Scammer Alert Name is Willsongrips

[Lakotah]

4) Tell me more. I don't see the con immediately, but would tend to link it to #3.

we have had instances recently where people have tried to Con a person into purchasing gift cards to pay for an item due to the fact they can run them like a credit card transaction and their excuse is it would be faster/simpler or they do not accept any other form of payment and they convince the person that a gift card is guaranteed payment.
I have seen this mostly used to scam elderly people by conning them that they owe back taxes or some other bill and threaten them with law enforcement action ie: a warrant
If they don't do this immediately.

I have actually witnessed the caller stay on the phone with them for up to an hour while they drove down to their local store to purchase the gift cards and give them the gift card numbers.
Most of the time it is usually a person with a strong foreign accent named some American name like Billy or Joe or whatever saying they are from the IRS or some other Bill collector and this is an attempt to collect a debt.
Problem is, it is usually a call that has used a few different IP addresses to look like a US domestic call so it basically becomes untraceable and ultimately we have no enforcement action once it leaves US soil. The crimes are so small in amount the Feds won't even mess with them. I feel sorry for the because they pick on elderly people and for the life of me I haven't figured out how they are able to gather all their personal information and actually will verify it with the caller.

 

[Dosh]

The gmail contact is generally the top indicator. PM conversations are much safer.

 

[Rhovee]

I have had a few people try and scam me for WTB adds. Looked at his username, he created an account a day before responding to my add and that was his only post ever. He also wanted me to email him.

 

[cr30378]

The more information about yourself you give a scammer the better chance you may get scammed. Their is so many ways for them to try to scam you! Always go with your gut!

 

[Jeffrey May]

Ttt

 

[rdsii64]

I don't think that's entirely true. I always leave my email address as an alternate form of communication and I have never scammed anybody. I know lots of people who use their email as an alternate form. You either:
A) Need to know who your dealing with
Or
B) Vet them before you do business with them.
Making a blanket statement that if somebody uses their email to communicate means their immediately a scammer isn't entirely correct.

Being LE, I have to deal with this type of fraud a lot. a few examples of the most common are:

1) when people want you to send money via Western Union to a different name
2) The person your dealing with wants to send you a check or some other form of payment for more than what was agreed upon and asks you to send the difference back in cash.
3) The person your dealing with gives you a sob story of being in the military and having to deploy immediately and that's the reason for the quick sale but instead of sending the money to them, send it to a girlfriend/mother/sister in another state.
4) Asking you to buy and pay in gift cards
5) If it's a local face to face, asking to meet at an odd time at a shady location. (Always meet at a well lit, high foot traffic location where you are easily seen, like a parking lot in the middle of town. Grocery store, department store, etc.)


a good rule to follow, if you get that warm fuzzy feeling something isn't right, or it's too good to be true, listen to your gut, it's 99.9% probably too good to be true.

Hope this helps

In my town, the local police department has a parking lot with cameras just for face to face transactions.

 

[Paper boy]

If he's a scammer why would he go to ANY POLICE PARKING LOT?????

 

[arrow179]

Had similar instance with a WTB add. New member PM'd me and said his cousin had the rifle I was looking for. I actually had him send me a pic of the rifle with my name and current date handwritten on a piece of paper. He sent it to me but after scrutinizing the picture - it was a cut and paste job from another forum with the same rifle. Also another giveaway is small thumbnail pictures they send you. I actually got the guys phone number and called him - he sounded like a foreigner and the phone was breaking up pretty bad. Major alarm bells going off. I told him where he could shove it and he needed to get a real job instead of trying to screw people out of their hard-earned money!

 

[Lakotah]

Here's an article that just got published in a military publication. It goes along with some of the info I was giving.

Military catfishing has increased since COVID-19

The COVID-19 crisis has made life more difficult for everyone, as millions of Americans have been stuck at home all day for months with no clear end in sight. On top of everything else going on, there is another threat that has become more popular during the global lockdown: catfishing. That’s...

taskandpurpose.com

 

[HRM Johnny]

When they need something special and off the beaten path, I usually suggest a police station instead. I think I got hung up on once suggesting that!

Excellent job sir!

 

[darreljwick]

Thank you for the heads up.
Darrel

 

[iShoot17]

In addition to the stuff that some of y'all posted above, I have started to realize that some of these folks will now create accounts a few months out, post some stuff, and then message you about a WTB thread. The thing is, once you look at their posting responses, they're copy and pasted from other websites.

e.g. a guy was trying to run one past me on RFC and when I looked into his posts it looked like there was some logic behind them. For kicks, I copied and pasted into Google just to see. Bam - word-for-word a copy and paste from a Sniper's Hide topic about the same thing. Then the pictures he provided were from Marlin owners quite a few years before.

Be careful, y'all. It's truly unfortunate that anyone has to worry about such issues - whether on the forums or elderly folks dealing with fake IRS.

 

[DarryH]

I either meet in front of a local pawn shop that I know has excellent cameras, or I meet in front of the police station. Never had a problem!

 

[338 dude]

If he's a scammer why would he go to ANY POLICE PARKING LOT?????

I think that's kind of the idea