Possible Fraud?

[ithacaartist]

Originally Posted by DonVoigt

Quite likely a fraud.
One hears/reads about it quite often, people steal pictures and try to "sell" items they do not have.

"drawing out" the seller will accomplish nothing, I would not waste my time; you can report him to
armslist, if enough do perhaps something will be done, but short of sending money and getting
"taken"; what has he done wrong- that you can prove?

This is not to condone the possible fraud, but to recognize the futility of the situation.

A couple of years ago, a Navy showed up Armslist, priced at $800, IIRC. I pounced on the listing and began communicating with the seller and scraping money together in preparation for scoring this seemingly sweet deal. I posted this saga here at that time, but the upshot is that a listing on Gunauction for $2600 (?) was the original, legitimate one. There was yet another phony listing on a third site.

My FFL emailed to say that the FFL they sent had been altered and actually was listed to a dealer in another state. Needless to say, I sent NO money. Instead, I tried to draw them out with requests the for extra pics--which, of course, the could not provide. I had all sorts of email and real addresses, and I turned all the correspondence over to the ATF. The agent said the case might get "investigated", but I'd never hear about the results, even if it were, and that it would be at least six months to even begin a process.

Perhaps I should have also tipped off the Indianapolis cops. It is ironic that we fear an ATF agent popping up out of nowhere if we slip a board stock onto a standard P.08 and shoot off a mag of rounds, while actual criminals and fraudsters slip through the organization's understaffed and under-funded fingers.