So I was flitting through Agora browsing yesterday and came across the following listing
http://agorahooawayyfoe.onion/p/MXSSkmLEKT
When I first saw it I was quite excited, as the original listing did not state FE was mandatory. I want to preface this by saying that for all I know, this could end up being a legitimate listing. However, I seriously doubt it, and I'm hoping I can prevent someone from getting ripped off, as firearm scams seem to claim a lot of people. So let's look at why this appears to be a scam listing
The first thing that jumps out about the listing is the absurdly low price. For those of you who don't know, a surplus AK-47 purchased legally costs between 500 and 600 dollars. I've never seen one sell on the deepweb for less than 1000. Right away it should be a warning sign that the vendor is offering the item at a price far below anyone else. This should prompt you to ask "how can he sell these so cheap and still make a profit?" The most likely answer is "by not sending the gun." When the vendor makes the price absurdly low, there will almost always be at least a couple people who are unable to resist.
The vendor requires FE. While requiring FE in and of itself is not necessarily indicative of a scammer, there is NEVER a good reason to FE on a 400 dollar purchase with a vendor who has completed 3-5 deals. FE scams are also very commonplace with firearms.
The image used by the vendor looks like a stock picture one would find from googling "AK-47." While not having a picture of the product is not a universal sign of a scammer, one should NEVER purchase a gun unless the vendor has a timestamped picture of the weapon in question. At this point, this vendor has provided absolutely zero proof that they have the weapon in question.
The circumstances surrounding the item seem very suspicious. When I first saw the listing, the vendor had 18 AK-47s. While I could be wrong, I personally have never seen any weapons vendor on the deepweb who had anything close to that inventory. In addition, the vendor talks about selling benzos and marijuana as well. As ridiculous as it seems that an individual would land almost 20 assault rifles, it is even more ridiculous that such a scenario would come about for someone who is not exclusively a weapons dealer.
Lastly, assuming by some twist of fate these guns ARE real, anyone who buys one will be getting an assault rifle shipped to them by a new vendor who does not specialize in firearms. Given the immense difficulty in shipping firearms, I can personally say I would not feel comfortable having such an individual shipping me an assault rifle.
So hopefully I've managed to convince at least one person not to drop 400 dollars on a gun they will most likely never receive. I spoke to the vendor and informed him/her that the listing smelled like a scam, and as you can imagine this did not go over well. If the guns turn out to be real, I will happily eat my words and purchase one for myself. However, I am most certainly not going to be the first one to buy one.
I hope this may have helped at least one person
Where did you find people flipping AKs on the street