Possibly Scammed on GA, Where To Start?

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Radjxf

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Looks like I may have potentially been scammed on GunsAmerica. For now I'll leave the details out in case the other party is indeed innocent.
Price was very good, but not TOO good. Seller used a cell phone number that has very recently been disconnected. Had me make the money order out to his supposed fiance since he was selling off his firearms. I paid with a USPS money order, used delivery confirmation, etc.
Where to go from here? It's been about 2 weeks since the purchase.
Any way to get funds back from the money order? I'm sure this'll be a long drawn out ordeal:fire:
Any input or experiences welcome. Thanks
 
There is no other way to contact this person through email or snail-mail? Through his fiancé?
Two weeks is a fair amount of time for him to at least respond to you sending the money but I'm not sure if you should send in the Postal Inspectors.... yet. However, it's exactly what you can do eventually if the seller doesn't square things up with you. He really doesn't want that to happen if he has half a brain.
 
GA is of course no help. All I have is the cell phone number he gave me which is now disconnected. I've done a search on his and his fiance's names, but their names are somewhat common and too many come up in the search.
I'll probably contact the post office, but have a bad feeling that they only replace missing money orders. We'll see...
 
Cellphone reverse-lookup directories exist. I don't know where, but some judicious searching on the web should help.
 
tellner--already went that route. Unless you pay, they only will tell the whereabouts of the phone number. Even if you pay somone, such as Intelius.com, they only give a list of names and address. I called the post office and they said for $3.15, they can tell me if the money order was cashed or not. Also called the postal inspector and they of course said it was a long process to determine if there was fraud involved or not. The lady on the phone basically told me I might be hosed (not of course in those words!).
 
Radjxf,

First and foremost I hope that in fact you were not ripped off and that it is simply a matter of communication on the part of the seller.

Since you used a postal money order, something I highly recommend doing, you have some recourse through USPS.

I would start by keeping a record of everything that has happened to far. By that I mean write down a timeline of who did what when, and keep any communications such as e mail handy. If you and the seller had phone conversations, write down exactly when they where and what was said. This will help you down the line if/when there is a investigation.

There is no way to suggest too strongly that you do this. Keep records of all correspondence with everyone you communicate with about this from now on, until the issue is resolved.

Print out and keep a record of the GA psoting and also make them aware of the potential problem. I hate to use the word fraud just yet so will refrain from doing so.

I suspect you spoke to someone who works at the post office such as a counter clerk, or possibly someone in customer service. If that was the case may I suggets that you ask for a postal inspector's phone number and call them relating your situation, and asking for their suggetsions on how to best proceed. Chances are that they will say give it another week or two and then call back but there is at least a record, which you will create of bringup the problem. Keep track of who you spoke with and do not hesitate to call them back if needed.

Lastly, I want to say that I hope you persue this as far as it can go. Lots of people hide behind the anonimity of the internet. They think they can get away with it. Some do. But most police agencies are now taking internet crimes/fraud very seriously, just like crimes committed on the streets of their towns.

Anyway I hope that helps somewhat. Not a good way to start the New Year. I hope you get your $$ back.

Regards,
Rob
 
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On the bright side; you never know, he may just be slow. MAybe he's waiting for an FFL. HEck, the rifle could be on the way to your FFL as I type.

On the bad side; cell # won't do you any good. I can go to wallyworld, buy a prepaid phone, talk to you on that, get MO, then toss phone. No records/traces. Furthermore, unless you sent ten's of thousands of dollars with the USPS MO's, don't expect anyhting to come of it. USPS isn't gonna ahve someone investigate $800 when they've got bigger fish to look for. THE "mail fraud" thng is just a feel good for the sender.
 
hate to tell you this, and will be glad if i am wrong, but this really sounds like a typical scam.

i do a ton of ebaying and internet trading of collectables, and this stuff is rampant.

does GA have a feedback area? ? without one, WOW im suprised its not a total burn.

MOs are the best way to scam someone, no way to get your money back.

paypal is always safer, they are horrible for siding with buyers - which can sometimes create almost as much trouble, but you are safer buying thru paypal.

for high $$ items, there are escrow sites also, but even there you have to be careful, scammers use FAKE escrow sites sometimes.

anyway the best solution is for sites to have good/ bad traders areas.

no one with low feedbacks should be trusted with high $$ orders over the internet when you're dealing with person to person stuff.

the worst part is no matter what , you always take a chance.

in the toy community there have been many good traders who did $$$$$$ of trades and then one day they take a bunch of orders and just split.

point is be careful- REALLY careful.
 
ok they do at least have seller profile and history on there.

did you check that first?

if this guy has no feedback, or good feedback, you can gather clues.

it is also the holidays, maybe he went out of town or bad weather or something.

delays are common this time of year, my stuff has been taking an extra week to get where its going
 
A few years back I got scammed off of GA for $1000...The guys name was kenneth Jackson of Tucson AZ ...He sold the same nonexistant guns to at least 15 people....Just like yours the price was real good but not to the point of being unbeleivable....I used a postal money order also...Nobody would do anything about it...Tucson police...Postal inspectors Even the FBI contacted me....They all knew who the guy was but all sat on their hands..So much for faith in the system.....Said the only way to TRY to get any money back was to sue the guy..but not to expect to get anything because the guy was a parapalegic [shot in a drug deal{honest}] on SSI and had no attachable income to go after...He had done this sort of stuff B4 [Uses money to buy drugs and booze] so they knew all about him....Long story short...I said goodby to my $1000....If I ever make it down to Tucson I might just give KEN a up close and personal showing of some of the other guns from my collection:fire: :fire:
 
the best are the guys who use the same photos over and over.
we've had people find photos from their own collection up for sale on ebay, some collecting sites have had to stamp all their images it got so bad
 
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