So I have a guy from out of state that has a gun I'm wanting to buy. Obviously he has to ship to my FFL but my question is what is the most secure form of payment? He says he would accept USPS money order. And I have a picture of his ID with the address he wants the money order shipped to. If he did end up ripping me off and not sending the gun how am I able to recover my money?
Personally, I'd be careful of any deal where the party starts putting stipulations on how and in what amounts cash should be sent. I'd find a middle man to handle the money. Find a local firearms dealer that is close to him and have that dealer do all the transactions. You send money to the dealer, he buys the gun from the individual once he has your money and then logs the firearm into his records. He then ships it to your FFL and you pick it up. Will cost you a little more for the dealer to do this but well worth it. When it comes to gun deals I'd rather be face to face or through a dealer. How do you know the gun is not stolen?
I guess I don't know if its stolen. Never really thought about it. I've only ever done face to face transactions with local people. I told him we should do what you recommended. Shouldn't be an issue so when he says no I'll know it was a scam.
At least there's a chain of custody going through a dealer. Guns get stolen a lot. I'm always wary of buying from individuals. Usually I will contact the sheriff's department to run the serial number before I buy one. The local dealer who buys from an individual most likely will do the same. At least we always did when we were in the firearms business.
If he does reply and yall work out a different way of transferring money, at the very least get a picture of the gun and its serial number and have your local PD or sheriff's office run it for you to check whether it's stolen.
He ended up texting me over and over. Long story short the guy is definitely a scammer. The pic of “his” ID was a gentleman in his 70s. His phone number comes back to a VOIP and so I called him. Super thick Jamaican accent.
