Seeking advice for a gun sale

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I think you've figured it out by now, it's a scam. I had a shotgun listed on armslist once and as always stated "face to face only". A guy responded by email, and later by phone begging me to ship it to his FFL. He eventually texted me photos of his DL, hunting license, and even his hunting dog! Eventually I gave in after he offered to send a USPS money order and I cashed it at the local post office. I even called the FFL and verified they had been hunting partners for decades. All went well and I eventually had a good laugh over how bad he wanted that old Browning 20 ga.

Would I ever do it again, probably not.
 
Mal H has it right. Wait untill the check clears and in your account. First, tell him that's what you are going to do. See what he does. Probably never hear from him again.
 
One might be able to do the deal through an FFL. Have the guy pay an FFL with a credit card or debit card. Will cost extra. So will a bad check.
 
If I was looking to sell a gun in Wisconsin I'd be hitting the gun shows. There's a lot of them. Walk around with the gun on your shoulder with a price tag dangling from it. You won't get far until someone shows interest.,
 
I've got the shoe on the other foot. Just sent off a large postal money order for a used rifle I bought on gun broker (first time). I'm already sweating bullets. Even if things go well I won't do this again. Too much risk for me.
 
I have purchased several firearms from GB over the years with great success. A seller with plenty of feedback that is 99% good is no problem. Ask for more pictures or info before comitting to make sure though. Other venues you take your chances. When going to a face to face have someone else with at least a cell phone and meet in a big box parking lot or equivelent.
 
I do not know whether your offer is a scam or not but if I were you I would not test it. And right now the post office is hard to deal with also. You get a tracking number and a estimated delivery time but they do not really track it and sometimes deliver late. I have a shotgun that I sold that is in the mail now. And the postal money order is in the mail to me. Let me tell you that is a lot of sweating to go through. I accepted the lower of 3 offers I had at the time for the gun because I felt like I trusted the potential buyer. A longtime user of a website I frequent that I have communicated with before. But now I am sweating until it all gets done. And nothing is moving fast like it used to. I sent a stock to a gunsmith for repair last month. 2 day priority mail. It took 14 days to get there. Tracking just showed out for delivery the whole time. It did finally arrive. It came back in 2 days when he returned it So who knows what is going on? Deals are better and there is less chance of going wrong when they happen at a good pace.
 
I have sold 4 guns on Armslist over the past 3 years. I only sell local and for cash exchanged at an FFL. I still got offers from across the country trying to buy withe a certified check with the buyer making it easy for me to drop it off at an FFL he works with so it can be shipped by mail. Each Offer was the exact same wording. So it was a continuing scamming effort. Certified check scams are so numerous in all areas of sales that One should be so careful before accepting such unkess it is a known reliable buyer.
 
Its a scam, run away as fast as you can.

I had something similar happen to me on Craigslist some years ago, trying to sell an old church organ. Same ploy, out of state buyer with certified check, yadda, yadda...
Whole lotta nope there!
 
Mal H said:
One other thing you can do is check his location from the email. Open the email, and look for a menu item that says something like "View Source". That will give you all the header details of the email. Then scan for "Received from" and copy that IP address. Then plug it into https://whatismyipaddress.com/ip-lookup . If the address is in TX or is a legitimate mobile IP address like AT&T, Spectrum, etc., etc., then the email may be genuine. If the IP resolves to Lagos, Nigeria ... well, you know what to do. ;)
Click to expand...

I gave it a try and am not sure about the result. Here's the link to what I ended up with. https://whatismyipaddress.com/ip/209.85.219.68

It looks like Kansas. Not sure if I copied the right IP address. I found multiple ones. The first one I tried wasn't even valid.
 
FROGO207 said:
Not just in your account but a 14 day wait after check is deposited before shipping it. It takes that long to do all the magic and verify you really HAVE the funds in your account. Anyone in a super hurry IS a scammer IMO.
Click to expand...

They even want to send the money first. Here was their first message:

"Hey. What is the condition? does it have any faults or defects whatsoever? I am in Boerne TX. I have an FFL to receive it for me if you are willing to ship. If yes, what's your shipping cost to TX?? Or i can arrange for a local dealer in your area for you to drop off and they will do what is necessary for me to receive the purchase without your concern and this is after you must have receive payment!"
 
