My future roommate

So my roommate moved out a few days ago and I am now living by myself again. I still have about a month and a half left on my lease, so it would be nice to find someone to replace her. I am not too optimistic though because right now is the dead season up here. I posted an ad on craigslist anyway hoping to find a roommate. I got a few responses including this one from brian johnson:

Hello and how are you.Compliments of the season to you.I am a 29 yr old teacher and i live in the UK .I lost my fiancee of 3 yrs and i am coming over to get over the loss and probably start a new life over there.I willl like to have the details and the total price of the place since i cant come over personally now> and would just have to do with what i am told.So pls if you can also add pics that would be splendid. Pls get back to me as soon as you get this message.pls i can be reached on my roming number......+234-8023588515.
Thanks in this regard.
Brian.

He obviously isn't an english teacher, but I don't really care who moves in. So I respond to him giving him more info about the room and the terms of the lease. I sent a few pictures of the apartment as well. I made it clear that the longest he could stay was about 6 weeks. Today I received this response:

Hello, and how are you,Thanks for the pics
Thanks alot for the breakdown,here is the neccessary information
that you might need.i am ok with the price.

BRIAN JOHNSON
105B PADLAS WALK
SHIRLING WAY ESTATE
LONDON.UK
N3 10PT
TEL:+2348023588515

I am ready to pay for 6 months for now till i come over to the state,i might stay extra months depending on the my stay in the USA.i may be in the state by middel of may or ending i will like to get the room ready before i start coiming to the state.
As regards payment,you may be the one to pick me up at the Airport,this is what i am willing to do.

You see i am based in (UK) and you see the fastest way that i can get payment to you is through my company associate in the USA a refund from an autopart sale, and they told me that they are ready to make a cheque out to me but i am not in the state right now. So since that i will be coming over to the USA directly from here,pls i wont mind if i can have them make out the cheque to you immediately to you so that you can hold the accomodation for me.

Although the payment is more than the amount for the accomodation but i should be able to trust you with my remainder and i would appreciate it you can keep the remainder for me after you must have deducted all your charges and when i get over there i can have my money in cash from you asap, i would use the remainder to pay other fees,such as car rentals,security deposits, fix appliance and have the room pianted to my colour e.t.c. the cheque would be for $4,800

Pls if you are still interested in giving me the accomodation,i would appreciate it if you can let me have your name ,address and phone number so that i can have the payment made out to you immediately.Pls get back to me as soon as you get this mail.
Regards.
Brian.

I couldn't stop laughing after I read this. If you hadn't figured it out by now, this is a scam. The telephone number is in Nigeria. The way it works is he will send me a cashiers check for much greater than rent and then request money back. His cashiers check will initially clear at my bank, before it is discovered to be a fake and bounces. I just love how he didn't really pay attention to the e-mail I sent him back. I clearly told him the longest he could stay was a month and a half yet he wants to pay for six months. I'll make sure I have the room "painted to his colour" before I pick him up at the airport:-). He also sent me two pictures of "himself" which were modeling photos. One was just a headshot and the other was this stupid pose. I haven't responded to him as yet, I'm not sure if I'll try to mess around with him a bit.




My mom found some pretty funny websites about the targets of scams cleverly scamming the scammer. This one has lots of stories: http://www.419eater.com/. Some of these stories are hilarious. This one dude gets a couple of hundred dollars from the scammer promising to mail him several thousand later. While they are on the phone he fakes his death in a car accident (the audio is included on the website). You should read the whole story it is pretty funny.

Another good one is this story. The picture near the end is hilarious.

My brother discovered this site which may be the funniest of all P-P-P-Powerbook

Its good to know that people are getting back at these scammers. I think it is great that scammers fall for the same scam that they themselves are trying to pull.

Agony

Breck has become a Winter Wonderland during the last week of April. It has been dumping all week. Arapahoe Basin is still open for skiing. The snow totals there have been,
Monday 10"
Tuesday 5"
Thursday 4"
Friday 4"
Saturday 5"
Sunday 6"
7-day total 34"
This has been one of the snowiest weeks since I have been here. The worst part is that I'm not allowed to ski. I get to sit at home and watch the snow pile up. All of my friends tell me that the conditions are about as good as they have been all year at A-Basin. This is the first time my injury has really limited me from doing something that I wanted to do. I know I've skied a lot already this year, but it is pretty frustrating having so much powder within reach and not being able to appreciate it. Oh well.