Need some advice on using Venmo to buy reloading supplies.

Joined
Jan 1, 2003
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Today I was searching the internet for some gunpowder, BE-86 to be exact. I ran across several sites, most of them reporting very high prices (of course) but all out of stock. You know the ones, Powder Valley, Brownell's, etc. Anyway, there were several (many) that were offering to sell the powder for SUBSTANTIALLY less than the major suppliers. Only problem was they wanted me to get a Venmo account to make the payment. Saying they wouldn't accept credit cards.
I have never had a Venmo account and declined to order anything from any of these companies, but it got me to wondering if that was a reliable method to pay for something like this.
Personally, I could sense SCAM written all over the place on these sites since a lot of them were very similar, even though they all carried different names.
None of these sites said anything about the item being "In Stock", and some of them went so far as to say "Special Order".
So what do you guys think?
Some quick searches pretty much told me that you SHOULD know the person that you are sending money to, but that's about it for advice.
 
Venmo is owned by PayPal

However if this is like a gift exchange type thing I would never transact that way for business. If there is still consumer protection and the retailer is just trying to get around card fees, that's a different story.
 
Venmo is like sending cash. Great if you’re splitting a bar tab, or paying back a friend.

No way I would ever send it to a company with which I didn’t already have an established relationship.

Ask yourself, “would I send this entity cash in an envelope?” Apply that answer to any Venmo transaction.

I use Venmo all the time. But only when I want to send cash to someone I already know.
 
I'd be especially leery of powder or primers. It's not like boolits, you can't know for sure by a scale or visual inspection of what you have in front of you.
 
A shortage of anything brings out the scam "sellers." Those places probably just take your money and don't ship anything. They can look at what people are searching for then set up a site pretending to sell it.
 
A shortage of anything brings out the scam "sellers." Those places probably just take your money and don't ship anything. They can look at what people are searching for then set up a site pretending to sell it.
Or scam mechanics.

There is a mobile in Ohio that got me.

CashApp...
 
The site has all of the earmarks of a scam. Any site that claims to have primers or powders in stock for reasonable prices is a scam.
 
Just don't do it. Stick to a verified method where you're protected if there is a scam.
I use virtual CC numbers from my CC company. That eliminates the chance of future fraudulent charges and you can always dispute if they take the money and run.
 
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