Wow, that sucks! I've had even "friends" scam me in the past, nice Ha! One guy through a friend, for a lot of money, took me almost two years to get most of it back. And Yes I had to track him down, something about showing up on someone's porch deck of their mobile home gets their attention! But it took a lot of leg work, driving around, and a lot of phone calls asking the right questions to find him. Eventually he moved to another state after I sued him personally and won a judgement against him for the final $4,500.00 still owed to me. Years later I wrote if off my taxes as a uncollectible debt. If you want action, sometimes you'll need to make things happen.
The sad part is as a seller here on LRH these scammers cause lost sales to honest people like myself. I've probably sold 13-20 items, and some rather expensive rifles and high end scopes. I always ask for USPS Money Orders because they are hard to fake, checks have a way on bouncing back at you when you least expect it.
I'm sure the face to face sales I've done where just because those buyers where unsure about letting their money go out of their sight? I don't blame them either, like I said, I've been burned before more then once.
I recently found a scammer using my classified sales pictures of a Kimber Advanced Tactical Rifle Kit I had For Sale on here on Armslist.com until enough of us flagged it as a scam and shut his ad down. BTW, his price was dropping like a rock everyday hoping to find a buyer? This was just a month ago. I've heard they refer Armslist as scamslist? I see why now, but that still leaves a lot of honest sellers wondering what else can be done about the crooks and thieves that make doing business safer for both parties? I like to offer references and check my history of sales on this site, or others sites.
BTW, my gut told me don't wire $300.00 to that "old Friend", but my girlfriend said that's rude not to help her out "since she's stranded at the air port" Ya right my butt I thought...... Intuition is something that has kept me alive, saved me from the BS out there and has helped me more then anything smart I think I might know.
Sometimes you have to make a leap of faith and hope for the best, but after you've made a few inquires and things seem to check out? And if things don't seem totally up and up, do what Wild Rose suggested and get a broker/dealer involved for the transaction if need be. Although that runs up the transaction costs.
I remember I had a guy all upset and calling me every name in the book on my answering machine because I didn't call him back one weekend I was out of town (although he didn't know that). The 1st call was on Friday just asking if I received the funds? But at each passing moment, he got more worried to the point of calling every few hours, he was ****ed off! He sent me the funds USPS certified mail....... he got all hot under the collar screaming bloody murder and he was going to let everyone know on GA.com I was a scammer!
Yet this guy never checked the tracking number if it was even delivered? Pretty Stupid on his part, while I was insulted up and down like no tomorrow! Made me mad, yet I told him to cool his jets and that I'd drive the six hours (one way) to deliver the rifle to him. At that point I wasn't sure myself if the check was going to be even good? But even after I left with the cash he made another mistake by not asking for the bank check back, but I had already endorsed the check and made it payable to him and mailed it back by the time he even figured that mistake out! But Hey, mistakes happen. I was out of town because my former girlfriend was just told she'd lose her eye sight in 6-8 weeks.... so I had a good excuse why I wasn't available to be reached. I only say that because sometimes there are extenuating circumstances, and that maybe a little level headed thinking might be in order, maybe?
Use a little common sense, be wise to "if it sounds to good to be true, it probable is" and sometimes just asking the right questions and/or "can it be inspected prior to purchase" might be just the ticket to learning if this person really does have "the goods"?
Good luck in your own success in getting your money back, sometimes learning the hard way hurts, but you'll be wiser in the end. Sorry these things happen, I'm even more sorry it happened on here. This site has been good to me. Best of luck in the future to you though.