Another scam via Craigslist: offering more than asking price

I received this email from a Mary Williams from Canada. Beware of this name. She responded to my home cleaning ad on Craigslist. She went all out to send me this long convincing email:

Good reading from you , and i am so happy that you are still available for the service because me and my son will be coming over to occupy our space and i will need these services done prior to my arrival or when i arrive
1) I will need you to do the general cleaning in my House, we are in the same location, i can send my driver to come and pick you up for the cleaning.....
2) Floors: Wash and/or vacuum throughout Kitchen: Clean counter-tops, dust and wipe appliances, spot-clean cupboard fronts and wash
floors.. Bathrooms: Spotlessly clean sinks, tubs, toilets and wipe counters.
3) I will also need a Babysitter for my two (2) years david, if you can do that too, but if you can't do that, kindly help me in looking for a good care person to help me out for that.
4) I also need a chef who would be coOKing for me and my family for the main time
Here is the description of the house incase you seem not to understand the picture.

Living and dinning room: 24x13 square feet
Room 1: 12x15 square feet
Room 2: 11x14 square feet
Kitchen: 11x8 + 6x6 square feet
bathroom: 12x10 square feet
Toilet: 10x8 square feet
I will like you to tell me your service cost for all this, I will make every provision for you, even if your location is far from my house I will add to your fee, but I want a perfect job as I said before. Please just make every thing perfect before I arrive, I will be in the state in 1 week's time, but I will like everything ready before my arriving time... So I want it to be well arranged and clean.. I have attached the pictures of the
Building, including the bedroom, Living room and kitchen, plus my Family pix (I, My husband and our little david). So I want you to take a look at the pictures and let me know your price per hours or on contract based..
I will contact my Boss to issue a Check in your name and send it to you, the amount that will be issued and send is $2,550, Its my Bonus for the Contract, but it will be US Check which takes a long time to cash here in CANADA so I will like you to accept it, deduct your fee for advance Deposit for your service, and send the remaining balance to our KLM Traveling Agent, because its for our Re-schedule Flight ticket and Bills.. If eventually your service charge is more than $800, I will pay you the balance when I arrive and if its not up to $800, I will have my balance as well, but I will compensate you if the jobs are well done.
I will need your Full Details to issue the payment, such as:
FULL NAME:
ADDRESS:
CITY:
STATE:
ZIP CODE:
TELEPHONE:
CELL PHONE:
Immediately you forward the payment details, I will call you and I will send your Full name and address to my Boss and he will issue the check and send it to you, which means you will receive the check within3-4 business days
I will send the Apartment Keys and Address as soon as you receive the check.............. Through the mailing address which you will be giving me to forward to my boss.
Looking forwarding to read back from you.
Thanks

Another incarnation from barry king (king.lil0015@gmail.com) of this scam. I caught this in time thanks in part to this site. I'll follow those crazy craigslist guidelines (deal in person) in the future.

In part, scammer said:

The payment would be sent by UPS courier company and will be picked
up as soon as you receive my payment,I will wait for the payment to
get cashed before i'd send my mover for the pick up.I will like to
tell you that i would be sending a check worth of $3,500 to cover the
moving of the item and the money for the charges from western union
money transfer.As soon as the check reaches you,have it cashed and
remove your money for the item and send the remaining fund to my
mover by via western union money transfer.My mover is also picking
some of my other items up for me in the same city of yours so that is
why i need to give him that amount.I will like you to remove $100 for
your running around in getting the check cashed.Please let me know if
i can trust you on this so we can move forward from here. Regards

THIS IS A SCAM!!!
I just received this email from Catholic Besh (here's the email address kharmaradeen2010hott@gmail.com), which seemed like a weird name to me. Also the first email I received asking about my CL ad was from Paul Oloye (paul.oloye2010@gmail.com). I'm so glad I was suspicious and looked up the email addresses. Not responding to this.

Here's the email:
Thanks for the your prompt response and i have decided and concluded to buy the item from you. I am OK with the cost.And I would be very glad to inform you that, My Office will be mailing overnight certified check from my salary to cover the cost of the item as you requested,I'll want you to remove the advert from web and consider this item is sold to me..So i want to be the best offer by offering you extra $50 to your money as the best offer and i hope you will keep this item for me,I will be needing the following information to issue out the payment ..

