Gotta love Craig's list scammers

[tracilicious]

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."

[Drince88]

Does this count as 'messing with the U.S. Post Office'? You might want to forward it to the Postal Inspector in case it is, so they can put a stop to it if it is.

[wendybeth]

If the idiot was stupid enough to use their logos in an attempt at fraud, then he is definitely in the ****. Contact the Post Office, Traci- but wait until you stop laughing first......

[Kevy Baby]

Originally Posted by tracilicious

I listed Michael's Bass Guitar on Craigslist on Monday.

Everybody has missed the important question:

Does Micheal KNOW you are selling his Bass Guitar?!?

And I think you should send him the address of the local police station. Or looney bin.

[tracilicious]

Originally Posted by Kevy Baby

Does Micheal KNOW you are selling his Bass Guitar?!?

Tee-hee! Wouldn't I be the world's worst wife if he didn't?! I'm just using my email because I check it more frequently.

The postal inspector idea is a good one. How do I get that person's email address? We were going to get his IP address just to freak him out. But real trouble is better.

[wendybeth]

Have you already responded to him? If not, get ahold of the authorities and let them troll him in. If so, you may still be able to track his ass down, or they should be able to.

[Drince88]

I'd start here:
http://www.usps.com/postalinspectors.../ContactUs.htm

[Capt Jack]

yes, I do believe thats considered wire fraud. a felony punishable by requiring showering with bubba the "I rob check cashing outlets" bandito and his two cohorts, joey the crack dealer and marty "marsha" the bad check artist.

I wouldnt only contact the post office, you might fire off a little note to the FBI cyber crimes unit as well. they love stuff like this.

[tracilicious]

Thanks for the links guys. I found the Internet Federal Crimes Commission on the FBI site. I doubt that anything can/will be done about this, but one can always hope. I'd be curious to know whether anybody has actually ever fallen for that. The emails were just so terrible.

[Tito's Kitten]

I am sure some sucker somewhere sent out their item and has gotten burned.... Jerk. Turn em in!!