Need advice on a purchase…..sending $ but afraid

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Bomber714

Bomber714

Member
Sep 2, 2024
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So i made a post in the classified section WTB a dream air rifle I wanted. It’s a tx200 hc walnut. This person contacts me with the timestamp shows me his drivers license, but doesn’t want me to pay him through PayPal good and services. We agreed on a price. I insisted that I will pay for the fee
Using PayPal goods and services, but he said that an air rifle is considered a firearm and PayPal doesn’t like that. I googled this through PayPal and PayPal does not have an issue Protecting me when buying an air rifle. The seller insist that I use Venmo and that I would be protected so I searched the protection program through Venmo and it states that you are protected if you buy goods from someone with a business account not if you send money for an item , and you send it to an individual.
Am I asking for too much as a buyer to feel safe before I send $ to someone for an item they might or might not send me?
Scam or am I over thinking and Venmo does protect me if I send him the money as an individual?
 
Bomber
Bomber714 said:
So i made a post in the classified section WTB a dream air rifle I wanted. It’s a tx200 hc walnut. This person contacts me with the timestamp shows me his drivers license, but doesn’t want me to pay him through PayPal good and services. We agreed on a price. I insisted that I will pay for the fee
Using PayPal goods and services, but he said that an air rifle is considered a firearm and PayPal doesn’t like that. I googled this through PayPal and PayPal does not have an issue Protecting me when buying an air rifle. The seller insist that I use Venmo and that I would be protected so I searched the protection program through Venmo and it states that you are protected if you buy goods from someone with a business account not if you send money for an item , and you send it to an individual.
Am I asking for too much as a buyer to feel safe before I send $ to someone for an item they might or might not send me?
Scam or am I over thinking and Venmo does protect me if I send him the money as an individual?
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Please contact Moderator2 or Moderator3 with all the details of the suspected deal. From your description, there is a strong chance that you are being worked over by a scam artist. Do not send the money. Please do not publicly post anymore information.

Thank you
M3
 
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boscoebrea said:
BS,I have bought dozens of air guns using paypal,screw him ,if it does not sound good do not do it .Never let your desire override your wisdom or in short ,"take it in the shorts":ROFLMAO:
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That’s what I thought, seeing many others in the classified section asking for PayPal payments for their air rifles!!! I’m gonna call Venmo’s customer service and see if I will be protected through Venmo if I send money for goods to an individual. It’s my birthday today September 28th and I don’t want to get scammed on my birthday…
 
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The buyer is assuming the risk in a classified ad transaction, so it is not unreasonable for you to choose the method of payment. You mentioned a photo of the seller's license. Was the rifle also in the picture? As already said, if you're not comfortable with the transaction, you should feel no obligation to do it.
 
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Research a USPS MONEY ORDER. My understanding: if the seller accepts a USPS MONEY ORDER and it is a fraudulent sale, the seller is in trouble with the post office and their Inspection Branch is superb. If the buyer screws around with the Money Order, he is in big trouble too. The only drawback is the time it takes to process a claim. It only takes a personal check a day or two to clear, the banks are all online.
 
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My experience with airgun work and airgun sales thru PayPal is that they 100% back the buyer if you just use the actual name of the item and leave out the word/s "airgun", "air rifle", I.E.

Umarex Notos CRK

It's an item, not a gun to the bots and it's treated as such.

After a bally-hoo with a USPOMO earlier this year, I can confidently say that money orders are identical to Venmo in that they are a "cash" transaction between two parties are there is NO guarantee that you will get what you sent money to receive.
 
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I was selling a rifle here and the potential buyer drove me crazy. The same questions over and over and statements like “ well you better be telling me the truth”, “and how do I know so and so tuned the rifle”. After calling the tuner himself to verify he again questioned my honesty. I refused the sale and moved on. Turns out he was like 18 or something so I wrote it off to youthfulness.
anyway, when in doubt, walk away.
.02
 
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WNYBill said:
Research a USPS MONEY ORDER. My understanding: if the seller accepts a USPS MONEY ORDER and it is a fraudulent sale, the seller is in trouble with the post office and their Inspection Branch is superb. If the buyer screws around with the Money Order, he is in big trouble too. The only drawback is the time it takes to process a claim. It only takes a personal check a day or two to clear, the banks are all online.
Click to expand...
I don't know this for a fact, but I assume the size of the transactions we're talking about would not be a priority for the postal inspectors, unless it involved a fraudulent money order. But that would be on the seller's end.
 
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It is well documented that Paypal has discriminatory practices against firearms and gun related products and in some cases have confiscated people's money as a result or have not honored insurance claims for such products. I cancelled my Paypal account and don't use Venmo either as it is an arm of Paypal. There are other safe means of transfering money which I use. If you don't like it, that's too bad because I'm not going to knuckle under to them as a matter of principle.
 
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I've heard all the stories and used PP for everything imaginable and no problems. If they confiscate my money, ever, there's going to be a huge lawsuit. But, I did call them and confirm that airguns are totally fine to pay for thru PP, so I don't worry. AFAIK, PP is the only way to have buyer protection and the fee is well worth it. PP may be political, and if that's so, they ought to take a page from Disney and Bud Light. Businesses have no business getting into politics. They need to conduct their business and keep their mouths shut, and if PP wants to go public with their views on guns, then I'm out.

If you pay attention, text with the seller/buyer, you get a feel for people and it's even better to talk to them directly. I can usually feel safe doing f&f on here, but anywhere else, I usually pay the fee for protection. If the buyer insists on something else, at least to me, that's a questionable situation. There can be good reasons, but it's a red flag. I don't really need anything so bad as to take too many chances. So, if it's a difficult deal, I usually just pass and wait for another time.
 
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bchannell said:
I've heard all the stories and used PP for everything imaginable and no problems. If they confiscate my money, ever, there's going to be a huge lawsuit. But, I did call them and confirm that airguns are totally fine to pay for thru PP, so I don't worry. AFAIK, PP is the only way to have buyer protection and the fee is well worth it. PP may be political, and if that's so, they ought to take a page from Disney and Bud Light. Businesses have no business getting into politics. They need to conduct their business and keep their mouths shut, and if PP wants to go public with their views on guns, then I'm out.

If you pay attention, text with the seller/buyer, you get a feel for people and it's even better to talk to them directly. I can usually feel safe doing f&f on here, but anywhere else, I usually pay the fee for protection. If the buyer insists on something else, at least to me, that's a questionable situation. There can be good reasons, but it's a red flag. I don't really need anything so bad as to take too many chances. So, if it's a difficult deal, I usually just pass and wait for another time.
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