Phony H.E. Dimick Navy?

[The Saint]

A buddy of mine has this pistol...the frame is very clearly an Italian proofed and marked Uberti...with the same serial all over, which leads me to think the rest of this gun is a "spurious specimen" as Flayderman's puts it...99% sure it's a defarb wannabe...but wanted a few other opinions here on this. The serial does not fall into the known range for the Metropolitan Navy pistols, either. With a 3 digit serial, i would immediately throw a red flag, personally. I know only 100 of these were apparently marked...and likely more fakes than real examples exist:

 

[scooter748driver]

I'm no expert (they'll be along soon), but I'd be highly suspect of that one. Did your buddy say where he acquired it?

 

[Lanyard Puller]

It's modern made and has fake Demick marks.
I hope he didn't pay a lot for it.

 

[The Saint]

He only paid like $200-$250 for it, so basically a used Uberti Navy price. I told him it's almost surely a modern gun with fake markings. Someone went the mile to poorly fake it, I will admit that it IS neat. It's a simple shooter, though...so no foul. It was not sold as an original, if that's what is being asked.

 

[JOHN42768]

As long as he knew what he was getting, no foul