Is this a Scam from Craigs List?

[Leatherneck]

Selling some antique chairs on Craigs List. Got this response from "buge wasiu [buge90@gmail.com]":

** CRAIGSLIST ADVISORY --- AVOID SCAMS BY DEALING LOCALLY
** Avoid:  wiring money, cross-border deals, work-at-home
** Beware: cashier checks, money orders, escrow, shipping
** More Info:  http://www.craigslist.org/about/scams.html

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i want to know if you still have this item for sale i hope that you still have this item for sale......Thanks.


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this message was remailed to you via: sale-kchz8-1635917985@craigslist.org

So we told him yes it is still available. Comes now this:

Hello,
  Thank you for the prompt response i want you to know that i am a deaf i dont have mobile phone or cell phone i want you to know that i am honest person i want you to continue this transaction via email so that every thing can be done.kindly get back to me with all information i need from you once i get Your full name.address City State Zip-code,not P.O. box (Physical address) i will inform my sectary to issue your payment and as soon as you recieved the check let me know and i will contact my shipper for the best time for pickup of the item and get back to me and I will also wait for the check to cleared before i have my mover come for the pick up.Regard

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i want to know if you still have this item for sale i hope that you still have this item for sale......Thanks.

I smell Nigerian scam. What do you think?

TC

[Declaration Day]

Yes.  Here are the telltale signs:

1.  The scammer refers to what you are selling only as the "item".  This is because they are lazy and simply copy and paste from a script.

2.  He mentions a shipping agent.  The way this scam works is that he will send you a (fake) check for more than the cost of your "item" and asks you to immediately wire the difference to the "shipping agent".  He has no real interest in what you're selling. Once he has the money, you'll never hear from him again.

3.  The excuse about being deaf and having no phone means he is even more lazy than most scammers.  This way he doesn't have to bother speaking to you.

[PTK]

If you have the time, please do a bit of scam baiting.

[Declaration Day]

If you have the time, please do a bit of scam baiting.

This ^^^   

If you want to have some fun with this, play along, and get him to write the check to an outrageously funny name, then keep it as a trophy. 

As a safety measure it's not a good idea to give him your home address, though the chances of a dirt poor internet scammer traveling halfway around the world to seek revenge are astronomically slim.  Nonetheless, if you can have it sent to your work, that would be a better idea.

Not only would you be wasting his time, but it costs about $80 USD for them to have a convincing check printed and sent to you.

[Jamisjockey]

Tell him you speak sign language and expect the next email reply to be in sign language.

[vaskidmark]

Whatever it is, it was written by someone who is not a naive American English speaker who went deaf after the age of at least 20.  The grammer/syntax just do not support them being deaf during language formation.

Could not tell you if they are based in Nigeria or Pewroria, but the elements of the bad check drop/ship scam are all there.

Do you have the time to play with them?  If not, just ignore them.

stay safe.

skidmark

[Jamisjockey]

Could not tell you if they are based in Nigeria or Pewroria, but all the elements of the bad check drop/ship scam are all there.

This.  "all" bolded and added by me.



I'll add that my Mom, Step-Dad, and Aunt and her husband (both who have passed) are all deaf.  I grew up around deaf people.  I've chased deaf girls and even dated a few. 
The one thing that poked out was this
i want you to know that i am a deaf i dont have mobile phone or cell phone
An American Deaf would likely not say "I am a deaf". 

[Leatherneck]

Do you have the time to play with them?  If not, just ignore them.

Yes. Yes I do. i intend to do so. Keep feeding me ideas like this:

Tell him you speak sign language and expect the next email reply to be in sign language.

Tomorrow I'll look up ASL for "I would like to do more business with a nice guy like you."
TC

[Declaration Day]

Yes. Yes I do. i intend to do so. Keep feeding me ideas.........

If you're willing to spend a few bucks:

Get him to admit he's from Nigeria.  He may do this readily.  Find out what city (usually Lagos).

