Announcement Stop sending money to scammers!

[Tri-CitiesJohn]

I've had MANY great experiences on here.....some Face to Face, others through shipping.

If the dollar amount gets up there, I try and have a phone conversation.......so far 100% to the good.

Scammers are everywhere these days- Don't lose trust in your fellow man here, but be smart

 

[billdeserthills]

After my last failed buy here at NW, I have given up on making purchases here. That's because my last attempt at buying here was this:

Search results for query: SBA3 & SBA4 in black

www.northwestfirearms.com

I was supposedly buying nib SBa3 & SBa4 stabilizers

The member WTC had been a member here for about a year & had many successful transactions. Nobody has seen or heard from him since March 2021 & since he was in the hospital around the time of my sending him a USPS m/o, I suspect he has croaked which leaves me with no recourse, so I can't even say he was an intentional scammer. USPS tracked my m/o (for a fee) and let me know that it had been cashed, so game over

 

[sobo]

After my last failed buy here at NW, I have given up on making purchases here. That's because my last attempt at buying here was this:

https://www.northwestfirearms.com/conversations/sba3-sba4-in-black.1175713/#convMessage-2293665

I was supposedly buying nib SBa3 & SBa4 stabilizers

The member WTC had been a member here for about a year & had many successful transactions. Nobody has seen or heard from him since March 2021 & since he was in the hospital around the time of my sending him a USPS m/o, I suspect he has croaked which leaves me with no recourse, so I can't even say he was an intentional scammer. USPS tracked my m/o (for a fee) and let me know that it had been cashed, so game over

Well, that sux all the way around. For you, and for the seller, if indeed he was legit and passed on.

BTW, your link to the thread returns "Page Not Found"

 

[spookshack]

Never send money to a guy named "Joe Link" no matter how many times he may ask you to!

I kid, I kid, Joe is legit. I've met him in real life a couple times. Dude for sure!

 

[Mikej]

Ever send money to a guy named "Joe Link" no matter how many times he may ask you to!

I kid, I kid, Joe is legit. I've met him in real life a couple times. Dude for sure!

Best entertainment for the money anywhere! No drink minimum either!

 

[Flopsweat]

Perhaps.

Alternatively there's a good chance that they are simply a luddite & curmudgeon like myself.

Video call for a sale/trade? Ain't gonna happen!

...now get off my lawn you damn kids!

Possibly, but I've done it a dozen+ times and both parties felt better and more confident in the deal. I usually insist on a call for items over $1,500 but everyone has their own limit for how much they're willing to potentially lose.

You're both right you know.

 

[coop44]

Never send money to a guy named "Joe Link" no matter how many times he may ask you to!

I kid, I kid, Joe is legit. I've met him in real life a couple times. Dude for sure!

Really? I thought he was an A.I. like skynet. Just biding his time before launching the nukes!

 

[Flopsweat]

Really? I thought he was an A.I. like skynet. Just biding his time before launching the nukes!

I've been calling him "Charlie" behind his back.



* I would be Bosley of course. You guys can fight over which Angel you want to be.

** The Bill Murray one. He was the coolest.

 

[sobo]

Really? I thought he was an A.I. like skynet. Just biding his time before launching the nukes!

SkyNet approves this message...

 

[Burt Gummer]

About 15 years ago I bought a one ounce gold coin off Ebay for $500 +/-. The seller had 100% FB, multiple sales.

When I got it in its little certified, sealed cardboard holder it seemed light. So I opened it. Plastic. A plastic 5-cent play coin.
LOL! I was blown away. So I took pics and contacted Ebay and Paypal and they got me my $$ back. Not so lucky for the 100+ other buyers before that got a plastic coin (a flat weight inside the cardboard). The seller simply closed the account and ran off.

 

[40Garand]

Not sure if it's saved me any grief or not, but when somebody that's just signed up for the forum hits me up with a "Still available?" I put them on ignore. Especially when they ask me 20 minutes after I just bumped the listing.

