Watch out!! There are a lot of scammers out there.
The scammers will pop up on Instagram or Facebook and they will do their best to look like valid gun and ammo sites. Sometimes pretending to be well known and reputable businesses (a term known as "spoofing").
These scammers, these pretenders will prey on you in a time of need. This is definitely a time of need! Ammo is flying off the shelf as fast as it can be manufactured, leading to headlines like this one:
The thieves are preying on people in need; and right now people are definitely in need.
Just yesterday, my next-door neighbor was asking me if I was finding ammo; and if so: where?
Reputable retail stores, like GlockStore.com are posting all over social media with posts like these, bragging about their inventory:
So, should you ignore Lenny from GlockStore.com on social media? Definitely not. Social media is just fine if you use it the right way. What is the right way? Follow the link to his website, www.glockstore.com and buy the ammo from the secure website, not through DM's in Instagram, using out-of-band payment methods like PayPal, Zelle, or Venmo! Does that mean that PayPal isn't safe? Of course not! PayPal can be very safe, when used correctly. When you pay an official business with it, and not sending money via the friends and family method. More on this later.
Back to the Scammers / Thieves:
So the thieves are getting a bit creative and they are pretending to be reputable companies, and someone who is not very tech-savvy or someone who is a bit naïve will get scammed out of money. It's definitely working, they are definitely making money with these scams, and they continue to do it!
Here is what they do:
They startup a page on Instagram or other social platform with a name that sounds like they are a reputable gun or ammo seller. They will see you posting and they will follow you, like this, where "ammo9067" has tried to follow me on Instagram:
Well, right away, a name like "ammo9067" should clue you in that this is not a valid user with a long-running business... But this is the type of thing that will happen and how they might find you out. If you are desperate enough, you may just buy into this and believe they actually have this ammo. I hope not, but it's possible.
Others will try to take on the name of a more well known company that is in the news. I saw one that was pretending to be Fenix Ammo - who was in the news for not selling ammo to anyone who voted for Joe Biden, and asking potential customers to respond to a survey before they would even allow you to shop there.
This scammer went so far as to even promote Fenix Ammo's webinars for them; using their hashtags, promote their website, etc.. If you go to Fenix's website, they have an Instagram Icon & link at the bottom, but it's broken. So this scammer took advantage of that! Made it seem like they lost control of their website and couldn't get it updated to the correct Instagram handle... It was quite brilliant.
Unfortunately (or fortunately) they got caught and pulled off Instagram before I got my screenshots, so I wasn't able to capture any of it for this blog post. I learned that lesson, though. Capture my screen shots as I go & not expect the conversations to always be there for me to go back and capture later.
Scammers, like this fake Fenix Ammo scammer, will tell potential customers that: "WE HAVE INVENTORY AGAIN... DM us for more info". However, if you go to the website, the inventory reads ZERO!
So, you DM (direct message) them and ask them why the website says they have no inventory & they will respond with how they "cannot update their websites fast enough", or "they lost control of their website" (like the Fenix Ammo scam); and in order to get their ammo you must order through Instagram or Facebook for the deals.
Being desperate for ammo, you may just consider this option. After all you have been seeing all these other posts and followers on Instagram. No one has been complaining. So you DM them & ask the pricing, and how to pay if their website isn't allowing the purchase. They will suggest PayPal. If you do use PayPal, never agree to the friends & family option! This does not protect you in any way.
Here is a back-and-forth between me & one of the scammers who ended up blocking me (and I them). You can see they tried to get me to pay them via Friends and Family on PayPal which does nothing to protect me if they rip me off!
Example Scammers:
Here is an example of a scammer: "Heartland_Gunshop00" that is actually the same scammer as "Ranger Guns". They don't even take the time to change their wording describing their business. They reuse the same pictures, too!
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