The "shipping agent" will really be him.  Send him $1 via Western Union.  I think this will cost you about $14 to do.  As the sender, you get to choose the pick-up location.  Send it to a location 100 miles from him.  Make an excuse that the WU office you went to said that it was the closest location to send the money to.

Here's the catch, one that works in your favor.  The scammer can check the WU site and confirm that there is money waiting for him, but it will not disclose how much.

He'll spend a small fortune on cab fare and waste a whole day to collect $1.

This has been done successfully many, many times on thescambaiter.com

[vaskidmark]

ideas like this:Tomorrow I'll look up ASL for "I would like to do more business with a nice guy like you."
TC

In ASL over  the internet that phrase looks like this:  "I would like to do more business with a nice guy like you."  Deaf folks have a hard enough time "reading" ASL by amateurs and folks they do not sign with on a regular basis, so prefer not to exchange long video clips of flashing fingers when they can type letters.  However, it would be more like "I want more business with you nice guy."  The grammer/syntax is distinctly different from Standard American English.  Short exchanges to not convey the difference as well as long exchanges will.  It "sounds" like a cross between a 3-year old and a foreigner in their 6th month of ESL.

stay safe.

skidmark

[AJ Dual]

If you're willing to spend a few bucks:

Get him to admit he's from Nigeria.  He may do this readily.  Find out what city (usually Lagos).

The "shipping agent" will really be him.  Send him $1 via Western Union.  I think this will cost you about $14 to do.  As the sender, you get to choose the pick-up location.  Send it to a location 100 miles from him.  Make an excuse that the WU office you went to said that it was the closest location to send the money to.

Here's the catch, one that works in your favor.  The scammer can check the WU site and confirm that there is money waiting for him, but it will not disclose how much.

He'll spend a small fortune on cab fare and waste a whole day to collect $1.

This has been done successfully many, many times on thescambaiter.com

If you can even get it further, and have him admit he's in Africa, and pretend you don't care about that at all. (Say you buy/sell stuff all over the world on eBay or whatever...) you can send him a box of rocks or an old truck tire or something via DHL, with the freight as COD and the declared value as about $5000, so he has to pay several hundred bucks to get it out of customs.

Maybe you're selling some extra, still new-in-box Anus brand laptops that your business didn't need. http://www.anuslaptops.com/

[Harold Tuttle]

he might like a pppp powerbook
http://www.zug.com/pranks/powerbook/

[MechAg94]

Regarding the reply in sign language idea, you could reply to him in braille on your email.  I have no idea how to get that to work though.

[Snowdog]

Tell him you speak sign language and expect the next email reply to be in sign language.

Regarding the reply in sign language idea, you could reply to him in braille on your email.

Does he have access to an internet capable braille printer or touch feedback monitor?  Maybe a text-to-sign language translator? 

Oh this is too good.

If you want to play against his false sense of indignation, you can always tell him that you refuse to deal with the deaf because you believe them to be gypsies and murderers.  However with my luck, the person might really turn out to be an honest deaf person l looking to buy something.

[Jamisjockey]

The reply in sign is a joke.  Deaf people do know how to type.  Unless you imbed pictures of the signs into an email.....

[Strings]

How did I know that Anus Laptops would get mentioned in here?

[GChandler]

I also have received emails as recent as today from this same "buge wasiu" with an almost identical email...Did you in fact find out that it was a scam? It HAS to be. Here are some emails from him:

Hello,Thanks for getting back to us.and thanks so much for your
trustworthyness and honesty and thanks for your efforts so far. I do
appreciate it and my wife's Name is Sandra and our daughter is Janet
we are from Chicago. We are relocating to your area and we`ll be
staying there for a period of a year.I'm an Building Contractor and
got some project there to execute within the period of our stay and my
wife will be undergoing a course on it. We need you for our daughter
when my wife is out for lecture,she's 6yrs old and you can watch her
in our apartment or my wife can also bring her to you whenever she`s
going for lectures, thus you will be taking care of our her from
9am-12noon. Monday to Friday. We are willing to offer you $400 weekly,
($350 as your wages and $50 for your transport allowance). kindly let
us know if you are satisfy with our offer so that we can make
arrangement for your payment because my wife is going to begin her
lecture on 15th of Sept and we need you to start working as soon as
she begin her lecture. My daughter is friendly and love to play a lot
with toys.Kindly let me know if you are ready to work for us and also
so get back to me with the following details of yours so that i can
make arrangement for your first week payment in other to secure your
service before my wife arrival because i wont be around till 21th of Sept.
Please send me all this information :
Your Name to Issue the check:
Your Physical Street address,City,State,Zip-code: Not Po.Box
Phone number:
Thanks so much for your trustworthyness and honesty and i am still
waiting for your response now.!
My Best Regards.

After telling him I was not available on Tues and Thurs he replied with nothing to say about that and said "my son cannot wait to meet you!" um son? you said daughter in all the emails... OH PLEASE. Appears he has gotten better since the chair scam attempt...Do these idiots really think people will fall for crap like this? Amazing, really!

Response After calling him out:
Hello,How are you doing today and thanks for your efforts so far. I do
appreciate it.and i am old man 59 years old and why i will scam people
with out reason....and i want you to believe that only God is between
me and you for this transaction.I am still waiting for your response
now.Asap.
Regards.!

UNBELIEVABLE!!! Also watch out for these emails as well: "gerahsere@gmail.com:olamide1" suannehardmbx@gmail.com those were also listed with

[RoadKingLarry]

Tell him you speak sign language and expect the next email reply to be in sign language.

Or brail.

[MrsSmith]

These are all possibilities, but a lot of times this is just a way of either a) collecting working email addresses which will then be used for spam, or b) leading you to a site that wants to sell you something, such as credit reports or Mexican prescription meds.

If these are the case, there really isn't much way to yank their chain because they've already gotten what they wanted - either proof that your address is active and monitored, or a hit on whatever trash website they've been paid to lead folks to. You can, however, report their email addresses to Craigslist, and to their ISP, which is far less satisfying but eventually will cause a minor disruption in their dirty little corner of the gutter.

[lee n. field]

Hello,
  Thank you for the prompt response i want you to know that i am a deaf i dont have mobile phone or cell phone i want you to know that i am honest person i want you to continue this transaction via email so that every thing can be done.kindly get back to me with all information i need from you once i get Your full name.address City State Zip-code,not P.O. box (Physical address) i will inform my sectary to issue your payment and as soon as you recieved the check let me know and i will contact my shipper for the best time for pickup of the item and get back to me and I will also wait for the check to cleared before i have my mover come for the pick up.Regard

--
i want to know if you still have this item for sale i hope that you still have this item for sale......Thanks.

Scam. 

A deaf person would communicate over the phone via an intermediary service.  (I forget what that's called.)  DP contacts intermediary through whatever tech they use.  Intermediary makes voice call to non-DP and acts as translator.  I've had a couple different deaf customers over the years.

[TechMan]

Scam. 

A deaf person would communicate over the phone via an intermediary service.  (I forget what that's called.)  DP contacts intermediary through whatever tech they use.  Intermediary makes voice call to non-DP and acts as translator.  I've had a couple different deaf customers over the years.

Relay.

[Jamie B]

Tell him you speak sign language and expect the next email reply to be in sign language.

Or tell him to use Braille! 

[RocketMan]

Holy thread resurrection, Batman!   

[Balog]

I got all excited to see a new post from Leatherneck, but then it was a necro. :( Hope that guy is ok, haven't seen him in a long time.

[RocketMan]

I got all excited to see a new post from Leatherneck, but then it was a necro. :( Hope that guy is ok, haven't seen him in a long time.

Yeah, me too.  Didn't he get busy in his retirement, new boat and such?