In May 2021 - I was one click from losing $599 to a fake FFL online dealer - gunsalesbroker.com/ - that looks like a real site with an FFL doesn’t it?? They even texted and called me and emailed me to confirm my order - here’s how i caught them and you can too! Please forward to anyone in law enforcement you may know… (I reported to BATF)
Here’s what saved me – and for those smarter than me – you don’t have to do every step!
- I got lucky – I did a very quick pay to the email stated on their website for payments. Somehow, they didn’t take the money from that transfer and instead texted me asking me to cancel that payment and pay to some other person. That made me suspicious.
- I googled the address stated on their website – it appeared in google maps as a farmhouse in UT. I asked them for their address, they replied with “San Antonio”.
- I asked them to send a photo right now as they were texting me telling me to “not worry this is safe”. They texted three photos – I uploaded them to https://images.google.com/ a google site that tells you where else on the internet that picture has appeared. The first picture I uploaded was shown to actually have been in a news story.
- I went to see who owned their site using this lookup ICANN Lookup and found they are based in Cameroon Central Africa!
- I asked them for their FFL # - which I learned you can confirm here: “ATF FFL eZ Check”. If you are given an FFL – and even if it checks out – call that store or location to confirm THEY are really the ones selling you the gun. They stopped communicating after I asked for the FFL
I have sent the entire story to the BATF and my local State enforcement – the fake FFL site is still up - gunsalesbroker dot com - if anyone has law enforcement friends – please forward this to them! Let’s catch these F’ers… please don’t confuse that fraud site with gunbroker dot com or any other well established online seller.
— entire story below -
Scam FFL dealer - website shows address of a house in UT - they state they are from San Antonio… feels like overseas actor impersonating a US gun store… the photo they sent in response to my ask that they prove their storefront – were found from google search!
On 5/24 i attempted to purchase firearm from gunsalesbroker dot com
I clicked checkout and agreed to pay $599 for them to ship to my local FFL whose address i provided.
Their website - instructed to pay by Bitcoin (wtf??) or Paypal using address: gunsales91@gmail
I did immediately pay to paypal and sent them the paypal reciept.
I then got a text asking me to pay - they had no idea i paid paypal - and told me to pay to a different person not listed on the website. with bad english instructions below:
On Mon, May 24, 2021 at 5:10 PM <gunsalesbroker@gmail.com> wrote:
Yes sir we ask you to make payment using our manager account because the company account its at the verge of deposit. Yes. Your right we sent you the email via from our service so don’t be skeptical okay. Make sure you pay using this PayPal email bellow, make payment under friends and family.
Email: wanyama.florence@yahoo.
Name: Florence wanyama
I asked them for pictures of their store – they sent me stock photos I found elsewhere on the web.
I asked then for a copy of their FFL - no reply…
They text me from phone 415.323.3341 which when i call it goes to google voice mail.
On their home page they have a product category “machine guns” with a picture of an AK-74 for $750 - i highly doubt a true fully auto AK goes for $750…
I can send you the emails or provide any additional info I may have -
Keith