Full name on the check.
Full Physical address to post the check
City, State and Zip Code
Home & Cell Phone to contact you.

Also you should be aware that you won't be responsible for shipping as
i will have my mover come over and pick it up as soon as you received
the check and. I also have some other goods i already bought in other
location which my mover will pick up all together. i will get back to
you once my secretary made the payment out to you.
Sent from my iPhone

Sorry for the long post but I wanted to share my recent experience to help others avoid
the same thing. This has got to be some of the same people as my emails are too
similar to other postings. I did NOT cash the check and funny thing...after I told
them I was going to the bank to cash their check...their email address was invalidated/
removed/deleted, whatever - preventing any further communication with them.

Scammer email address: "W Thomas"

1st email:

Hello,

Thanks for the swift response, just to let you know that am okay with
the condition and price of the item, am ready for its purchase and am
willing to add extra $20 so that you can keep it in my favor. My form
of payment will be by sending you Check via UPS 1/2days delivery.

I'll be responsible for the pick-up and the movers/pick up money
will be included in your payment to avoid delay and to enable movers
to schedule an appropriate time for the pick-up at your location after
check has been cashed,as i have other properties to be moved alongside
with yours.

I would have really love to come for the viewing but due to my work
frame that might not be possible. kindly get back to me with your full
name and address including your cell and land number so i can make out
payment.

Regards,

Thomas

2nd email:

Thanks so much for getting back to me...i would have love to call you but am presently on work inspection and i use a hearing impaired device so wouldn't be able to call at the moment so kindly get back to me with your full details.

3rd email:

Hello,

Good to read from you and thanks for the details provided. I presume
we seal this a deal? I'll contact my secretary so that payment will be
issued out to you .... please i want you to consider the item sold and
keep off other interested buyers that would make inquiry cos am ready
for it's purchase.

As i've let you know that pick up and mover's fee will be included in
your payment, so upon cash of check, you'll make the pick up money
payable to the movers and the movers would arrange appropriate time
for pick up at your location as i have other properties to be moved. I
believe this is based on trust.

Thanks for your understanding.
Regards!

4th email:

Hello,

How are you doing today? Sorry for the late response and delay in payment. The payment has been mailed out to you via UPS and you ought to have received it by now . Here is the tracking number # A5614782518 here is the movers coordinator's information below...

Receiver's Name: Kathleen M Davis
Address: 1948 South Broad Street
City: Taylors
States: SC
Zip Code: 29687

As I've told you initially that the movers fee will be included in the payment, so the overpayment is meant to cover the cost of shipment for the item alongside my other properties including tax and insurance plus the movers fee.

Please do act accordingly as agreed after deducting your money for the item, make the rest fund available to the movers coordinator's info via Western Union at any of their location around you and get back to me with the Western union details below (as it appears on the receipt) so i can contact the movers for the pick-up at your location.... Deduct the western union transfer charges from my fund also $30 for yourself (meant for any hassle or run around).

Sender's name and address (as it appears on Western union receipt)
Money Transfer Control Number (MTCN 10 digits #)
Actual amount sent.

Do let me know your schedule for the week regarding pickup as i have
some other properties to be moved alongside the item.

Hope i can trust you with the overpayment and this will be done in good faith. Your Honesty and transparency will be appreciated.

Thanks for your patience and understanding,
Regards.

5th email:

Thanks for the update and i also got an alert from ups that check
has been delivered to you ...Everything you said in your last email is
okay so go ahead and get it done and get back to me with the western
union transfer details..

As for the pick up , just thought maybe this weekend will be fine
probably Saturday or Sunday evening ? let me know what you think ..

I will be waiting to read from you ..

Thomas

Thanks for the update and i also got an alert from ups that check
has been delivered to you ...Everything you said in your last email is
okay so go ahead and get it done and get back to me with the western
union transfer details..

As for the pick up , just thought maybe this weekend will be fine
probably Saturday or Sunday evening ? let me know what you think ..

I will be waiting to read from you ..

Thomas

Good, my movers will be coming for the pick up tomorrow evening by 5:45pm ok.. I will be waiting to have the western union details..
Yes you dont need to give them anything besides the item .. yes all the fees will bill has been taken care of.. what time will you be going to the bank?

The END of communication with this person. Thank goodness I figured this out BEFORE cashing any check.