Strange Situation.....Input Please

[Rooster71]

I recently posted a free classified ad on a billiards site to sell my pool table. I've gotten a few responses, but with pool tables shipping can be a prohibitive factor. This morning, I got the following email:

[ QUOTE ]
I intend patronizing you. i shall be needing your Brunswick Wellington 8' pool table. Kindly send me your final asking price, your physical address where payment can be sent, and the name as it should appear on the payment. Payment shall be made by a cerfified Banker's check or money order. I'm currently located in Johannesburg, South Africa but can have my shipper pick up the product from you as soon as payment as been received by you. Thanks in anticipation to your swift response to my e-mail.

[/ QUOTE ]
I email him back and tell him that I am near Dallas, Texas and that he should check on shipping costs. He emails me back and adamatly insists that he wants the pool table and needs an address to send the money.

Doesn't this seem really strange? I can't see any way he could screw me out of anything, but I'm sure there's some angle here. I have a really hard time seeing why someone would be serious about this when they are in South Africa.

Is anyone familiar with any sort of scam that sounds like this?

[daryn]

i say give him your post office box (or get one if you don't have one). then when his "payment" shows up, try to cash it. if it clears, then give him the pool table. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[gavrilo]

That seems odd. Why ship from US to there, shipping would be atrocious. He would be much better looking somewhere else thus it screams scam to me.

[bdk3clash]

This craigslist scams page might be of some help.

Specifically:
[ QUOTE ]
distant buyer offers a high-value (but fake) cashier's check in exchange for your item

you receive an odd email (actual examples sent to craigslist sellers below) offering to buy your item site unseen.
cashier's check is offered for your sale item, as a deposit for an apartment, or just about anything else.
value of cashier's check often far exceeds your item - buyer asks you to wire the balance via money transfer service
banks will often cash these fake checks AND THEN HOLD YOU RESPONSIBLE WHEN THE CHECK FAILS TO CLEAR
scam often involves a 3rd party (shipping agent, business associate owing buyer money, etc)

[/ QUOTE ]

[Topflight]

It seems fishy enough that I wouldn't want to get involved. Just wait for something normal to come along.

[elwoodblues]

Require a different type of payment (i.e. Paypal?) otherwise - see ya later.

[2planka]

Seems to be a pretty good match for your scammer. Trust your feelings, Skywalker.

[nicky g]

Certainly looks like a scam given the similiarities to the ones listed on the scamming FAQ. But what's the scam? Aren't these people usually after money? Surely he's not trying to scam you out of a pool table probably worth less than the cost of shipping it thousands of miles round the world?

[tolbiny]

The scammer doesn't pay the shipper. He sends you the money order or whatever for the pool table + the shipping. Then You pay the guy who picks it up, and the check bounces a few days later.
In some of the really complex scams the shipping company is fake as is the address and they don't actually ship the pool table. They come and pick it up and dump it and thier profit comes from the amount of shipping that you paid.

[nicky g]

OK, but in the first one he's still scamming in order to get the pool table or whatever, right? That seems weird. It seems like a lot of effort/risk for a free pool table.


The second one makes more sense to me.