[email protected] AKA JOHN HARRY

Since I've posted some items for sale on Craigslist within the last few days, I have encountered a few scammers. Luckily, my instincts kicked in and I googled the email and did not respond to the first one, but the second one did not come up when I searched it. Although, he did manage to use the same message body, so it was easy to throw his email into the scam pile.
The first email address was: [email protected] and he used the name Matthew Ribery. This guy is all over the place- if you search him, you will find many posts about his attempts to scam people on Craigslist.
The second person was John Harry, using the email [email protected] and [email protected]
Both of them emailed me asking if I still had the item for sale. When I responded yes, this is the message I received:

Hi,
Am glad it's available. I'm going on a vacation to London but I will
instruct my assistant to prepare and mail your payment which I'm sure
you will get in about 4 - 6 business days. I'll add $20 extra for the
delay. I'll pay by M O or cashier check so send me your info (i.e full
name, mailing address and your phone number) so payment can be mailed
out immediately. I will also make arrangement for pick-up which will
be after you must have received and cashed the payment.
Awaiting your info.
Thanks

Same exact message for both! Needless to say, I stopped responding and flagged as scams.
Good Luck everyone!


Admin edit: Added quotes for clarity -Jillian

Welcome, and thanks for posting! Let us know if you have any questions and please do continue to list scammers here. As you already know, you'll come across many of them while using Craigslist.

THANK YOU !
I googled the email and it took me to this post
he did the same to me, but i got sketched out when he said he was going to london plus his name didn't really add up to me.
John Harry.... sounds fake haha but thanks, because now i know what to look out for !

Haha Glad it was helpful! Google and this website are great

WOW thank you for posting this, i just received this same exact email ( i mean word for word) thought it was a bit sketchy I googled the name and sure enough came across this blog! thanks a lot!

I encountered the same scammer. I knew he was a scammer but for some reason I carried on with the charade a bit and I was actually sent the fake check with the "accidental" excess money that I was asked to wire back (the check was sent to my old address--I didn't give him my new one). I've stopped corresponding with him and said I wanted to cancel the transaction at one point but he ignored that and keeps harassing me with emails to send him his money. He has sent me emails from [email protected] and [email protected]. Craigslisters beware!

I don't know how anyone can do this to people. If I had actually believed this whole thing I would have lost my measly savings and been bankrupted. And the FBI won't do anything unless you've actually lost money...I guess they're a little too busy to look into the creation of fraudulent checks...

Ugh, terrible! Glad you posted this- it's so ridiculous how they try to play people and even use different names. Good thing the stories are always the same : )
I've gone along with a few and messed around with them, to see if they will respond to different options (payment methods and such) but that's when they disappear
Good luck out there!

This fool just scammed me on craigslist be aware!!!!!!!
Common reply to my craiglsist add.....not the first time This was said!...

Hi,
Am glad it's available. I'm going on a vacation to London but I will instruct my assistant to prepare and mail your payment which I'm sure you will get in about 4 - 6 business days. I'll add $20 extra for the delay. I'll pay by M O or cashier check so send me your info (i.e full name, mailing address and your phone number) so payment can be mailed out immediately. I will also make arrangement for pick-up which will be after you must have received and cashed the payment. Awaiting your info.
ThanksYour payment will be sent ASAP please consider it sold. I will appreciate if the ad is taken off craigslist so i can be sure you are keeping it in my favor.

The address I gave him is to a COP!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mod edit: Deleted double post and quote tag. DJ

Haha! Very nicely done!

Same knucklehead tried me (john harry - [email protected]) today -> same msg as above, same method.
Email arrived from IP 209.85.161.180 in Mountain View CA (not saying that's where it really originated).
Good way to check for these replies that smell funny -> check the email header.
There are good instructions online depending on your mail client and the host of the sender.
Apart from the obvious, I was pretty sure a world traveler in Mountain View with a personal assistant wasn't really interested in my used Kenmore frige 0:

I'm ashamed to say I got caught in the scam, but luckily had some intuition to not give my physical address. Thanks for the post!!!

This guy contacted me as well and im playing along with him. he sent me the two money orders or what ever they were. now has anyone tried to cash these, wonder what happens? anyways i told him i need his address in order for me to send him a check. took a lot of emails but he gave me an address. my question is why cant we give this address to the authorities?

thanks
peter

Welcome to ScamWarners peterlocal22. Do NOT deposit the checks or try to cash them. They are forged and will get you into trouble. Eventually the banking system will find out they are forgeries and will come back to you. Often it will be with the police because of trying to pass off a forged document.

I am curious what address the scammer gave to you. If it is in the US or UK, the person whose address is given is either a victim or an accomplice. You do not know if the address is real, and I am very confident that the address will NOT lead to the actual scammer.

You are free to take the address to the police and see what they will do. If it is out of the country you are in, they may not even take a report. This is true for several reasons. If you have not lost any money, it is hard to prove a crime was committed. If you were scammed, you have no Proof of who the criminal was. If you were scammed, the scammer was outside of their jurisdiction.

Yes, we explain this a lot.

heres what he wrote with the address he want me to send the money to::

Please let me know if you have received payment I am in London at the moment. If you have, you can go ahead and get it cashed at your bank,deduct your payment and send the balance via western union to the following details:


NAME OF RECEIVER: LINZER RIBERY
ADDRESS: 5 Westminster Bridge Road,
CITY: LONDON
COUNTRY: UNITED KINGDOM
ZIP CODE: SE1 7XW,


Please make sure you take care of everything today and send me the transfer details i.e Money Transfer Cotrol Number (MTCN) and the total amount sent after charges. I will need the money to take care of some pressing bills and pay for pick-up.
Waiting to read from you.

OMG, Thank God I made this research and found you all.
Please, help, what should I do? I totally believed him and now I am waiting for his check to arrive. Should I write him back or just stop answering?

This is his last email, I received today:

Please let me know if you have received payment I am in London at the moment. If you have, you can go ahead and get it cashed at your bank,deduct your payment and send the balance via western union to the following details:

NAME OF RECEIVER: TYLER RIBERY
ADDRESS: 59 Queen's Gate,
CITY: LONDON
COUNTRY: UNITED KINGDOM
ZIP CODE: SW7 5JP

Please make sure you take care of everything today and send me the transfer details i.e Money Transfer Cotrol Number (MTCN) and the total amount sent after charges. I will need the money to take care of some pressing bills and pay for pick-up.
Waiting to read from you.

Please guys, help, I am so freaking out, he has my address and phone too....