Because of the ammunition shortage, scammers are targeting gun owners online with too-good-to-be-true deals for ammunition and primers. We talk to one of the fraudsters via text.
Lee Williams
The fake Facebook page used by a scammer who is seeking to sell ammo and primers that don’t exist.
It was bound to happen.
It’s a supply and demand thing.
Whenever there’s heightened demand for a product — any product — and a limited supply, the scammers swoop in.
Because of the ammunition shortage, conmen are now targeting unsuspecting gun owners via Facebook Messenger and other social media platforms.
They’re offering fantastic deals, such as $35 for a brick of 1,000 small rifle primers, and $467 for a case of 55gr Remington 5.56.
Man, if only it were true.
They’ll take your money via PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay and Zelle.
The only problem is the ammo and primers don’t exist.
Fortunately, not every gun owner is falling for their shenanigans.
Submitted screen shot
To buttress their con, the scammers are slapping together Facebook pages by stealing photos off of legitimate gun dealers’ websites, and cloning others.
If anyone knows this poor guy, please let him know the scammers swiped his photo.
Thankfully, the pages they’re creating are full of holes, such as the name on the page not matching the name in the URL, and they have limited pictures, friends and history.
The one consistent thing that this group of scammers uses is a single phone number.