Is it wrong to scam a scammer?

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robeats91t

237lbs. of Ballast
Jun 4, 2005
210
0
0
Tampa, FL
Ok, so here's the deal. I'm an eBay junkie, afflicted by the desire to buy and sell things as often as possible. Anyways, Sunday I put up for sale an IBM laptop with the option to buy it now. So Monday at school I check my auctions and the laptop has sold!

However, the buyer is a @#$!ing Nigerian scammer. I know this with 100% certainty, as the emails I have received from him prove it. Hell, he didn't even have the common decency to reword things from the Nigerian Scammer Template.doc that comes with the Nigerian version of MS Word!

I have reported him to ebay/paypal, but I realize I may as well report him at the drive thru at McDonald's--I'm going to get about the same response. Possibly more satisfaction, if they let me supersize it.

Anyhow, since this guy is costing me about $10 in ebay fees and precious minutes of my time, I was thinking of following through with the deal...in a way. I'm thinking of sending this asshat something that'll make him think he's getting a laptop...until it shows up. like a box of rocks or something.

Any ideas? I should check to see who the fedex account he sent me is linked to, and if it's stolen then the deal is off. But if it's his would you follow through with my plan?
 
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robeats91t

237lbs. of Ballast
Jun 4, 2005
210
0
0
Tampa, FL
Well, I'd rather not punish the FedEx workers for what this clown is doing. They'd just be doing their job handling and delivering the package. Initially I was thinking of sending a few bags of my dog's shit to him, but then the thought of the shippers having to deal with that...not cool.
 
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robeats91t

237lbs. of Ballast
Jun 4, 2005
210
0
0
Tampa, FL
Yeah Godspeed--I may just send him two pictures: the first would be a picture of the laptop, and the second would be a closeup of my middle finger. But I'm not sure if that would be as funny, or as costly to him--unless i filled the box with something else.
 
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robeats91t

237lbs. of Ballast
Jun 4, 2005
210
0
0
Tampa, FL
LOL. With my luck JAV, it'd go off on the plane/ship over to Scamtown, Nigeria, and they'd trace it back to me.

The main reason I want to do this is, we're going to keep getting scammed until they realize we have caught on.
 
Aaron J Williams

Aaron J Williams

Make It So!!!
Jul 23, 2006
67
0
0
Luck, Wisconsin
If you are the seller and he's paid for it and the money clears the bank legally then why not send it? By scamming the scammer don't you become that which you hate? If you want to hurt him then why not hold his cash for 6 months before sending the laptop?
 
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robeats91t

237lbs. of Ballast
Jun 4, 2005
210
0
0
Tampa, FL
Aaron J Williams said:
If you are the seller and he's paid for it and the money clears the bank legally then why not send it? By scamming the scammer don't you become that which you hate? If you want to hurt him then why not hold his cash for 6 months before sending the laptop?
Click to expand...


The thing is, he hasn't paid legally. He has no intentions to. He sent me a fake email that claimed to be sent from paypal but wasn't. It stated, "this payment will be credited to your account as soon as you send a tracking number to the buyer."

WTF?

Paypal doesn't work that way. The email is from a domain not owned by Paypal. Plus the fact that my first results on both google and eBay's answers section for Nigerian Scam resulted in almost carbon copies of the emails I have received thus far.

By sending him what he wants and hoping eBay and PayPal's seller protection system will take care of me if he does turn out to be a scam artist (which I already know he is) is daft. Why deny my own intelligence in the hopes that "the system" will protect me?
 
Aaron J Williams

Aaron J Williams

Make It So!!!
Jul 23, 2006
67
0
0
Luck, Wisconsin
robeats91t said:
The thing is, he hasn't paid legally. He has no intentions to. Why deny my own intelligence in the hopes that "the system" will protect me?
Click to expand...

I agree with you totally. If it's not legal, f*ck him. Your intelligence will serve you much better than the system ever will.
 
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Shytheed Dumas

For Sale
Mar 6, 2006
967
0
0
54
Louisville, KY
I'm all over sending him the dog shit. Seal it up really tight so the Fed Ex workers don't have to deal with it. Put it in a box that the douche will actually open and get his surprise. He's earned it.

Or start flooding his inbox with spam.
 
drunk_medic

drunk_medic

7Ms are for Cressidas
Apr 1, 2005
574
0
0
Woodstock, GA
You should probably tell him that you are on to his scam, and you won't honor fake e-mails from a payment intermediary. That is not suspect behavior, it's incriminating behavior. You should also tell him that they pay you, and you ship the item - that's how it works in all EBay/Paypal transactions. After all, you cannot send an item without the funds to ship the item.
If they actually DO pay for the item, you need to wait for it to clear and SIT THERE for awhile before you ship, and they need to understand your reasons for it.
You shouldn't even give them that much.
 
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