how can I make this not a scam?!?!?!

[Cheesypuff]

hey all...this email is good times. So as some of ya'll might know...dell.com had a SWEET deal on a TIVO box. Anywho..I bought one with resale in mind. Well, to make a long story short, I'm selling the TIVO box on craigslist, and here is the emails as follows. HOW can I get my money? RED flags ALL over the place, but I was wondering if I can still get my money from this guy LEGIT, following all laws and screwing him over.

here are the emails

email one:
Hello ,

I will like to know if this item of yours is still available
and i will also like to know the present condition of this
item......get back to me as soon as possible....Thanks......

email two: me replied
hey,

the condition of the item is sealed, new in box. Everything new...never touched. here are some pictures of it on my floor. there are 2 other people also wanting to purchase it, but none have followed up yet. First come first served.

-Gary-

email three: replied back to me

Thanks for your quick respone,I will like to make a quick payment
about this item of yours,I will be making my payment through
international money order at Bidpay and i will offer you $170.00 so
you can close the auction and i can proceed with the payment of this
item.About the shipping all will be done by me through my fedex
account once the payment been approved,i will send you the shipping
label and invoice you will paste on the package then the fedex
carrier will pick it up from your door step,So get back to me with
your full name and address so i can contact Bidpay to proceed with
the payment of this item.....hope to hear from you soon...Thanks
Regards

END

funny stuff going on here. HERE is the major red flag. I'm selling the box for $165.00 and he's offering $170.00. as you read, he wants to use bidpay. I'm almost 100% sure this is a scam. But!! I wanna play around with this a bit and see if I can get money out of this and he gets his product. Any suggestions on how I can achieve this?

[zippyjuan]

Insist on some sort of escrow service. When you have the money, the item is released.

[ialsohaveadream]

You can go ahead and be 100% sure this is a scam.

[MikeD]

Insist on some sort of escrow service. When you have the money, the item is released.

:agree:

Red flag city, you're right to be cautious. I personally wouldn't go down that route...

[NullUnit2000]

Here's what I'm wondering. If this guys is outside the US, would the Tivo even work for him? I would imagine there must be some localizatiion in the service.

Also, since he never refered to the Tivo as "Tivo", just "your item", he may be spaming this message to several sellers just looking for responces.

[esme]

whenever i sell something i always get those emails.

they are scams! ....don't be fooled ....some have even said that they will arrange pickup/shipment and they offer to send me up to twice what i'm asking to pay shipping charges .....total scam

[Nanotech9]

well, i got a guy on ebay that paied for and had an item picked up via UPS. he scheduled the pickup, i got my money, all was good.


but, he completed the auction and never offered any more money than the auction total.