There is no buyer.
Notice how the scammer doesn't call what you are selling by name? He uses the generic word "item", that is because he sends the same stock copy/paste email to anyone selling everything that he can find and he has no idea what you are selling and doesn't care.
There is only a scammer trying to steal your hard-earned money.
He is not interested in your identity or bank account, only your cash.
The next email will be from another of the scammer's fake names and free email addresses pretending to be the "secretary/assistant/accountant" and will demand you cash a large fake check sent on a stolen UPS/FedEx billing account number and send the money via Western Union or moneygram back to the scammer posing as the "shipping company". When your bank realizes the check is fake and it bounces, you get the real life job of paying back the bank for the bounced check fees and all the bank's money you sent to an overseas criminal.
Western Union and moneygram do not verify anything on the form the sender fills out, not the name, not the street address, not the country, not even the gender of the receiver, it all means absolutely nothing. The clerk will not bother to check ID and will simply hand off your cash to whomever walks in the door with the MTCN# and question/answer. Neither company will tell the sender who picked up the cash, at what store location or even in what country your money walked out the door. Neither company has any kind of refund policy, money sent is money gone forever.
When you refuse to send him your cash he will send increasingly nasty and rude emails trying to convince you to go through with his scam. The scammer could also create another fake name and email address like "FBI@ gmail.com", "police_person @hotmail.com" or "investigator @yahoo.com" and send emails telling you the job is legit and you must cash the fake check and send your money to the scammer or you will face legal action. Just ignore, delete and block those email addresses. Although, reading a scammer's attempt at impersonating a law enforcement officer can be extremely funny.
Now that you have responded to a scammer, you are on his 'potential sucker' list, he will try again to separate you from your cash. He will send you more emails from his other free email addresses using another of his fake names with all kinds of stories of being the perfect buyer, great jobs, lottery winnings, millions in the bank and desperate, lonely, sexy singles. He will sell your email address to all his scamming buddies who will also send you dozens of fake emails all with the exact same goal, you sending them your cash via Western Union or moneygram.
You could post up the email address and the emails themselves that the scammer is using, it will help make your post more googlable for other suspicious potential victims to find when looking for information.
Do you know how to check the header of a received email? If not, you could google for information. Being able to read the header to determine the geographic location an email originated from will help you weed out the most obvious scams and scammers. Then delete and block that scammer. Don't bother to tell him that you know he is a scammer, it isn't worth your effort. He has one job in life, convincing victims to send him their hard-earned cash.
Whenever suspicious or just plain curious, google everything, website addresses, names used, companies mentioned, phone numbers given, all email addresses, even sentences from the emails as you might be unpleasantly surprised at what you find already posted online. You can also post/ask here and every scam-warner-anti-fraud-busting site you can find before taking a chance and losing money to a scammer.
If you google "fake check buyer scam", "fake Western Union buyer fraud" or something similar and you will find hundreds of posts of victims and near victims of this type of scam.
It's a scam
The check will be fake but will take 3-4 weeks for your band to discover it, long after their "shipper" has picked up the money
I don't know why people ignore Craigslist's very clear scam warnings
http://www.craigslist.org/about/scams
Craigslist is ONLY for face to face CASH transactions. Anything else and you will always get scammed
Nigeria is the capitol of the 409/419 scam, classically they send a bad check for an excessive amount, asking you to cash it and return a portion of the excess, you end up responsible for the full amount of the bad check (They exploit a defect in the banking system in which take days for the physical check to be verified)
There was actually a Nigerian pop song celebrating the con "I go chop your dollar"
If he pays you by check - take it to the bank. Let them know the situation. They might charge you if it bounces. Otherwise, wait for it to be processed. Let him know that you cannot release the product until the check clears.
If he is a Marine Engineer, then take that into consideration.
Do you know how to read email headers? This will help you out some as well.
No sounds like a scam . I have gotten 2 of this email exactly the same. For 2 different items. So no its a bot! Or a scam
100% scam attempt. deal only with people locally, cash only.
red fags are raised any time you see "sending you a Check" and the buyer is "abroad". Also, the buyer doesn't mention the item specifically because he sends this exact same response to everybody offering something for sale. Can't expect the scammer to spend his precious time crafting a personalized response.
DEAL LOCALLY WITH FOLKS YOU CAN MEET IN PERSON - follow this one rule and avoid 99% of scam attempts.
Sounds sketchy.
scam
i am selling a 120GB zune HD for $120.00 USD. I was wanting to know if this reply seems legit and if i should go through with it
Thanks for your response,
Am glad to hear back from you,am contacting you once again just to let you know that am okay with the condition and price of the item.So am ready for its purchase and my form of payment will be by sending you a Check via UPS 2/3days delivery.I'll be responsible for the pick-up and the pick up money will be included in your payment to avoid delay and to enable pick up company 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 as i have limitations where i am presently,as I'm a marine Engineer and am at the sea point at the moment, I would also loved to discuss more about the purchase on the phone but phone calls and visiting some website is been restricted at the moment.I will only be able to access my email which will be our major contact.