What do you make of this email?I think it is a set up

Sounds like a straw purchase to me. I'd stay away.

I concur.

Sounds like one of those scam emails I got when I was selling a car and had ads online.

"I'll send you a check for more than the price of the car and the shipping, and you ship the car and send me the excess money."

Yeah, right!

The bad grammer, incorrect usage of words, lots of non relevant information. All tip offs that something isn't right with this. Hard to tell exactly what they want to do.

If I had gotten it, I would have deleted it after reading about half of it.

Plus, anybody who thinks a G26 would be easier for a person with infirmities to operate than a Colt's revolver is too misinformed to trust.

There is the possibility that he is just misinformed regarding the law. You could write back, informing him of the limitations and requirements for buying and transferring a gun and see if he is still interested.
My wife's ex-pastor (he's retired now) was pretty severely disabled and kept a gun nearby wherever he went. He had permission from the king to carry concealed and he did - even when in the pulpit.

Please my ground son will handle

Click to expand...

Even second language people can get GRAND right instead of GROUND. What'd he do, chop up his grandson?

I would ignore and delete this email.

Better yet, report it to the BATFE.

I think it is a set up

Click to expand...

I think likewise.

Drop it, do not reply.

I have a personal web site with some gun related stuff on it. Back in the day when I posted more on usenet than I do now, I would put the link to that in my signature. Every once in a while I would get emails like this. Some doozies, including one guy who up front claimed to be an attorney with the DOJ, looking for a Makarov manual.

Heck -- we here in Illinois had an Attorney General, an election cycle or 3 ago, who was involved in Internet gun deal entrapment. Your correspondent claiming to be in Rochester suggests a possible NYC connection, because you know Bloomberg & Co(-conspirators) are fishing for straw purchases.

By the way, what do the full email headers look like?

"Better yet, report it to the BATFE."

They probably sent it.

I am with revjen on this one. Sounds to me like the ATF is out doing some
fishing. You know throw the line in and see if something bites.

"Better yet, report it to the BATFE."

They probably sent it.

Click to expand...

That's my hunch. It's long past time to pull the financial plug on that bunch, slap them into uniforms, and send them out to do some real work protecting the nation's borders.

Run away fast!!!

It's setup... nobody in their right mind goes to Rochester, NY on vacation...

"Better yet, report it to the BATFE."

They probably sent it.

Click to expand...

Agreed. Here's what I'd suggest: reply to the email and arrange a meetup. Have lots of local LE there to tase, pepper spray, manhandle and just generally arrest the guy. Laugh your butt off when he keeps hollering, "Stop it! I'm ATF!"

--Len.

hmmm...

...better yet, send it to the DOJ and ask them to follow-up with the sender...Maybe they can catch Bloomie in another scam...

This is a phishing email. I would not even reply. What they will probably try to do is send you a check or money order for the price or more than the price, then send them the extra cash, however the money order/check is drawn on a fraudulent account or is fake. Then the bank comes back to you and you are out $xxx dollars.

If you reply they know you're semi-taking the bait and are a live person and you may find yourself targeted even more for scams.

mebbe Bloomberg is fishing?

Technically an attempt at a straw purchase, but very possible that the gentleman doesn't know any better. At his age...and if he hasn't kept abreast of current trends...he wouldn't think anything of having his "groundson" go pick up a pistol for him. I did it for my father when it was too hard on him to go buy his gun, and he's done it for me when I was out of state and unable to get to the dealer in time to snag a desireable or collectible piece.

Another point...As long as he isn't legally barred from ownership or possession...a transfer like this is legal between father and son. Maybe the same applies for grandfather/grandson. It's entirely possible that the transaction would be completely legal.

I think I'd give him some information along those lines, and remind him that the transaction may not be a good thing to do in his jurisdiction, so that he can approach the next potential seller in the proper manner.

I'll bet you $20 that this guy is a Nigerian scammer. It has all the trademarks of it. They typically scam lonely women.

My aunt met a guy online who was supposedly from a city 3 hours away from her. He was working in Nigeria for HP setting up computer systems over there and would be coming home in several months. When it got time for him to come back, he said that he was having trouble getting paid by his employer. He had to get paid in money orders and couldn't cash them over there so they were to mail the money order or cashiers check to her and have her cash it. She was supposed to use Western Union to wire the money to him. We convinced her (she wouldn't believe us when we told her it was all a scam) to take the check to the bank and have them hold all funds until the check cleared. It was for $8000 I think. She got a call from the bank several days later saying that it was a bogus check.

That wasn't enough to convince her that it was a scam. Then the guy was using his credit card to buy jewelry and having it sent to her for her to resell and send him the money so he could buy a plane ticket to come home. About that time, he started to tell her that the people he was staying with were getting really beligerant and he feared for his safety. She gets tons of QVC type jewelry in the mail. A few weeks goes buy and she gets a call from the place that the jewelry was bought from and they said that it was bought with a stolen or bogus credit card and they want to report her for fraud. That finally convinced her that it was a scam.

She confronted him and he confessed and still tried to milk it. He claimed that is started out a scam but fell in love with her, blah, blah, blah. I don't think she lost much money to him.

I think that these Nigerian guys have accomplices in Canada and that is where the bogus checks come from. That is what alot of the dating scam websites say. That would explain why a "groundson" would be able to do a face to face with the close proximity of Rochester to Canada.

The authorities won't mess with international scams for small amounts and leave you liable for any losses or fraud charges. That is why the Nigerians are so successful at what they do. It is an industry over there. The terrible grammar and spelling is another dead giveaway that this guy is Nigerian. He threw in the disabilities to make you feel bad for him. These guys are believable to the gullible.

Scam, DELETE

Report and delete. Nothing will come of the reporting though I can promise you that.

Take the money, deposit it in your account, collect the interest and wait.

Seems to work for many corporations and other types. Don't make the purchase, then it's no straw purchase. When the feds come a knocking, issue their refund and count the interest.

Was this an unsolicited e-mail? Delete or forward to the BATFE, keeps em off honest citizen's backs.