Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire New scam? Or am I being paranoid???

Over the last week or so the phone rings and the caller ID shows 'unknown number' so I have always ignored them; thinking it's some taped bs or a telemarketer ignoring the 'do not call' list...

But this morning at 6:00 am it rang again. NO ONE calls me that early unless it's a family emergency or similar. Again, it said 'unknown number'. I answered it only to prevent the damn thing from waking the rest of the household.

On the other end was a 'net-to-phone' operator who explained she had a net user on the other end. Now, in a previous career I am familiar with customers who, being deaf, communicate through a similar service. But I've not had this particular instance before. Thinking it was slightly possible it was a friend of mine from Australia I asked the operator to type back, "who is this"... 'Bernard', comes the reply.. I say, "and just WHO is Bernard?" 'I hope to be your new customer' comes back.

I ask what he needs. "I want to buy a firearm from your store".
I reply I'm a gunsmith only and do not sell retail firearms. He types, 'ok, thank you.' and the operator's gone...

To me, this seems fishy. I have a feeling 'Bernard' is some scammer from (who knows, Nigeria??) somewhere. After I hung up and said to my son that that was a wierd call he says there's a warning about people who use that service to scam people since the receiver of the call never hears a voice to avoid identification. THAT was interesting and something I'd never heard of..

Am I being paranoid or does this smell like dead, beached carp in July??

I would suspect the ATF boys

Doesn't raise any of my neck hairs, at least not yet. Guy was offering to send you money, not asking for your bank account number. Hard to believe the BATFE would pull something like that just to entrap you; I have to think there are easier ways than that.

You see? We even think alike: our first thought was not private scammers, but the gubbamitt.

I'm thinking we're just needlessly wasting energy when we butt heads; we seem to be headed in largely the same direction.

No, he didn't.. At least not yet.. He specifically asked 'to buy a firearm from your store'..

Why not just call? In today's communication-dense society, nearly everyone has either a land-line or cell phone, or both.. By using this method, no phone number shows up... I don't like it.

Never thought of the ATF.. Always a possibility.. Good point.

He did call, and there are easier and lower-profile ways to conceal or spoof your phone number. Just because the guy is (probably) deaf doesn't mean he can't shoot. (Maybe he's deaf because of too much shooting!)

If it happens again, you might ask the operator if she can see the number he's calling from.


Doesn't feel right. This made you suspicious, right? If you were a government JBT, would you deliberately do something to make your mark suspicious?

Wasn't the ATF, those lazt bastid's would never get out of bed to make a call at 6 AM

Maybe they were just getting in from a night of kicking in the doors of honest folks looking for undotted i's or uncrossed t's....

My money is on a scam of some sort.

Scammers just want your money. BATF has a long history of entrapment and of demonstrating a vindictive and dedicated desire to throw folks in jail.

The law is the law, and should be re written. In the mean time, folks should keep their noses clean.

It is a scam he was going to used a stolen CC number it happens to me about 1 time a month. I have a custom electronics store and they always want to buy a more stuff then they can use. Next time ask the operator if she knows this is a scam. DK

I smell a scam

dead fish.....overwhelming.

my vote is for scam

I can't say about the ATF...but many of these scams start with them trying to send you money, or under that pretense. If the calls continue, I'd report it.

Meanwhile, some poor deaf guy in a wheelchair, down in Georgia can't go quail hunting next week, because his daughter only allows him one phone call a month, and this call didn't work out very well for him. Tsk, tsk, tsk.

I had a real education in this stuff a few weeks ago, as some of you may remember. Really a weird experience dealing with someone over an extended period who is a professional criminal, and only near the end of it realizing for sure that's who you were dealing with.

When he finally got to the scam phase, i.e., where I was supposed to wire him the excess of what he supposedly sent me, it became 100% clear it was a scam, but I suspected it from the beginning, and posted about my early suspicions here.

I don't think they can scam you, ultimately, unless you are really trusting or really stupid, so don't be either and you'll be ok.

Yeah, right...

I remember your situation, Hawkeye, and while I tend to be fairly trusting, I'm definately not stupid.

Seems I'm not being paranoid; what with the responses above...

The only way to know for sure is if you had agreed to do business with him...which if it was ATF you'd be nabbed...if it was a scam, you'd have been asked to provide him some bank or personal info on how to make an electronic transfer of funds...or maybe some other elaborate scam I'm not aware of. Two basic ways they get you...send you a bogus check, get you to cash it and send back some money via "good funds" that you created with the cash generated by the bogus check, or they get you to divulge some personal or financial info.

I suspect a scam. Certainly not ATF, they have too much to do to even bother with a gunsmith, unless you're a terrorist suspect...it ain't like pre-9/11 when they were out looking for cases. And even then, the cases they went after involved (1) the suspicion of the Branch Davidians being a threat to the government and having automatic weapons, and (2) The Clinton paranoia of the "Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy" of the militias, which especially to the Clintons, posed a threat to the government.

And in any case, it would probably be entrapment, as they put the idea into your head.

Barak made an assumption that the caller offered money, which I didn't catch. Barak is apparently more afraid of the BATF looking up his dress for no apparent reason than scam attempts, which happen daily and you probbly have in your email box right now.

I know of a scam dealing with automobiles that was similar; had to deliver the cars to a port city for shipment overseas. Don't remember the details, but there was a lot of money involved.

And, in any case, it's not against the law to sell a gun to another person in your state. A lot of us do it all the time, trading or whatever.

I have gotten the same kind of calls. I just hang up. No good can come of it. Kenny