I’m so tired of people thinking I’m an idiot

My parents are moving. They’re retiring to our cottage “Up North” and they’re looking to sell a lot of junque.



Being the wonderful web-savvy daughter that I am, I offered to post some of their items on Craigslist.com, in hopes that they could sell them without having to go through the whole garage-sale deal.



I’ve been getting emails from Belgium, Africa, and Other random countries trying to get me to sell them my parent’s large screen tv. 

I’m not an idiot.



The first email from a guy in Belgium. He was going to send funds in the form of a cashier’s check in US dollars. He told me that it would be a local pickup. I emailed him back and forth for a few days trying to figure out how this could be a scam…after all, why would someone want to buy a 200lb tv overseas? I didn’t think that Belgium was an impoverished nation…nor did I believe that they were so short on tvs that they had to buy one from Detroit. 



Then I got another email from Africa. This guy told me that he wanted to buy my tv as a graduation gift for his son, and could I calculate the shipping costs via UPS?
I laughed.



I still didn’t see how this stuff could turn into a scam, although I knew something was up. Like I mentioned before..I’m not an idiot.



So I did some research, and found that this was a fairly common routine. Someone from overseas would approach a seller with a large-ticket item. (My tv is going for over $1500) and offer to buy with a cashier’s check, or even a wire from Western Union…what happens is that they send MORE money than was actually asked for. For example, since my tv is $1500, they’d send $3000. When the seller notifies the buyer of the error, the buyer asks the seller to wire them the difference.



Of course, the cashier’s check was fake, and the seller would be out a large ticket item, as well as a fair chunk of change.



I thought this was funny.



Of course, I’m still getting emails. I just reply with: “I’m not shipping a 200lb tv overseas. I’m not an idiot.”