A Response to "Craigslist Scams"

While I am not unfamiliar with scamming on Craigslist, it doesn't cease to amaze me when I am caught up in the middle of it. After reading "Craigslist Scams" on blog Baseless Doubt (for original article click clack ), I thought I would share my most recent episode in this seemingly laugh-riot activity, in hopes that maybe we will be able to connect the dots and construct a clearer picture on what these individuals strive to accomplish.


I received an email this morning regarding a job posting I had applied to on February 1st, if I remember correctly, something that was labeled "general labour." The post entailed very little on what the job actually was, I recall them asking for credible people who considered themselves better than others. Instinctively, I had to respond:

"Hello,

My name is Sam Hawkins, and I am a twenty year old university student currently enrolled at the University of British Columbia. Despite this, I only attend class three days a week, which only totals to nine hours, thus, I have a fairly flexible schedule. Although i do not know what the job you offer entails, I believe that i am both responsible and trustworthy. I have attached my resume so you can look over my past experiences, and I can obtain a reference on request. I hope to hear from you soon.

Sincerely,

Sam."

As I am an unemployed, under-succeeding individual, who needs money, I apply to a high volume of adds on Craigslist with a full understanding of the success rate of return. Still, I try not to let that get in the way of my professionalism. When I replied, I was fully aware of the chance of not being the correct candidate for the job, or the larger chance that no one would ever be hearing from this phantom of an employer. So when I awoke to the chatter of my phone, informing me of a newly received email from the one, the only: Henry Brown, his response a mere two months after the original message, I was still not totally convinced of his legitimacy as an employer:

"Hello,

Thanks for your response to my ad and i really appreciate. Am sorry for the late response, it is due to the extension of my traveling to the state and i was busy with some office work aswell. Anyway Am Henry Brown, my self and my family are relocating to Canada from United kingdom.I will be coming there for a business summit  and also for some private research work. So i need someone who could help me take care of my  home by doing some home work while am off to work and also help in running some errands because my wife is heavily pregnant. I will be offering you $300 weekly. Your service will be needed for three hours  daily at any suitable time of yours , Mondays through Fridays...

  My financier will be making out a Paycheck to you before my arrival, you will be receiving a check of $3,600 out which you will deducting your pay for the first two weeks and you will be using the remaining to buy foodstuffs and other things needed in the house. You will get the foodstuff on the day of our arrival which is April 15th 2011. Actually all flights from the United Kingdom arrives at nights so you will be getting the foodstuff in the morning and making all other preparations. I will also instruct my estate agent to come and pick you show you the apartment and handover the keys to you so that you can do all other necessary preparations before we arrive. Besides, I will also email you the shopping list.You have to get all this shopping before our arrival so that we wont start running around when we arrive, So my financier would be needing the following Information below to make out the payment."

While not nearly as muddled and nonsensical as the message received from Baseless Doubt's Craigslist scammer Reverend Gary, the consistent grammatical errors pays a certain kind of homage to his original message. And while it does not include fantastic ventures to West Africa, it does mention the familiar UK. The two messages are similar in their ability to confuse and scare the reader. If it were not for a select few expressions that he chooses to use, I might even find this an acceptable email to reply to. His profession, it would seem, consists of both personal research, and attending business summits. Some sort of explorer/mountain climber/business man; sounds pretty incredible. His wife is apparently "heavily pregnant," with child I assume, an odd expression to say the least, as it paints a wonderful image of her current condition. Basically an obese pig of a woman hunched over a toilet eating up slop and what have you...pregnant woman things...heavily pregnant woman things.


Sometime, he goes back on what he has just stated, and instead of choosing to delete his past comments, he allows me to take a look at his stream of consciousness, about the "foodstuffs" mainly. That word, foodstuffs...it's not a normal person word. Not to mention his refusal at using proper contractions or concepts for that matter. It would seem that he has trouble articulating the perception of himself, his use of "Am" is somewhat of a replacement, I guess. 


Anyways, like Baseless Doubt author Daniel MacNeill, I fail to see the reason in executing these thoughtless "scams." I mean, they're not even really scams, they're strange role plays where the person in charge has no real end game but to satisfy his partialness towards poor sentence structure. Sure, like Dan's, he asked me for a bunch of personal information that if answered could potentially ruin something about my life. I'm not really sure what part of my life that would be, but I'm wise to his tricks nonetheless.