Browning USA Scam

[Sledder]

Had a good friend get taken by a scammer so I thought I would pass along the info to save somebody else the grief. Actually a pretty bright girl wanted to buy a gun, probably for her husband for Christmas. Searching for the Browning rifle she was interested in she went to “Browningarmsusa.com”. Professional looking site with the Browning logo all over the place. Selected the gun and in checkout the only type of payment accepted was Zelle (huge red flag). Listed a local dealer to accept the delivery. After the transaction there was no receipt or further communication. Then she started looking around and realized she had been taken for about $1,000.

There is no question that someone with more internet experience (probably most the people reading this) would have recognized the red flags such as payment only by Zelle and no real contact or location information on the page. And the fact that Browning doesn’t sell fire arms factory direct.

In looking around I found “browningarmoryusa.com” and “usabrowningfirearms.com” are set up in about the same way and are obvious scam sites. In fact Trend Micro list “usabrowningfirearms.com” as a scam site.
Like I said a pretty bright girl had a dumbass moment and it cost her big time. Learn from her experience.

[4Gas$]

Good info, thanks for posting!

[ultradriver10000]

Dang

[Sledder]

Dropped a note on Browning knowing they couldn't do anything but just an FYI. Was nice of them to get back to me.

(cut & paste)

Hello (Me),

Thanks for reaching out. We are very sorry to hear about your friend. Unfortunately, we are aware of the trend of these scam websites popping up using our logo and information. You are correct in assuming there is not much we can do about it, as they are all based overseas and the internet is a very hard thing to police, as no one entity owns it. We here at Browning and Winchester firearms do not sell any firearms direct and as a good rule of thumb stay away from any purchases that do not accept credit cards and only take digital currency.

Regards,
Browning customer service