I listed Michael's Bass Guitar on Craigslist on Monday. Here's the email I got a few hours later:
Hey
My son likes this item..so im dropping you some few lines ..Kindly get back to me if this item is in good condition ...I'll be making payment rightaway..k..You may leave me the name and address to which your money is to be delievered to while i await info about the item specs from ya . Just before i go ..Kindly get back to me if ya got better offer ..i could raise my offer .k
Thx
At this point I'm wondering f this guy can read, but it hasn't occured to me that he isn't local. Still, I'm not about to give my address out yet. I email him with more info, and I get this back:
Hey
Got your emailbut at the moment..my wife is currently being diagnosed of Bronchritis....we have a doc appt later today ...Kindly get back to me if i can proceed with the payment ..while u leave me an email with the (full name and address and zip code) to which ya money is to be delivered to if u re interested in selling this gear for us,while i go ahead to send ya money out online via Usps money order..As regards the shipping expenses ..i'll arrange for the shipment of the item using my prepaid fedex shipping acct when its time .ok i'll be awaiting ya email asap .thx
I assume at this point that he means mail me a money order, because USPS doesn't send money online. I'm a bit put out by this, but I know people who shop other city's craigslists, so I'm not automatically thinking scam. Plus, I give out my address all the time for ebay, so I'm obviously not too worried about it falling into the wrong hands. Then I get this:
Dear Michael,
United States Postal Service hereby congratulate you and at the same time informing you that the ® Money OrderSM sent to you from Dave Corby Corby has been Approved.® Money OrderSM : $325.00
Auction Item : Fender Deluxe Jazz Bass
Auction Site: Craigslist Classifieds
Please verify that the following address (as entered by the buyer) is correct once again.
Name: Michael Nelson
Address: My Street
City: Gilbert
State: AZ
Zipcode: 85234
Country:USA
This money order has been approved, we will send the above address payment in 2-5 business day as soon as we recieve the shipment tracking number from you. Due to the fact that most sellers don't send out item after they might have recieved payment from the buyer, so we made the policy that sellers must ship out items within 48 hours of payment and send us the tracking number for verification. You CAN NOW send the items to the buyer now. ®Money OrderSM, And if you have any question, feel free to contact our customer service(contact.uspsorderonline@accountant.com)
Order Status And Informations:
**removed for readability**
If we do not hear from you as soon as expectecd, the payment will be returned back to the buyer. We will be waiting for you to ship the item and mail us the shipment tracking number so that we can send out your payment immediately.
Thank you for using United States Postal Service. We look forward serving your online auction payment needs in the future.
Sincerely,
Postal Money Order™.
Then I get an email from him in the exact same large type and font that he used to send the fake USPS thing!!! Good Lord. My disgust at encountering this sort of sublevel human is tempered with a good bit of, "you actually thought that would work?" and just a little, "if you fall for that sort of thing you almost deserve to get scammed."
