You Don't Scam Me, I Scam YOU!

I know a few people who have been taken by some of the most despicable trolls that exist to the tune of thousands of dollars: Craigslist Scammers. The thing about it is, they aren’t always Nigerian princes. Even smart people who feel like they are doing their due diligence with research can be taken by these nastiest of nasties. So when one tried scamming me recently, I decided to have my own fun.

You’ve probably heard of James Veitch, the comedian most famous for playing scammers at their own game. His theory is that, the more time scammers spend on him, the less time they are spending on the unfortunate souls who don’t detect the scam until they’ve wired money they can’t get back, or booked vacation rentals that don’t actually exist.

I hate lost money. So when one of these useless yahoos tried dragging me into his mess, I decided to pull a Veitch on him and see how long the conversation could continue. I had so much fun with it, actually. In fact, this is the most fun I’ve had not selling a dining room table ever.

It started innocent enough. Read from the bottom up:

Nice to meet you, Megan Marx. You seemed normal when you wrote interested, but I am a bit thrown by the extra $50 you are throwing on the top to get this deal done. That said, it is only $50, so maybe this isn’t a scam? (Scam tip 1 I learned in this process—if they offer you more than you are asking, they are Internet slime.)

I am also thrown by the use of the word “burial.” Weird, Megan. Also weird that you are pouring your grief into shopping on Craiglist for dining room tables, but I digress. However, in case you are serious, Megan, I don’t want to be a dick and not mention your poor situation this week. I also want to sell my table.

I continue the conversation to see which way this is going to go. Bottom up again.

Here, Megan got very eager wanting me to “hit her up if that works for me,” again. Very eager needing these personal details and rushing me, while she is taking her 2 weeks of time at this burial. As you saw, I decided to test her. At this point, I believe this will be the last I hear from her. But low and behold, a day later:

At this point, I laugh. I consult one of my funniest friends. And we decide how best to keep this going:

Now we will surely be done, right? We have a great laugh. I think this will make a good story. And a day later:

And then Megan Marx made my day for the next few days. I got to use my favorite snippets of information she offered (the burial! the 2 weeks! the mother-in-law!!!), and she kept trying to believe that I was really going to fall for this.

“Uncle Craig”=the founder of Craigslist. While I was writing back and forth with Megan on the above, she didn’t know that I found success selling the table on a local Facebook group, where you are far less likely to find human scum than on Scamslist. I was done with Megan by now, and I believe she was done with me. But I did have to send one last exclamation point:

I don’t often sell things on Craigslist, but when I do, the scammers become the scamees! Hope you enjoyed my adventure with Nigerian princes named Megan Marx. I know I did!