Warning to collectors

[Larry C]

One of the oldest tricks to scam people out of their hard earned money,,is a scammer to visit many militaria websites and download photos of that item and gamble on someone not ever seeing it before. The scam itself is when the "supposed owner" wants to sell the item and obtains your trust in sending him or her money and never seeing the item at all. These photos most of the time are taken to secondary non militaria sites. Rarely will it surface on a Militaria site unless they are either very bold or very ignorant.
My advice is to those keep a sharp memory of everything you see over time because if it surfaces again,, under a name you have never seen before,, then you have a right to protect yourself and ask questions. I have seen this happen many times before on various websites and even on Warrelics forum. Ebay is another site the scammers take advantage of someone who is unknowing.
All this is done with photos and never any actual real examples.
Stay with a trusted dealer first or until you actually get to know someone personally. In this day and age,, its only about the money and the scammers dont care who they steal from as long as they know they can gain your trust. Remember what you see!

[WarCollector2019]

Yeah great point which has been well-made, but i think that if you are prepared to spend a lot of money on an item more times than not you will ask for more detailed pictures, in this case the scammer will probably not be able to get more detailed pics. But if you are taking a 'gamble' i always find it a good idea to ask for a specific picture perhaps you could ask for a picture of a coin next to the item, and just say that you want the picture to get an idea of the scale of the item
Thanks, Glen.

[Falschirmjager]

Yeah great point which has been well-made, but i think that if you are prepared to spend a lot of money on an item more times than not you will ask for more detailed pictures, in this case the scammer will probably not be able to get more detailed pics. But if you are taking a 'gamble' i always find it a good idea to ask for a specific picture perhaps you could ask for a picture of a coin next to the item, and just say that you want the picture to get an idea of the scale of the item
Thanks, Glen.

This is becoming an even greater problem nowadays and a surprising amount of collectors or rather ones new to the collecting game have fallen for this nasty con. The points made by the guys here are a good guideline to follow. As a rule i never buy from any Eastern European source (as these are the biggest scammers it seems) even ones based in the UK as i have heard so many complaints about them its just not worth the risk. Its better to find a good dealer and there are many good ones in the UK and do business that way than learn the hard way and end up losing money. Alternatively its great going to the fairs and looking for that elusive piece you want for your collection-and what a feeling when you do find it! Regards, Tim.

[Nitram]

Eastern European source

There are trusted eastern european sources, just not many of them. Personally I try and source my stuff locally, or from people I know personally. If that's not an option then I resort to online shopping.

Nitram

[Adrian Stevenson]

Read my thread on safe online buying.

Some crook in Holland has only today tried to sell one of MY caps! See the German cloth headgear forum.

Cheers, Ade.

[Dimas]

There is a hundred ways to see how long the websource in the web. Scammer's sites is usually have a cheap look, also my suggestion is to visit the Alexa traffic web information company. Normally the fresh sites has not any traffic shown
For example here is our traffic Warrelics.eu Site Info smaller number- better traffic.
Also the wayback machine- shows how long the site is online- it's stored all previous modifications which has been made on the site Internet Archive: Wayback Machine
Google pagerank is another good source
All this gives you more information about the source.

[Larry C]

An Auction House that goes by the name of Militaria321.com has been exposed as a scam. Stay clear of this supposed auction house as this person by the name of Kirsten Lutz
Eifflerstrasse 1
20357 Hamburg
hamburg-kirsten@web.de
Has been found to have taken a photo from a well known dealer of an SS dagger that is still in the dealers inventory and post it as their own to be bid on. This person is not too bright and never thought they can get away from stealing a photo from Tom Wittmann.
If you want to see the dagger that was being used go to Miltaria321.com/auktionsdetails.cfm?auctionID=6036895
As I said before always keep your eyes open and remember everything you see.