armslist scams

[us1911]

Anyone getting armslist scams? I recently responded to an armslist Ad for a high-end pistol that was a scam, and I wanted to share some of the obvious clues.

1) The ad was listed from Colorado, but his email said he was in Texas.
2) He offered to sell to me if I would drive to a non-existent city in TX for pick-up, or alternatively, he would pay to ship to my FFL. I assume his next email would ask for a wire transfer -- didn't get that far.
3) Both emails from him arrived around 4:30 AM. Unusual hours for the US, but daylight hours on the other side of the Atlantic.
4) Initial ad was in perfect english. However, both emails had numerous misspellings, strange sentences, bad punctuation, strange capitalizations, etc.
5) The kicker was the location of the email sender's IP -- his emails came from Africa.

The email sender's rough location is easy to ferret out, and can be really useful to test the veracity of the sender. In your email reader pull up the "full header" (also called header details, etc). Scroll down until you find the "sender's IP". Copy the number and look it up on the "whois" website to get the location. The sender IP is not necessarily the IP of his computer, but is some routing point near to him. Some who knows more than I can probably chime in on how well this works (or not).


Or just buy in the TP after checking feedback.........

[blm28]

Sounds like one to avoid.

[Eggysrun]

Armslist nigeria scam lol

[SideShow Bob]

Nigerians at it again ? I think I have won the Nigerian lottery at least 10X times, had several Nigerian relatives pass and leave multiple millions of dollars and last but not least two Nigerian kings want to give me a million dollars each just to receive and hold fortunes for them until their visit to the US.........

[us1911]

A few years back I had an email offer to share a Nigerian businessman's fortune if I would help him to set-up bank accounts, etc. Surprised to see them scamming on Wilson Combat pistols.

[Scanker19]

I'm telling y'all, the best way to spot a scammer is if they use "hello" as the first word inthe Email. 9out of 10 times it's a scammer.

[JMBD2112]

i found a USP Tactical in nashville that i told the owner i wanted to buy, he wanted $750 for it, he responded that if i sent him a payment he would ship to a FFL of my choice. Well my folks live a couple hours from nashville and i told him I would wire them the money and have them pick it up for me. He INSISTED on a money order directly from me cause he couldnt sell my dad the pistol knowing it was going to me?!?! so yeah that was definetely a scam

[Eggysrun]

i found a USP Tactical in nashville that i told the owner i wanted to buy, he wanted $750 for it, he responded that if i sent him a payment he would ship to a FFL of my choice. Well my folks live a couple hours from nashville and i told him I would wire them the money and have them pick it up for me. He INSISTED on a money order directly from me cause he couldnt sell my dad the pistol knowing it was going to me?!?! so yeah that was definetely a scam

I dunno I guess maybe his point of view is he is thinking you can't buy a firearm legally (can't pass the BG check, etc) and having someone else buy it for you goes into a grey area even though private sales/transfers are totally legit. Not accusing you of anything, just saying some people are paranoid as hell.

[Goodburbon]

i found a USP Tactical in nashville that i told the owner i wanted to buy, he wanted $750 for it, he responded that if i sent him a payment he would ship to a FFL of my choice. Well my folks live a couple hours from nashville and i told him I would wire them the money and have them pick it up for me. He INSISTED on a money order directly from me cause he couldnt sell my dad the pistol knowing it was going to me?!?! so yeah that was definetely a scam

That's not a scam, that's someone playing by the rules refusing to sell to a straw buyer. YOU were the one trying to skirt the law.

[JMBD2112]

That's not a scam, that's someone playing by the rules refusing to sell to a straw buyer. YOU were the one trying to skirt the law.

really? by no means was i trying to skirt the law, he wasn't a dealer, it was a private party transaction. i didnt think i was doing anything wrong? unless their is something i don't know about i thought that was legal