 

[Scooterbman]

Despite numerous threads on the subject and the above average intelligence of our wonderful members, I'm still seeing far too many reports of people falling for scams in our classified section. You need to be cautious each and every time, regardless of who you're dealing with, period. Most of the victims I talk with have one thing in common: they didn't think it'd happen to them. Truth is, it can and will happen to you if you conduct transactions through the mail without taking proper precautions as mentioned in the How do I avoid getting scammed? help entry. I recommend those not willing to put in the time and effort to protect themselves stick with face to face transactions.

Even if you've done multiple transactions with someone in the past, how do you know it's really them this time? Though we've repeatedly encouraged all members to use strong, unique passwords and enable 2FA, account compromises do still happen, especially with old accounts which haven't logged in for a long time. Those of you with tons of positive feedback and the same weak password you use on every account? You're a prime target! Their goal is to gain access to your account and then use it to scam others. You're hearing about this here, but please don't make the mistake of assuming this is a problem unique to Northwest Firearms. In fact, it's far better here than other sites. I only say this to remind you to take what you're learning here and put it in practice whenever you conduct business online.

If you suspect someone of being a scammer, don't assume we already know about them. Please report them ASAP so we can investigate and remove them if need be. You wouldn't believe how many things don't get reported.

I apologize if the tone here seems a bit harsh, but it ruins my day every single time I hear about it. Most of you will be reading this thread due to the notice or the alert I'll be sending to all of our members after I post this. It's unfortunate that it has come to this, but people just don't seem to be taking it seriously. Myself and our staff have been doing all we can to detect and remove potential scammers, increase security, and spread the word about this stuff. Unfortunately, all the technology in the world can't replace a bit of good old fashioned common sense.

I've never had a problem with any of the clients or people buying or se!ling here ever I find there place they want to meet make sure its very public and never an issue ! Obviously I'm always packing as is pretty sure a large majority of ppl on this site ! I did this for living for a few years of my life always geared up!

 

[40Garand]

I've never had a problem with any of the clients or people buying or se!ling here ever I find there place they want to meet make sure its very public and never an issue ! Obviously I'm always packing as is pretty sure a large majority of ppl on this site ! I did this for living for a few years of my life always geared up!

Wait till you list a gun here for over $1000 and you get the broken english PM that reads "I like gun. Can buy for $400" Literally that's all they type. They'll leave no name or contact information. If you reply "Pound sand" they usually get the hint. You'll also notice that their profile was created the same day or very recently and they do not have any feedback nor do they donate funds to @Northwest Firearms. The scammers and mega deluxe tire kickers are not hard to spot here.

 

[Burt Gummer]

Received three fake, threatening emails from my bank today claiming I was late on payments. Comparing their fake scam to the real site - all I can say is WOW. Fonts, colors, everything identical. But the red flag was a '.' inserted into the sending email address.

The best advice anymore is when you receive any email with a link is never click the link. Go to the site yourself, login as you normally do. Scammers are next level now.

For credit cards, if you need to use them, get one to use at sketchy places. Bars, etc - where servers love to steal your card data with a $50 pocket info-grabber. On that one car set up every notification possible. As in every transaction you get a text and email. Scammers will often run a .01 or $1 transaction first as a prelude to their attack/hack of your account.

Saved me already at, ahem, a gentlemen's club on SE Stark, while I was still there I was getting notifications of extra charges. Handled.

 

[Flopsweat]

Received three fake, threatening emails from my bank today claiming I was late on payments. Comparing their fake scam to the real site - all I can say is WOW. Fonts, colors, everything identical. But the red flag was a '.' inserted into the sending email address.

The best advice anymore is when you receive any email with a link is never click the link. Go to the site yourself, login as you normally do. Scammers are next level now.

For credit cards, if you need to use them, get one to use at sketchy places. Bars, etc - where servers love to steal your card data with a $50 pocket info-grabber. On that one car set up every notification possible. As in every transaction you get a text and email. Scammers will often run a .01 or $1 transaction first as a prelude to their attack/hack of your account.

