I see a lot of conversation lately about how to avoid getting scammed on the secondary whisky market, and for good reason: scamming is on the rise. But have no fear, I have a bullet-proof way to help you avoid getting scammed on the secondary.
I know it seems a little unconventional, but trust me, it works. I’ve gotten over my FOMO, refused to pay more than a couple bucks over MSRP for whiskey, followed the above advice and I’ve never gotten scammed.
We all bitch and moan about scammers and flippers, and how they’re ruining the hobby, but there’s just one way to make it all stop and that’s to not make it worth their time. If scammers and flippers can’t make a quick buck, they’ll move on to something else. It really is that simple.
The other side of the coin is to come to grips with the reality that avoiding scammers and flippers is impossible in the secondary. They feel brazen about it because the entire secondary is illegal so you have no recourse and you’re not going to call the feds on them. It’d be like calling the cops to say your coke dealer screwed you on a buy – you’re implicated as well.
It’s obvious the secondary isn’t going anywhere, I know this. And articles about how to detect fakes, or how to avoid getting screwed on the secondary whisky market, just give the fakers clear direction of what they need to fix to keep getting away with it. Knowing how they’re getting discovered, not caught, makes them better at it.
Unless you spend an incredible amount of time to become a whisky super-sleuth who can stay one step ahead and expose scammers in the act (which do exist BTW) you’re at risk. But for the mortal majority, if you’re willing to spend hundreds, to thousands, of dollars to illegally buy whiskey from a random stranger on the internet, then you have to accept the risk of dubious people wanting to take advantage of you and your money. A safe black market doesn’t exist.
