Scammer scamming

February 28, 2006 11:17 AM

I'm exchanging emails with a scammer who wants me to buy his "car". What should I do?

I've tried to get him to give me a number so that I can discuss some payment options. He's responded with a fake escrow and told me email them at [e-mail] (<- not connected with craigslist in any way)
So AskMe, what do I do now?

posted by pantsrobot to Human Relations (25 answers total)

Walk away.
posted by birdherder at 11:18 AM on February 28, 2006

Stop corresponding?
posted by mojohand at 11:19 AM on February 28, 2006

the ask-for-some-money-so-you-can-get- such-and-such-paperwork-done anti-scam scam is a classic
posted by soma lkzx at 11:21 AM on February 28, 2006

Are you asking if you should try to get him in trouble or something? I would say no because it will be a real headache unless you really get off on catching the bad guy.
posted by wolfkult at 11:24 AM on February 28, 2006

Call the police?
posted by Astro Zombie at 11:25 AM on February 28, 2006

Depending on what you're looking for:

1. Blog your travails, slap ads all over it, and travel back in time to 1999 when this sort of thing was a novelty.

2. Try to get useful details about his identity until you or he gets bored. With those details you can then go with #1 but move the date up a bit closer to the present.

3. ????

4. Profit

Either that or you really were serious about buying the car, in which case, don't go any further.
posted by Fezboy! at 11:27 AM on February 28, 2006

Are you asking for legitimate responses or prank ideas? It's not clear from the question which way you want to go.
posted by chrominance at 11:28 AM on February 28, 2006

Find something better to do with your time?
posted by OmieWise at 11:29 AM on February 28, 2006

yeah, I'm not sure why you'd continue to exchange emails when it's obvious this guy is trying to fleece you. Just cut off ties.
posted by j.p. Hung at 11:30 AM on February 28, 2006

You mean something like this?
posted by Otis at 11:30 AM on February 28, 2006

Response by poster: Are you asking for legitimate responses or prank ideas? It's not clear from the question which way you want to go.
Either one. I don't have any legitimate ideas other than flagging his posts
posted by pantsrobot at 11:33 AM on February 28, 2006

I wasn't trying to be super harsh, just to suggest that in the grand scale of things you'll have to work pretty hard to top some of the scam-baiting that's already been done, to no noticeable affect. Surely you have other things you'd rather do.
posted by OmieWise at 11:46 AM on February 28, 2006

Tell Craigslist?
posted by Xalf at 11:49 AM on February 28, 2006

Response by poster: Fair enough, I was bored and kinda disappointed at losing what seemed to be a good deal. Delete if needed.
posted by pantsrobot at 11:53 AM on February 28, 2006

Escrow is for the weak. Best thing to do now is send him a check for the amount he's asking, plus 10% extra so he feels obliged to send you the car. I'm sure it'll be fine.
posted by BorgLove at 11:56 AM on February 28, 2006

Keep stringing him along for days. You don't even have to be clever about it. It'll be a public service-- the more time he wastes on you, the less time he'll have to prey on someone else.
posted by Faint of Butt at 12:09 PM on February 28, 2006

Screw with him and make a website proving how cool you are.
posted by holloway at 12:40 PM on February 28, 2006

Oooh, as he's answering escrow email too, badmouth the seller to the escrow guy.
posted by holloway at 12:47 PM on February 28, 2006

Hit yourself in the head with a hammer and tell him you'll send him money -- duhhhhhhhhhhhh..................
posted by orlin at 1:24 PM on February 28, 2006

Advise him of your wealthy and recently-deceased Nigerian uncle, and tell him you will be more than happy to place part of your considerable inheritance in escrow... BUT it's been a regulatory pain in the ass to get the money over to the States. So you need him to wire you a few grand to help ease the transition. At which point, you'll be able to buy the car.
posted by SuperNova at 1:39 PM on February 28, 2006

The first thing that popped into my mind was this thread. Wouldn't you love to pull something like this?
posted by Packy_1962 at 1:40 PM on February 28, 2006

hmmm, http://craigslist-pay-safe.org redirects to a geocities site that dosn't exist. How can scammers be this dum?
posted by delmoi at 2:27 PM on February 28, 2006

>How can scammers be this dum?

Because their marks are generally that dum.

A close family member is involved with some 419 scammers. He's probably sent them around $30K by now. He won't listen to reason. The "documents" he has been sent are laughable fakes, but he buys them hook, line, and sinker.

I pointed out that the English "bank"'s domain name was registered to someone with an African name at a street address in Phoenix, AZ. Obviously fake, right? It didn't shake his faith.

He received a document allegedly from the UN that was set in Comic Sans, with a garish red dotted border, like a coupon. Yeah, that's real. No effect on his conviction that the box of artifacts is real.

I pointed out that the "Bank" phone numbers were all English cel phone numbers, and that the "Bank" wasn't even in any English phone books. He keeps calling them.

Someone who's likely to send large amounts of money to these sort of scammers isn't going to pay attention to or care about something like that geocities thing.
posted by chazlarson at 5:22 PM on February 28, 2006

p-p-p-powerbook!
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 7:16 PM on February 28, 2006

Full headers on the e-mails he has sent you, forward them to his host and see if you can cost him his e-mail address. Works with yahoo, google, AOL, etc 'name brand' e-mail/ISP addresses.

http://www.419eater.com/ can be almost sadistically amusing to read at times.
posted by buzzman at 9:51 PM on February 28, 2006