So you got a Kansas IP address from a prospective buyer claiming to be from Texas, who seems so excited to deal he's about to wet himself, and is willing to send payment in advance for a gun he's never seen, to be shipped by an FFL he'll help you find, to an FFL he hasn't identified...maybe you'd be better off just trying to sell it on here...after all, I an looking for a shotgun myself.....
 
armedwalleye said:
So you got a Kansas IP address from a prospective buyer claiming to be from Texas, who seems so excited to deal he's about to wet himself, and is willing to send payment in advance for a gun he's never seen, to be shipped by an FFL he'll help you find, to an FFL he hasn't identified...maybe you'd be better off just trying to sell it on here...after all, I an looking for a shotgun myself.....
Click to expand...

That's assuming I used the right IP address from the data I got. There was another one that didn't show anything. But either way I think I'm going to pass on it. I'd much rather sell locally. Just meet them face to face, take the cash, give the gun, and be on our way. Simple!
 
The data says it's in Kansas, but that's only because it's a Google email address for the entire US. (Kansas is shown because it's the exact center of the US.) The user isn't in Kansas, unless it's very coincidental. Since the email was a gmail message, you won't get any useful results from the header, but it was worth a try.

You've made the right decision to sell locally.
 
12Pump said:
Just FYI, here's the exact contents of their last email to me:
"That's ok with me. I will mail a certified bank cashier check for payment and once the bank posts the funds which usually doesn't take more than a day. It will clear for sure. So send me your name, full address, final asking price and mobile number to mail the bank cashier check, it should take 2-3 working days for the delivery via FedEx. Please bear with me as i m highly interested in this purchase!"
Click to expand...

The phrasing of that email screams fraud to me. Reads like it was written by a Nigerian prince.

"certified bank cashier check", "It will clear for sure", "mobile number"? "highly interested in this purchase"
 
Mal H said:
The data says it's in Kansas, but that's only because it's a Google email address for the entire US. (Kansas is shown because it's the exact center of the US.) The user isn't in Kansas, unless it's very coincidental. Since the email was a gmail message, you won't get any useful results from the header, but it was worth a try.

You've made the right decision to sell locally.
Click to expand...

I probably didn't even use the right data. I had to look up how to do it since I couldn't find the "view source" option right away. Then I find what appears to be different IP addresses and wasn't sure what they were: Mine, google's, the sender's, or maybe one of the servers the message passed through on the way to me.
 
23tony said:
The phrasing of that email screams fraud to me. Reads like it was written by a Nigerian prince.

"certified bank cashier check", "It will clear for sure", "mobile number"? "highly interested in this purchase"
Click to expand...

You're probably correct. However, a Nigerian Prince must indeed be pretty wealthy! :;
 
Although the OP's situation is surely either a scam or an idiot, between personal sales and those done for my buddy's gun store I've done more than 100 Gunbroker/Armslist sales and purchases. I've only had 1 guy fail to pay me. As far as payment options, while I've never received a bad check I've found that the basic USPS money order is the safest and most reliable.
 
Unless payment is made by United states postal money order I would avoid.
 
You know it’s a scam. It’s insanely obvious. Everyone has pointed out the red flag wording. You don’t have to wonder. All of us who use arms list have seen these emails a thousand times. They are all obvious.
The only reason you are wondering is your greed is clouding your judgement.
Stop wondering, ignore it, wait for a real offer.
 
Sell him that $100,000 dollar final asking price shotgun! Make sure he knows he needs to fly in from Nigeria and arrange all of the export duties and other legal contingencies.
 
I use a VPN so my IP can look like it came from just about anywhere. I can connect to servers all over the world and that will be the location of the IP address.
I worked with a guy that got a certified check from a contest he never heard of. He took it to his bank and they said it was good. The check was even from his bank. He was still worried so he took it to another branch and they said they had seen several just like it and it was fake. He contacted the police and they came and picked up the check and told him they had almost 50 just like it.
12Pump said:
I gave it a try and am not sure about the result. Here's the link to what I ended up with. https://whatismyipaddress.com/ip/209.85.219.68

It looks like Kansas. Not sure if I copied the right IP address. I found multiple ones. The first one I tried wasn't even valid.
Click to expand...
 
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