Just posting as an FYI, I'm not really looking for vigilante justice or anything but I do want people to be informed, especially because there doesn't seem to be much I can do about the situation. I posted a Ps3, games, and accessories on craigslist for 200$. Couple days later, I got a text from a local number asking if it was sold and when we could meet. After analyzing this situation I'm going to give all the details because I think they are important. First he texted me around 3 am. So I'm thinking he is a gamer staying up all night, or something that works early morning day shift. I replied around 3:30, the person asked if he could met in an hour or so in a public place, before they had to go to work. Person also said "I need video games, kids are driving my fiancé crazy". I was thinking mom worked early shift or something, idk. I said No, I would be happy to met after work in a public place. We agreed on the whole foods in lakewood around 5, and I shared the location with them.

So I'm about 5 minutes late, I called him let him know. He apologized immediately and said he would be late by about 15-20 more minutes, because traffic was horrible (and it always is). 20 minutes later I call him again, by this point it is 5:35, I was sitting in the cold outside of Whole Foods with a coffee. He said he was walking up now. After chatting I realize he's at the wrong place. He "accidentally" went to the wrong whole foods off of Greenville. I replied that he was at central market, asked him if he received the address I shared with him. I told him I was leaving because I had to met a friend at 6:30. He kept apologizing profusely about the delay, he wasn't familiar with the area, his girlfriend was driving. He said he was about 15 minutes away, for my trouble he would give me another 20. My gut told me to just leave because he had wasted my time, and would have made an effort if he really wanted it, but I stayed for the extra cash since I have a medical procedure coming up. He sounded very flustered, and apologized about me waiting in the cold, said if someone did that to his girlfriend he would be pissed. You could hear the girlfriend in the back arguing with him about giving me the extra 20, it sounded pretty legitimate. Dude still wasn't there after 15-20, at this point he still wasn't there. I was leaving, because it was dark and cold and I had walked there from my house. He called again, apologized again-his girlfriend took a wrong turn but they were 5 minutes away. It was about 6:10. At this point he asked if he pulled up if I would make the exchange next to his car. I immediately said NO, Im a woman, I don't approach cars, and I make exchanges in public. He said he completely understood and didn't press the issue any further so I didn't signal it as a red flag.

Fast forward, I finally met this guy at the 7-11 across the street so he didn't have to sit in turn traffic. He drove a black jeep renegade (I believe) 2015/2016. Taller, african american, dreads to his chin, he didn't seem very bright, or kinda high. I showed him everything, he gave me a envelope full of money with a window, the first bill was real. Now, I'm a girl so I didn't want to pull out all the cash and count it since I had to walk home. I opened the envelope and saw what I mentally noted as 200-220 based on the amount of bills, but I didn't physically take it out and look at the rest. He got in his car, I was going to walk into 7-11 to purchase something. I pulled out a random bill and immediately noticed that it was bleached looking where the outline of the numbers and person was. It was obviously fake, looked at the rest, they were fake too. I ran outside, the guy was pulled into the turn lane, I slapped his window and he pulled into traffic, almost causing an accident, but managed to get into a lane and speed off.

I think this guy purposefully made me wait till it was dark, from the lighting it was harder to register the bills as fake and I didn't get a great look until I was almost inside of the store. He asked me to do the exchange by his car, I'm guessing so he could drive off immediately. I called the police to make a report, since it is a civil exchange they can't do anything about the Ps3, but since it is over 100$ in fake money it is a federal offense. I'm doing research about making a report on a federal level, since it was next to a 7-11 maybe they can pull the tapes. I'm more mad about waiting in the cold for an hour to get scammed then anything else, I didn't use the PS3, but of course wanted the extra cash. So beware of this guy, I have his number. So I'm hoping between footage, video make, and phone they could easily track him down if it is motivated. But watch out of this, I used craigslist plenty of times before with no issues and I'm pretty careful but I never heard of this ballsy crap before. Tl;dr didn't met at a police station, didn't pull out all of the bills, bills were fake 20$, first one was real in envelope window. Scam guy is an asshole. Thanks for all the support. I've definitely learned some new things, I appreciate it! Edited: letters