Having fun with a scammer...

Some years ago I wasted a few months of a scammer's time, enjoying it greatly. Here is how it went down.

The Setup

I was in the market for a laser engraver. At the time these went for over 10K US$. I lowballed one on EBAY, but my bid was too low, and I did not win.

The Scam

The next day I received an email from what vaguely looked like EBay, or at least had the logo. The message claimed that the buyer did not go through with the purchase, and as the second-highest-bidder I could now buy the laser cutter for the amount I bid.

I knew instantly it was a scam, but was curious and replied with something like "great! let's do it". 'EBay' put me in touch with the 'seller' (which they never would), and he emailed me that he would be happy to take my 9K or whatever.

The Haggling

I started haggling, with all kinds of excuses. He kept going down. We were somewhere at around 4K, when I changed tactics.

I started asking for specs of all sorts. I needed to prepare a sturdy table - what were the exact dimensions of the device? Later, the exact weight? Was he sure it was pounds, not kilograms? The table was now ready, but I needed to know exactly the power consumption, to make sure the wiring was up to snuff... Ventilation requirements, noise level in decibels, etc.

A couple of months went by, and my 'scam' email folder was full of absurd back-and-forth emails. The scammer was getting impatient.

The Hook

My final touch: I suggested, in order not to get in trouble with ebay about negotiating a much lower price, that we do the following:

Instead of the 4K as we agreed, I would give him my original amount, 9K, so EBay would see the full price (he was still pretending it was going through EBay), and he would send me 5K back. He was really excited.

A few more days of back and forth. But I needed the 5K first, as a good faith measure, because I was taking a big chance of getting in trouble with EBAY and whatnot. I made it sound good, just like the scammers do, Western Union and all...

I did not hear from the guy again.

There were many wonderful twists in the story I no longer remember. But I still crack up when I think about it.

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