Beware of Scammers!

The Knifemakers’ Guild has seen a severe uptick in the number of scammers trying to defraud knife buyers. Mostly, these attacks on consumers happen on social media, and funnel you to a website so you can make a purchase. The knives that are shown are typically of reputable knifemakers within the United States, and the scammers are offering these makers work for sub-$100.

Firstly - The Knifemakers’ Guild DOES NOT sell knives on behalf of our members, and does not use social media or any other ad avenue to market this. Knives are sold direct from our members or through their own sales channels with dealers only.

Secondly - Out of all of the recent scam attempts that have occurred which have been brought to our attention, none were previous or existing members of The Knifemakers’ Guild. You can see a current list of all active members in our Members Directory.

They are also using The Knifemakers’ Guild logo to try to make them appear legitimate. This is an infringement of our trademark, and not authorized.

Most of these scams are occurring on Facebook or TikTok, where they are posting or paying for ads. You are presented with very nice knives, and stories of the maker, and everything looks clean and professional, and the prices are almost too good to be true!

Well, they are. Most custom or handmade knives do not sell from any maker for less than $250, with many in the $300-800 range, and some going up to $30,000 or more! Handmade is not cheap, and what you’re paying for at $39.99 looks like this, if you receive anything in the mail:

If you see this behavior from these scammers, here’s a few things you can do:

  1. You can use a website like https://www.scamadviser.com to check if a website you get forwarded to is a scam

  2. Check The Knifemakers’ Guild Facebook page for scam alert posts

  3. Report posts on social media for fraud or scamming

  4. Post on the ads or comment and alert others to it being a scam

  5. Notify The Knifemakers’ Guild via our Contact Us form

If you have been scammed, here are things that people have reported to us they’ve done:

  1. Immediately talk to your bank and alert them of the fraud

  2. If you’ve used a credit card, consider getting a replacement, as these scammers will have captured the card number

  3. Reach out to local law enforcement. They will have a cyber crime division and can likely help you file a report and potentially escalate federally

  4. Let The Knifemakers’ Guild know and we’ll try to keep our alerts updated in case there are any new scam pages out there

Be safe, if something is too good to be true - it probably is, and do a due diligence on any knifemaker you’re purchasing from.