Wasn't sure where to post this in, but figured SE was probably suitable.

I don't put a whole lot of time and effort into paying attention to what the scammers out there are doing and how they're doing it, just that they exist and it's fairly easy to spot/ignore.

I recently posted an ad to craigslist for sale/trade of a laptop I just bought a couple months back and of course I receive the standard "Hi I am on business in UK but want the laptop for my nephew in Africa, can you send me your PayPal info and I will pay then you can ship there?" reply.

What is the scam here? Are they intending to try break into my PayPal account? Or just use some other poor persons stolen credit card info?

My guess would be the latter, the victim would deny the charge, I wouldn't get any money and (hopefully for the CC thief) I'd have sent the laptop seeing the payment come through. That about accurate?

BillV

Ah, that was not something I had considered. Guess I figured most people would login to their PayPal account to check for the transaction. That does make sense though, and just as people will click those links and type in their passwords, I suppose they're just as likely to believe that a successful transaction has occurred.

Thanks for the comments, jimbob.

Yeah, lazy is right.

I've basically just been editing my ad each time I receive a scam, adding the "name," email address and (if available) originating IP and country of where it's coming from. If nothing else, maybe it'll help other people that read it I guess.

Jimbob, you were right on. I do continue conversation with these scammers to some extent. The one I've most recently been talking to actually wants me to ship to an address here in the US. I was considering contacting the local law enforcement to have them just "drop by" and check it out. It's either someone in on the scam, or someone completely unsuspecting that thinks the scammer will pay them for receiving and shipping items.

Hehehe thats pretty entertaining.

Anything with craigslist I would try to keep it to an in person exchange or something of that sort.  It's almost to easy to get scammed if you're not careful.

Haha.. pretty funny stuff... makes you want to go out and try to scam a scammer lol