Online Gun Scams

[AlaskaHunter]

The Oct 2022 issue of Guns Magazine had an informative article about how online gun scammers operate.
The article was written by Alan Garbers "Don't Fall Victim to Online Gun Scammers!"

How it works:
Open an account, pay a dozen high school students to submit positive reviews,
then post a bunch of popular guns at pre-pandemic prices and let the fish take the bait.

The buyer sees models that he can not find anywhere and at such a good price,
loads up the shopping cart, hesitates for a second at checkout requiring PayPal, Venmo, or ApplePay.
Submit the order and relaxes when a tracking number is received.
By the time no delivery occurs, the scammer is long gone.

 

[WapitiBob]

Takes 10 seconds to spot that stuff

 

[shb]

They do it with everything.

Primers
Powder
Percussion caps


I even saw a fake business doing it with taxidermy.

 

[AlaskaHunter]

The article had some suggestions for minimizing risk:
Never pay via PayPal, VenMo, Zelle,ApplePay, etc.
While they are convenient and fast, they are risky.
You have no recourse if the deal goes bad...no stop payment, no refund.
Second it violates the terms of use to purchase a firearm
and if discovered your account may be frozen.

UPS money orders are commonly counterfeited as cashier checks.
If you are selling, before you ship, take the check or money order
to the issuing institution and cash it. Otherwise it could be weeks
before the counterfeit money order is discovered and your item is gone
as well as the money.

If you are buying use a credit card. If the seller turns out to be a scammer, you
can dispute the fraudulent charges and recover your money
through the credit card company. If an online store does
not accept credit cards, it is likely a scam.

Another option is an escrow service like GunTab.

The article goes on with suggestions on how to determine
whether a website is likely a scam.

 

[AlaskaHunter]

Takes 10 seconds to spot that stuff

No userful information in your post. A more informative post would detail how to "spot that stuff"
with specific examples and suggestions.