Scammers working overtime.....plus a discovery about Google playing anti gun games with their Photo Search

I have noticed a significant increase in the last 30 days in scammers on various free online gun classified sites, though there have always been a lot of them for years now. Here are the giveaways I have noticed. There might be more I have missed.

1. New Account - their account creation date is usually the day the ad was placed, or not many days in the past.
2. Often no city listed. A common theme is giving the state name for the city and the state such as Texas, Texas, or Arizona, Arizona. If they won't give the city they are in, the odds are pretty high they are a scammer, but that isn't always the case.
3. Usually they say "Text Only" and often won't answer their phone if you call them.
4. Sometimes there is strange wording, but not too often since they are stealing other people's descriptions
5. Lower price than the going rate
6. References to "bidding" or other auction site verbiage on non auction classified sites.
7. Highly desirable items that are rarely seen listed, though the price might be in line with market value.
8. References to shipping in local ad venues where 99.99% of transactions are done face to face.
9. And lastly, using images and text from someone else's listing on Gunbroker or some other gun venue.

Now for the rest of the story....

#9 was how I discovered that Google was playing anti gun games with reverse photo searches of firearms photographs. Knowing that the scammers don't have the actual gun on hand to take photos of, they obviously have to steal photos from somewhere to use in their ads. Often they get them from Gunbroker but sometimes less known sources. About half of the scammer ads have photos that were taken from Gunbroker auctions. So, the first thing I do when I see an ad that looks too good to be true, or of a harder to find gun, is to check for duplicate images using Google Images reverse search. Their photos will show up on someone else's open or closed auction or listing in an entirely different state than the one the scammer claims to be in.

Every time over the last few weeks when I did a google reverse search of a photo of a gun where duplicate images are not found, the top two results were links to Non Lethal Weapons pages. Today, however I got two links dealing with the word "solid", followed by "visually similar images". It is almost like they got caught and stopped with what I took as anti gun self defense links and switched to something totally unrelated to the photo searched. If you haven't used Google Images, try it to help spot scammers. Also check and see if you get the same results that I did today with the bogus related search suggestion.

https://images.google.com/

Click on the Camera icon and enter the URL of the photo in the ad.

This is what I got with a dozen searches today:
No other sizes of this image found.
Possible related search: solid

A lot of legitimate sellers will put there screen name on a piece of paper next to the product.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Robinhood

A lot of legitimate sellers will put there screen name on a piece of paper next to the product.

---

Good to know!

I have had scammers reply to WTB ads several times.
They all have claimed they had what I was looking for, usually they send you a picture.

I have found a pretty simple way to help weed out weather the person actually has it or not. I ask them to take (whatever they claim they have I was looking) place it on a scrap piece of paper and then on that scrap piece of paper, hand write my email address on it (or phone number if the exchange is via phone).
That is usually the last you hear from them if they are a scammer.

But there seems to be a common one going around lately. When I ask for the above picture, they will send you a picture of a person's drivers license and say something to the effect, see, I not a scammer, here is my info, go ahead and send the money, (or ask for your info like name and address). I reiterate I will wait for the picture before I send any money or info. They lose interest and stop after that.

That has happened to me at least 3 times. Each time I never sent any money or personal info to them. I was not going to until I got picture proof they had it (which they can not produce).
The last one was just last week. They guy was asking a lower than normal price for a barrel I was looking for. That was my first small red flag. However his back and forth email skills seemed like a normal person. The barrel they had was not 100% the exact model I was looking for and I mentioned it. They came back with another picture saying they had one of those as well, but it was clear it was not the correct length and was for a older model gun. That was my 2nd red flag. I then asked for the picture with my email address on a piece of paper and then got the reply "it is at work and I am not there right now, what address is this going to?" and then they say they are not a scammer, they are a law enforcement officer, and then send a picture of a badge with the persons drivers license with it. That was my last red flag. I know then they were a scammer that was trying to get money and personal info.
I do not know where these people are getting these pictures. I have thought about trying to contact the police department that was on the badge and see if I can contact the real person and tell them someone is impersonating them.

However I have had a couple people respond to my ads and they had no problem taking the picture I asked for, and then the sale went through like normal.

You just have to be smart about it and be real careful about giving out personal info.
I use gmail, and usually it will display your real name with your email address. I changed the setting it to where it does not display my real name, and instead just displays "Jeeps" as my name. That way, when scammers email you, all they get is your email address and not your real name. Also my email address does not have my name in it. (it is very similar to my screen name here). So no personal info there either.