fraudulent bidder

starislon · June 14, 2006, 03:12 AM

FYI:

Received two fraudulent bids tonight on GunBroker. One from an email address of [email protected], & another with email address of sysb69429-42 @walala.org. walala.org is a "forwarding" email address, good for as little as 24 hours. The bidder didn't get my item but he did get my address, name, email address and phone #. I think I'll lock my doors & map out my 'fields of fire.'

The fraudulent bidder also reportedly tried to con Mad Dog Guns of Scottsdale, AZ out of a $2,899 item earlier in the evening.

It looks like both the buyer & seller better be aware. . .

mike452 · June 15, 2006, 03:13 AM

How is this scam suppose to work other than losing the listing fee?

I never ship without receiving the money. Just want to know what to watch for because I use gunbroker. Thanks!

Majic · June 15, 2006, 05:01 AM

How did the bidder get your personal info?

starislon · June 16, 2006, 12:18 AM

Majic:
He bid on my item & sent an email requesting address for sending payment I gave him address and ph.#, which I usually do when someone says they want to buy my item. He said he wanted (assuming person was male) to end the auction, so I told him he would have to bid the "Buy It Now" price to do that and I'd need to verify his FFL, etc.

The next thing I knew GunBroker showed I had no bids, so I checked on that and my item showed two "fraudulent bids" listed, in addition, the dealer in AZ reported one of the two email addresses of my "fraudulent bids" had presented phony name address & phone number. I traced my two bids to the 24 hour email site walala.org.

I reported incident to ATF and got the impression that on an "importance" scale of 1 to 10, my complaint rated a minus in the four figure range.
The local LEO who was TDY'ed to phone duty in the Portland ATF office told me computer crime was not something ATF was geared up to handle, it being such a relatively new phenomenon, which, of course,
made me feel much more secure.

Snub357 · June 16, 2006, 05:53 PM

What does this have to do with TFL?

CraigJS · June 16, 2006, 06:10 PM

Information... Thanks for the reminders

JD0608 · June 17, 2006, 08:03 PM

Same Thing Happened To Me On Gunbroker. They Win Your Item Then They Want To Send You A Money Order Or Check For Several Hundred Dollars More Than They Owe You. Then Want You To Cash It And Send The Change Back To Them, Usually Over Seas. You Cash Money Order And Find Out A Week Later It`s No Good. I Didn`t Fall For It But Know Some Who Did. They Might Owe You $100.00 They Tell You Another Guy Owes Them $500.00 And That Guy Will Send You The $500.00 Money Order And You Cash It Take Your Money And Send Them The Rest. The Ones Who Tried Me Were From Camroon. So Beware. They Don`t Try To Buy Guns, Not With Me Anyway..

starislon · June 18, 2006, 01:21 AM

JDO608:

I think the Internet is one of those places where it "pays to be careful", either as a seller or buyer, although I must say I would have a tendency to trust people on the forums a little bit more than the general public.

geneinnc · June 19, 2006, 04:57 PM

"no free lunch" will always do you well.I get at least one email a week in broken English wanting to buy a gun. I use Zone Alarm Security Suite, and I just flush them right to the "report fraudulent activity" toilet and that's that

starislon · June 20, 2006, 01:44 AM

geneinnc:

Thanks for the information, I will look at the Zone Alarm Security Suite solution.
starislon

rick_reno · June 22, 2006, 08:24 AM

That scam is pretty old - I got one the other day wanting to buy a shotgun I'd posted on some forums. He had a "forwarding agent" who would handle the deal. They send you a fake cashiers check - you cash it and some portion of the money to their forwarding agent. Then you find out the check is bad and you're screwed.
My way of dealing with them is when I get one of these bottom feeders on the line I tell the price is a "special to you" price of $SOME REALLY BIG NUMBER (usually in the billions). I also ask them how much they want me to send to their scamming forwarding agent. They go away and move on to someone else.

June 14, 2006, 03:12 AM	#1
starislon Registration in progress Join Date: December 17, 2005 Location: Pacific Northwest Posts: 33	fraudulent bidder FYI: Received two fraudulent bids tonight on GunBroker. One from an email address of [email protected], & another with email address of sysb69429-42 @walala.org. walala.org is a "forwarding" email address, good for as little as 24 hours. The bidder didn't get my item but he did get my address, name, email address and phone #. I think I'll lock my doors & map out my 'fields of fire.' The fraudulent bidder also reportedly tried to con Mad Dog Guns of Scottsdale, AZ out of a $2,899 item earlier in the evening. It looks like both the buyer & seller better be aware. . .

