“I’m sure I’m not the only one they scammed. They’re hunting people like this”: Fake Guitar Center websites set up to scam players are on the rise – here’s what you need to look out for

Like all areas of life, the guitar world is rife with scams, and a fake Guitar Center website – which recently conned one player out of more than $1,000 – has become the latest in a long line of scam sites that have been designed to prey on unassuming players.

A new report from Orlando’s News 6 has detailed how guitar fan Daren Maas fell victim to a guitar scam, after purchasing what he thought was a Gibson Les Paul for his birthday from a site he believed to be the legitimate Guitar Center.

Regrettably, it wasn’t; it was a fraudulent site designed to catch players like Maas off guard, and to scam them out of thousands of dollars.

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“I play music, I enjoy music, [I’ve been] taking lessons for a lot of years,” says Maas, who decided to treat himself to a new Les Paul after coming across an advert on social media.

“I saw it on Facebook – it was one of those Facebook ads that pop up – and I clicked on the link. I’m like, ‘This is a great price. It’s a sale price.’ So I sat there, I went through the whole thing, went through to the order process, and placed the order.”

However, Maas didn’t receive an email confirmation from Guitar Center. Instead, he was informed his info – and the $1,231.56 he thought was going towards a Les Paul – had been sent to someone called Shane Griffin.

“As soon as I saw that, I knew I’d been had,” he says. “I’m sure I’m not the only that they scammed. They’re hunting people like this and it’s sad.”

Fake Guitar Center websites, adverts, social media posts and more are becoming increasingly common and problematic, and recently prompted the retailer’s CEO to issue a public statement on how best to avoid falling victim to such scams.

URLs, for example, are key. Maas realized only too late he was ‘ordering’ from a phony site, which would have been identifiable through its false URL – guitarcenter.com is the genuine website address.

“There’s been a spate of fake websites recently claiming to be Guitar Center with scam offers and scam deals,” Dalporto said in a recent Instagram post.

“There are a few red flags to be aware of. Number one, deal’s that are good to be true. Number two, suspicious URLs, and number three, suspicious social media accounts with very few followers recommending these websites.”

Selling gear as well as buying it can be a risky business, so visit our guide on how to safely sell an instrument on the internet and avoid common scams for more information.