Well, even as careful as I think I am, I got scammed last week, and even sent a $65 check in the mail.
Here’s how it went down. I said “I’ll take it and sending a PM” for the RCBS Prep station for sale by Fireball. Sent a PM to Fireball with my cell number and asked where to send payment. Within an hour got a text from the scammer saying “ This is Fireball and what’s your shipping address cause the RCBS Prep station is all packaged up. “. The scammer then asked for payment via Zelle, which I didn’t do. I finally got his name and address to send the check, which I did the next morning. Then two days later the real Fireball texted me asking for payment. We talked by phone and I issued a stop payment with my bank (only good for six months). End of the story is I googled the address where I sent the check and it’s a halfway house in Grand Rapids. I called the organization and a Vice president had the mail room catch the check and send it back to me. And they are dealing with their resident on his scamming activity.
Some Lessons learned, which I employed this week on another transaction.
Rely on PM communications, not texts or emails.
PM the seller and ask for his address, and also to text you a picture of his/her drivers license (since you can’t send photo in a PM), and compare info.
Google the DL address
Talk with the seller on the phone to gauge reality. Use info you gathered from the satellite images of the address.
Contact the home club that’s listed on the seller’s SASS profile to make sure the cowboy/cowgirl seller still exists, (and is not in a memory-care facility, for example)
If in doubt, don’t send money!
And finally, asked the moderator to search and remove my cell number if used in the past, and we found one from 2019.
the scammers are very resourceful and so we must be extra vigilant.
Any others ideas to help us all stay safe?
Regards, Capt’n Rudy