay you more than you want' for ANY reason and have you refund me the difference is always a scam.
Checks can be easily scammed, I forgot exactly what happened to a friend of mine, but he received a completely fake check from a bank that didn't even exist, he was told by his bank it cleared, then funds revoked 4-5 days later, then he was told the check was fake. It was too late at that point. You can't trust most regular bank tellers to even know when the check has TRULY cleared (but the bank manager will know)
The advice above to wait 10-14 days on any check, is great advice, even a cashiers check.
old scam
I dont trust anyone who uses multiple ????s or !!!!!s at the end of their sentences.
That was the dead give-away IMO.
That was the dead give-away IMO.
