How to Know if an Online Firearm Dealer is a Scam
It’s no surprise that we need to take a few minutes to talk about the various scams that are out in the internet realm and the firearm industry is no different. We have been contacted by several of our buyers that there are multiple websites taking our information and scamming people into buying from their websites.
First, we want our buyers to know that we do not give out any bidder or buyer identification or information. That information is carefully secured in our database, we do not sell that information and would not sell that information to another party. Second, even though we do not sell that information, unfortunately, there are scammers out there that will copy, and replicate based off other legitimate companies and websites, which we are seeing a large uptick in these types of scams.
Here is an example from one of our customers who brought this scam alert to our attention and one of several red flags that this “firearm dealer” was not legit (Loaded-Firearms.com): They only accepted payment via cash-app or Zelle. BIG RED FLAG! As we are creating this blog, we have noticed that this website is no longer active, thankfully, but who knows how much money they have scammed people out of.
AmmoLand.com created a great article with tips on how to know if the firearm dealer you are buying from is legit or if it’s a scam. Please keep in mind these are only a few red flags, we know there are more and that is why it’s important to do your own research when purchasing anything online. Here is the link to the article from AmmoLand.com, we think it gives a good idea of what to look out for and some other websites that have been reported as “Scam Alerts” in the Firearm Industry.
Direct Link to Ammo Land Article:
Here is a statement from the owners on this matter:
“SSL Firearms is not affiliated with any other dealers or Federal Firearm Licensees and will only sell firearms and firearm related equipment from our secure location in Byron Center, MI. We encourage customers to call or email us directly if you see our name listed on any other “dealer” websites so we can continue reporting any fraudulent websites to the FTC / law enforcement. We will never ask customers to pay for items using zelle, cash-app, venmo, paypal or any other mobile payment services. We also want to make it clear that these fraudulent websites are not using any private information, but simply using our name, address, and other information listed publicly on our website to appear credible.” – Austin Miedema
We would like to encourage customers who downloaded the 1800lastbid app (from Apple or Google store) to check out our mobile site instead. 1800lastbid mobile app will be phased out and retired within the next 90 days. The app will be removed from the Apple and Google stores. Retiring the app will not affect the full or mobile sites for 1800lastbid.com.
1800lastbid.com is a complete listing of all upcoming auctions hosted on Online-AuctionSoftware.com, Inc. (OAS) auction system. The mobile site offers features and functions that are not available from the app such as account preferences, online payments, credit card management, etc.