June 16, 2006, 05:53 PM	#5
Snub357 Senior Member Join Date: March 16, 2002 Posts: 484	What does this have to do with TFL? __________________ [Insert prattle here]

June 17, 2006, 08:03 PM	#7
JD0608 Junior Member Join Date: May 1, 2006 Location: NC Posts: 9	Me Too. Same Thing Happened To Me On Gunbroker. They Win Your Item Then They Want To Send You A Money Order Or Check For Several Hundred Dollars More Than They Owe You. Then Want You To Cash It And Send The Change Back To Them, Usually Over Seas. You Cash Money Order And Find Out A Week Later It`s No Good. I Didn`t Fall For It But Know Some Who Did. They Might Owe You $100.00 They Tell You Another Guy Owes Them $500.00 And That Guy Will Send You The $500.00 Money Order And You Cash It Take Your Money And Send Them The Rest. The Ones Who Tried Me Were From Camroon. So Beware. They Don`t Try To Buy Guns, Not With Me Anyway..

June 19, 2006, 04:57 PM	#9
geneinnc Junior member Join Date: December 29, 2005 Posts: 127	scams "no free lunch" will always do you well.I get at least one email a week in broken English wanting to buy a gun. I use Zone Alarm Security Suite, and I just flush them right to the "report fraudulent activity" toilet and that's that

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June 15, 2006, 03:13 AM	#2
mike452 Junior Member Join Date: November 23, 2004 Posts: 6	How is this scam suppose to work other than losing the listing fee? I never ship without receiving the money. Just want to know what to watch for because I use gunbroker. Thanks!

June 15, 2006, 05:01 AM	#3
Majic Senior Member Join Date: May 24, 2004 Posts: 3,888	How did the bidder get your personal info?

June 16, 2006, 12:18 AM	#4
starislon Registration in progress Join Date: December 17, 2005 Location: Pacific Northwest Posts: 33	Majic: He bid on my item & sent an email requesting address for sending payment I gave him address and ph.#, which I usually do when someone says they want to buy my item. He said he wanted (assuming person was male) to end the auction, so I told him he would have to bid the "Buy It Now" price to do that and I'd need to verify his FFL, etc. The next thing I knew GunBroker showed I had no bids, so I checked on that and my item showed two "fraudulent bids" listed, in addition, the dealer in AZ reported one of the two email addresses of my "fraudulent bids" had presented phony name address & phone number. I traced my two bids to the 24 hour email site walala.org. I reported incident to ATF and got the impression that on an "importance" scale of 1 to 10, my complaint rated a minus in the four figure range. The local LEO who was TDY'ed to phone duty in the Portland ATF office told me computer crime was not something ATF was geared up to handle, it being such a relatively new phenomenon, which, of course, made me feel much more secure.

June 16, 2006, 06:10 PM	#6
CraigJS Senior Member Join Date: July 31, 2005 Posts: 372	Information... Thanks for the reminders

June 18, 2006, 01:21 AM	#8
starislon Registration in progress Join Date: December 17, 2005 Location: Pacific Northwest Posts: 33	JDO608: I think the Internet is one of those places where it "pays to be careful", either as a seller or buyer, although I must say I would have a tendency to trust people on the forums a little bit more than the general public.

June 20, 2006, 01:44 AM	#10
starislon Registration in progress Join Date: December 17, 2005 Location: Pacific Northwest Posts: 33	geneinnc: Thanks for the information, I will look at the Zone Alarm Security Suite solution. starislon

June 22, 2006, 08:24 AM	#11
rick_reno Junior member Join Date: May 28, 2002 Location: Idaho Posts: 917	That scam is pretty old - I got one the other day wanting to buy a shotgun I'd posted on some forums. He had a "forwarding agent" who would handle the deal. They send you a fake cashiers check - you cash it and some portion of the money to their forwarding agent. Then you find out the check is bad and you're screwed. My way of dealing with them is when I get one of these bottom feeders on the line I tell the price is a "special to you" price of $SOME REALLY BIG NUMBER (usually in the billions). I also ask them how much they want me to send to their scamming forwarding agent. They go away and move on to someone else.