Craigslist scammer, I am guessing

The person I am corresponding with is Dave. He wants to buy the product I am selling. Here are his emails to me.


From:
"drunk dave" <[email protected]>
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To:
[redacted]
** 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

--


--
Is this item posted still available for sale??????kindly get back to me ASAP.


After my initial response...


From: Drunk Dave <[email protected]>
Subject: [redacted]
To: [redacted]
Date: Thursday, January 6, 2011, 2:31 PM

Hello ,
Thanks for your prompt mail...i will like to know if you still have the

original box for item cos i'm buying it for my niece who is studying in abroad as a

christmas gift and i will also like to know if i can make the payment via my paypal

account...i will offer you $300 and $100 to cover up the shipping fee to her in abroad.

Hoping to read back from you.


And after my answering of his questions:



Re: [redacted]
Thursday, January 6, 2011 3:49 PM
From:
This sender is DomainKeys verified
"Drunk Dave" <[email protected]>
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To:
[redacted]
all you need to do now is to get me your pay pal email account and your name o i
can make the transfer into your pay pal account ok..hoping to hear
from you soonest....



And that's where our conversation is at. Thoughts? Concerns? Validation of my assumption that this is a scammer?

Welcome to Scamwarners.
It's a scam all right. He refers only to the item rather than whatever you are selling. Wanting it sent to a relative abroad (Nigeria probably) is another typical feature. You would have been sent a fake Paypal email confirming payment.

As Arnold said, it's a scammer. You will be instructed to forward the "extra" money to the "shipper" (really the scammer) by Western Union or Moneygram. The fake paypal email will tell you that the funds won't show up in your balance until the "shipper" has been paid.

In reality, there is no money, the "shipper" fees would come out of your own account, and the scammer would disappear. Nobody is coming for the actual item for sale--the scammer only wants the cash.

Paypal transfers are instant--they provide no service that involves them holding funds for any reason. The second anyone suggests they will, you know they are a scammer.

So, is the intention behind the scam to get the product for free?

In reality, there is no money, the "shipper" fees would come out of your own account, and the scammer would disappear. Nobody is coming for the actual item for sale--the scammer only wants the cash.

Ah...

There is a variant in which the scammer wants the item, but in that variant, you will be told to ship using a real shipper (e.g. UPS) and you will be told that the money will be released once you provide a tracking number. The scammers will sometimes pull this variation when the item is small electronics (laptops, gaming systems, phones), or expensive jewelry. For pretty much any other item, you can be sure the scammer is after the cash.