The inception of the internet has made so many aspects of our lives easier. From communicating with friends and family, to applying for jobs, to selling merchandise – the entire world is now accessible right from the comfort of our homes. But as much as the internet helps us – it also hurts us in the form of allowing predators of all kinds to reach out and touch us. I recently encountered one of these predators when I tried to sell some merchandise on Craigslist – and instead of selling my merchandise – I almost had my identity stolen.

In order to make some extra much needed cash, I placed a few items I own but never use on the site, hoping someone would purchase them. I recently did this with my PlayStation and sold it in one day, so I added some more and hoped for the best. After placing the second item I planned to sell on the site, I received an e-mail from a “lawson sambro” who said, regarding my merchandise: “Hello seller. I found your item and it look nice pls let me know if this item is still for sale.” Excited that I was going to sell it, I responded and said that it was indeed still for sale, offered to meet the person and make the exchange – and thanked them for their interest.

The second e-mail I received, which should have been a red flag but wasn’t, was this: “Hello. Thanks for the message, and I am still interested in the item, I hope that the item is in good condition, I will arrange for the payment by paying with postal money order. So I want you to send me your full name and address so that I can make the payment and after you have received the approval confirmation I will ship up the item with my FedEx account number, I want you to reply me asap to these mail. Thanks. Have a nice day.” Again, excited to sell the item, I, perhaps foolishly, sent this person my home address, expecting a postal money order in the mail a few days later…

…I instead received the “approval confirmation” that this person had mentioned in their second e-mail – and got a very quick lesson in the dangers of identity theft.

About a week later, I received an e-mail from uspsacountpost_bank@post.com, which I was supposed to believe was the United States Postal Service. With the subject, “United State Postal Service **ORDER CONFIRMATION**,” the e-mail read as follows: “Dear Paul Wein, Your $100.00 money order from lawson sambro has been approved. Moreover the below Order Number will be ask before delivering the Money, you will also identify yourself with your driving licence or your Social security number. Below is the address where the money order will be sent to and if the address is incorrect please email us back.”

Wow.

First of all, you absolutely do not need to give the Post Office, or any other financial institution for that matter, your driver’s license and social security number in order to cash a money order. Granted, you need to show identification when cashing it – but only in person. Second, there is no such e-mail address for the Post Office – especially considering that “account” was spelled with only one “C.” And third – I think the people who work for the United States Postal Service know how to spell and form a sentence a lot better than this genius does.

Infuriated, I first reported this person to abuse@craigslist.org, who responded to my e-mail as follows: “Hi Paul, Thanks for passing this along, much appreciated – it’s definitely some sort of a scam, it fits the pattern of messages we’ve seen in recent months. We’ve taken some steps that should make it more difficult for this scammer to get through to folks who use Craigslist.” Although that is very good news, I didn’t stop there. I also reported this person to the Federal Trade Commission, who asked me to forward them this person’s e-mails so they can take action as well. But for me – that is still not enough. I plan to contact the United States Postal Service, my local police – as well as g-mail, the server of this person’s original e-mail to me, so they can take action against this person as well. I don’t know how long this person has been trying to steal people’s identities – but believe me when I tell you that this time – they messed with the wrong guy.

Take my advice fellow web surfers, be careful out there as you make your way down the Information Superhighway, because while the majority of people on the web are as nice as you and me – there will always be people like the scum that e-mailed me who are trying to do nothing but ruin our lives – one identity at a time.