Originally Posted by feffertim
I have a similar thing happen with crags list ads I have posted when I was selling items. They contact you, say they are unable to come pick up the item, but will send you a money order plus extra for shipping. They will arrange to have it picked up but you pay the shipping fee (from the money they sent you). The e mails are obviously from someone who cannot speak very good english and I know it was a scam. It happened to me four times in a row.
Same thing happened to me. I was selling some items on craigslist for my mother-in-law. They actually sent her a certified check for over the amount she was selling the item for, they told her to cash the check and send them the difference by Western Union. Well, I had watched an Oprah show on exactly this same thing happening to a girl, and she got duped out of $5,000. So I told my MIL to take the check to the police dept with the e-mails, and she was told this happens a lot and there is really nothing they can do about it. You just have to be aware and if something sounds fishy, it probably is!!