Craigslist scammer - [email protected]

I am trying to sell a classic car. Got what looked like a legit offer. But something didn't feel right. He offered to pay through Pay Pal, and when called, they told me that as long as the money transferred, the sale was ok and I had control. I get emails supposedly from Pay Pal saying the transfer occurred. But when I go to my account it isn't there. I go to the Pay Pal community and lo and behold I see almost identical scams. Sigh.
Sound familiar? Here is the original communication:

[email protected]

Hello,

Thanks for the mail, i am presently in Houston on a Oil spillage
clean-up training course as a facility engineer of BP Oil Company. Am
ordering for this automobile because is urgently needed to be delivered on
birthday of my daddy, I really want the item to be a surprise for my
father, so i won't let him know anything about the automobile until it
gets delivered to him , i am sure he will be more than happy with the
automobile.

Firstly, I will like to know the mechanical condition and (2) I will
like to see the picture of this automobile (3) I will like to know the
final cost.

I am on a world Oil spillage clean-up training programme, I am also a
UN worker, due to the nature of the training that is going on here,
visiting of website are restricted but I squeezed out time to check
this advert because is urgently needed and send you an email regarding
it.

I can only send you a PayPal payment which protects me and you from
scam and fraud, I insisted on paypal because I don't have access to my
bank account online as I don't have internet banking, but I can pay
from my paypal account, as I have my bank account attached to it,

I will need you to give me your paypal email address so I can make the
payments asap for the item and please, if you don't have paypal
account yet, it is very easy to set up, go to http://www.paypal.com and get
it set up , after you have set it up I will only need the e-mail
address you use for registration with paypal so as to put the money
through.

We have a pick up agent that will come and pick the automobile up after i
have made the payments.

Regards.

Jeff Brown
Facility Engineer
BP Oil Company

I have got the following too for my laptop advertisement, though the mail replied as two phones.. ?)

Hi

This sound great, I would like to buy these two phones for my friend [
lecturer] as birthday gift, but i will not be available for pick up
due to the nature of my job [ Am marine engineer ].

With the status of this item, i will pay $740 for both phones [ I made
this bid in order to beat down the price of other buyers ] and $110
for the shipping using USPS EMS. I will like to pay you through
paypal, I want you to send to me your PayPal account ID for payment,
so that immediate payment can be done, and if you are new to PayPal,
you can easily log on to http://www.paypal.com/us and set up an
account with them and its simple and easier, just in few secs; you
get your account activated. PayPal is very secure and reliable..
anticipate a favorable response from you.

Thanks

Welcome to Scamwarners. Scammers send these emails out in bulk, so it's no surprise that they make the occasional mistake.
Often they just refer vaguely to "the item" to simplify matters.