Craigslist scammer

Don't let the fact that PayPal is an American company confuse you. These emails are horribly written

 

I highly advise you do local pickup + cash trade rather than paypal.

 

Yea only do local, it's not worth it. But doesn't Ebay have some feature where PayPal can't take out the money from your bank account if it does turn out to be a stolen credit card and they need the money back? That's what I'd be thinking too, once it's in your bank account, you're safe, but you agree to PayPal that they can take any money out of your bank account, so it's not worth it I guess.

 

Oh man this could be fun

I say accept the money and send the "computer". Send him a dried out fish or something.

 

Agreed. Like you, I wouldn't do it any other way.

 

Tell him you want an additional amount through Western Union to cover shipping. Just a nominal fee. /sarcasm

Seriously, when will scammers at the very least learn that improper grammar and spelling are instant eyebrow-raisers? Hopefully never, but it still makes me wonder.

 

go-for-it

Send a 'fake' shipping document
and as Bill said
'pending the receipt of a small handling fee of $5.55'

This happens to our company regularly -
the last one was from a Mr. Rev. Billy Graem (sic)

 

I think that as well, but then I realize they scam enough people without learning it. Kinda sad. Who falls for these things?

 

We did
We didn't part with any money however, it did cost a reasonable amount of time and effort.
It was a credit card scam, about 4 years ago, the guy insisted that we keep trying smaller and smaller amounts on the card (as a deposit)
and he will provide us with another card (for the balance) the next day.
We had considered him a genuine customer as many ask us to 'split' payments because of a daily limit or similar,
besides it was our first scam!
It went on for 3 days until we all agreed enough was enough

 

I don't see how you didn't catch that was a scam as soon as Paypal was mentioned.

LOL

This is the most common scam on Craig's List.

 

Any correspondence from any legit company you have an account with will use your name in the address.

Just tell him you shipped it, and move along.

 

The Board of Directors at PayPal discussed your situation, and they used the term "you wont be scammed"

I think it's pretty clear this guy isnt to be trusted.

Ignore him and move on. Don't respond to any more emails from him or the 'PayPal' address.

 

Well yours sounds a little different than the scam here.

Does anyone actually read this and think its legit? The broken english and all? I was just professing my amazement that people get baited into these. This just screams scam to me and should to all people.

 

Apparently someone things this garbage is legit because they keep sending it out, they wouldn't waste their time if it didn't work.


You can have fun with these guys, check out 419eater.com (I think that's the website). Someone there was able to get some Nigerian scammers to act out the Monty Python dead parrot scene and post it on YouTube.

 

Ya, and like the board wants to hear a summary of all transactions for the month...

 

http://www.zug.com/pranks/powerbook/

P-P-P-Powerbook!

Haha, that is what that reminded me of, and it was a great story.

To the OP: At least you didn't fall for that. I've had emails like that, I actually still get them for an item I sold over a year ago, it's rather frustrating as I got rid of the ad the day I sold the item...

But it happens, wait for paypal, and see if someone comes to you for a meeting on Craigslist over your MacBook. Good luck!

 

Right here you know it's a scam or spam e-mail. If they don't reference what they are attempting to buy in their e-mail, instead calling it "the item", I don't even bother responding.

 

Holy crap man, this is a dream come true! I'd love to get into this situation. Send a busted laptop or a box or box of rocks or something, just enough to weigh what a laptop does. Or send some dog **** in a freezer bag or something. Then tell him it's shipped and provide a tracking number.

Then tell him you have his son hostage and that you just got back from Nigeria. Tell him that his son loves dogs, if you know what I mean. And horses, too.