Saved me already at, ahem, a gentlemen's club on SE Stark, while I was still there I was getting notifications of extra charges. Handled.

Or pay cash. Cash is good. More of us should be using it.

 

[sobo]

Or pay cash. Cash is good. More of us should be using it.

I have a large stash of cash in the gun safe at home in the event of some unspecified financial calamity that would preclude making withdrawals.
Plus, I always carry a fairly large roll of cash with me to avoid being "tracked" by my purchases and also to avoid card info theft (I also use an RFID wallet).
I also carry my EDC and a spare mag wherever I go. To protect said cash...

 

[solv3nt]

Saved me already at, ahem, a gentlemen's club on SE Stark, while I was still there I was getting notifications of extra charges. Handled.

I didn't know strippers let you swipe your card, that's a game changer right there! Did you use the chip or swipe down?

 

[Hueco]

Received three fake, threatening emails from my bank today claiming I was late on payments. Comparing their fake scam to the real site - all I can say is WOW. Fonts, colors, everything identical. But the red flag was a '.' inserted into the sending email address.

The best advice anymore is when you receive any email with a link is never click the link. Go to the site yourself, login as you normally do. Scammers are next level now.

For credit cards, if you need to use them, get one to use at sketchy places. Bars, etc - where servers love to steal your card data with a $50 pocket info-grabber. On that one car set up every notification possible. As in every transaction you get a text and email. Scammers will often run a .01 or $1 transaction first as a prelude to their attack/hack of your account.

Saved me already at, ahem, a gentlemen's club on SE Stark, while I was still there I was getting notifications of extra charges. Handled.

Regarding email...

Get yo'self a gmail account for promo stuff. Let's say I use [email protected]...when I subscribe to Aero Precision's stuff, I would use [email protected].

When I sub to Primary Arms, I use [email protected].

You see, gmail will ignore anything at and after that + sign - meaning you have a simple way to build an opt-in heuristic that'll let you know exactly who sold or leaked your information. If, for example, I start getting emails from a scammer attempting to be Chase Bank but they're sending me an email at my hueco+aero email address...then I know that either Aero sold my info (not super likely) or my info was compromised over at Aero (more likely).

Regardless of what you think about Google - using gmail to control promotional email and check for compromised data is an easy win. Additionally...if I ever get a message sent straight to [email protected] ... I know it's junk, because EVERY time I give my email away, it has that +something rule applied.

(Note, this is not my real email. Derp.)

Regarding scam pages looking legit...

Scammers use bots to jack all of the target's page HTML. They usually don't even rehost stylesheets but link directly to the real ones. The dead giveaway is in the use of some other main domain using the target as a subdomain. They'll do something like "chase.mybank.com" ... in this case, "chase" is a subdomain of "mybank.com" ... and WTF is "mybank.com"? Scammer...obviously.

Stuff like this should be common sense at this point...people been internetting for over 30 years now.

 

[Nick Burkhardt]

I have been looking for a Browing Buckmark and ran across this site. No physical address. Looks like a scam. What do you all think?

Browning Buck Mark Camper 22LR Stainless Rimfire Pistol with 3 Magazines For Sale - browning gun shop

This is it, buy the Browning Buck Mark Camper 22LR Stainless Rimfire Pistol with 3 Magazines and have it delivered to you shipping free.

browninggunshop.com

 

[Flopsweat]

I have been looking for a Browing Buckmark and ran across this site. No physical address. Looks like a scam. What do you all think?

Browning Buck Mark Camper 22LR Stainless Rimfire Pistol with 3 Magazines For Sale - browning gun shop

This is it, buy the Browning Buck Mark Camper 22LR Stainless Rimfire Pistol with 3 Magazines and have it delivered to you shipping free.

browninggunshop.com

https://search.brave.com/search?q=browninggunshop.com+review&source=web

One of the links on the first page of results is castboolits, a very credible gun forum, and they pan it pretty bad. They point out that the 800 number for customer service goes to overstock.com. Also there are spelling/grammar errors typical of a 419 scammer. So no, likely not legit at all.