I was setting up a series of outdoor classes through craigslist a few months ago and I got a response from an obvious scammer - not exactly 'spam' but it became a very strange conversation so I thought it'd be a good story to tell anyway.

He said he'd drop off his kid but I'd have to pay the nanny for taking care of the kid, and he would send me a check for the full amount later. It was a pretty ridiculous and convoluted scheme written in terrible English and misreading all of the details of the original posting; pretty apparent from the start that it was a scam. So, of course, I responded.

Here are some samples of the conversation, for your amusement...

Hello,
Thanks for getting back to me, Am James by name, my son is coming for an holiday in your area, His name is Simon and is 17 years old .I want him to be busy in the time of the day,because am in UK for business trip for a month that is why i want him to be lesson, I want you to calculate the cost of 3 hour per day for two days in week for
the whole a Month and email me the total cost, and i have someone that will always drives him down to your lesson center.
Kindly get back to me with your information below to be on the check.....

FULL NAME AND ADDRESS WITH ZIP CODE....(not p.o box)
YOUR CELL PHONE NUMBER...

Hi James,

That's fine. The cost for the class is $50 a month. You can make the check out to me: lethalbeef. We don't currently have an address for our business yet, sorry about that. However, your son or the person who drives him can give it to us personally. The first class is going to be tonight at 6:00PM, so I hope to see him there."

I gave him a fake address to mess with him a bit because I was getting tired of treating him professionally after a while.

Wy big silence?cos the payment have been deliver to you and my son nanny are waiting for the money,so i want you get back to me with the transfer detail So that nanny and my son can relocate to your location for the tutor lesson for my son.

Of course, this wasn't for a tutoring service at all, so I have a feeling he got confused with other scams he was pulling. I responded with this, and he stopped emailing me.

Dude, we're all busy here, take a deep breath and chill out man. Life's too short to be angry. Make the best of what you got and smile. You got a wonderful son, you're going traveling, it sounds like you're livin' the dream. Take it from me, your life could be a lot worse.