I didn’t realize there was another thread related to the one I posted here:
I did search for similar terms but didn’t search ‘scam’ but rather ‘fake’ websites. Thanks to member jerzy for pointing me here. Below is my post with additional fake websites from the other thread:
Recently I came across a couple gun websites when I was trying to find a best price on an item that has been showing up well above MSRP at many places. I found a couple websites that had big red flags. One red flag is any website that doesn’t seem to want an FFL to ship a gun. Also sites that say they accept crytocurrency is another red flag. I looked into these sites with a “website.com name” scam search on Google and some had very low ratings on places that track the validity and reputation of websites but others seemed to think they were okay.
In a couple cases scam detectors like McAfee and Norton thought they were ‘safe’ but clearly some were not as they had the issue of not requiring an FFL for shipping a gun. Another red flag is a gun or accessory that is too low in price. I saw a couple of those. And recently had an email from Walther arms warning about these 3 sites:
- WaltherArmsStore.com (FAKE)
- WatlherArmsShop.com (FAKE)
- WaltherArmsUSA.com (FAKE)
I think some of those have been taken down but one is still up and doesn’t seem to want an FFL to buy a gun. Unfortunately I didn’t save the other ones I found recently to post them here but if you have doubts about any online website just ask here or any of the gun forums to see if others have had issues or not with them.
I also noted the websites I am sure are fake seemed to all have a similar website layout. This one is still up: https://waltherarmsusa.com and is similar to what I saw on other sites. Another thing you can do is run the webites URL on who.is or at https://lookup.icann.org which can show when the website was created and other related info.
Earlier this year I bought a magazine for a gun from www.dpwfirearms.com which turned out to be a big problem. Nothing shipped, could not contact by email for phone. After calling the local sheriff in Eagle Mountain, Utah I found out from the very nice helpful sheriff that they were aware of this guy and he was screwing a lot of people. I know this guy had an FFL and when he finally contacted me after filing a claim with my credit card company he apologized saying he had been sick but based on what the sheriff said I think it was more than just that.
So be careful who you order from online. I suspect many of the fake websites are being run by unscrupulous people outside of the United States.
One other I found : https://bestgunssale.com which accepts ZelloPay, CashApp and PayPal (PayPal does not allow gun purchases) so this is one of the main reasons I’m sure it’s a scam site.