All you have to do to avoid "most" of these scams is to request a picture of the said item, gun, scope, etc with an item such as a coffee cup or news paper, etc. Most of these scammers use generic pictures off of the internet. When you request a picture with a specific item with it, they cannot produce one and you know something is wrong.... I have used this many times and it hasn't failed me yet.
I always request "pool pics".
