You've no doubt heard that ATF issued an industry Advisory Letter which advises FFLs to not send a copy of their license to non-licensees. Fraudulent licenses are circulating and used by individuals in online scams. The letter can be viewed at the ATF website.
As an FFL you never have to supply a copy of your license to a non-licensee to receive firearms. As an FFL you are generally allowed to receive firearms from anyone at any time. The letter advises you to supply your FFL number and let any non-licensee that wants to verify you in FFL EZ-Check. If a non-licensee balks at that, have them take the firearms to a local licensee and conduct the transaction with another FFL with whom you can exchange copies of licenses and verify identities.
You should always try to deal with other FFLs who are known to you, for any type of transaction if possible.
The best advice I can give in this case is "know your buyer" and "know your seller". The extra money you may spend on the transaction is worth it to have the knowledge that you are dealing with a bona fide FFL.
The technology to produce excellent fake documents is already available to the average person, so I suspect this type of fraud will continue to happen until better counter-measures can be devised. In the meantime, It's up to you guard against being the victim or inadvertently aiding in this type of fraud.
JR Valdes
fflconsultinggroup.com
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