"Martin Sunday" tell me this doen't sound fishy!

hello,
just wanted to give everyone a heads up on him. His e-mails come as Martin Sunday but he signs them as Williams. Nothing has happen yet so I cannot say this was a bad deal but thought i should come and tell everyone what has happen so far and let you be the judge. Anyways I posted 2 yellow anacondas this fellow e-mails me says he is interested,Ask for pics so I send them. then this is the e-mail I get today I put it on as attachment. Also when I sent him a e-mail it goes through but a e-mail comes back to me and says"all e-mails to this acct have been seized by the Nigeria National Police and the U.S. Secret Service. Confronting him about this he says "don't worry must be a mistake" Oh yea just to let you know their will be no deal. My question if this a scam how would they benifit from it? How does it work?
thanks for your time,
billie garr

Sorry tried to add it as attachment will not work. This is what it said I will type it out exactly.

hello

i will pay the $275.00 for the 5 foot male yellow anacondas but it is quite unfortunate that i am not going to be in town as from tomorrow cause i received a call yesternight that i will be going on a business trip, so i will like to make everything fast as possible cause i am buying it for my son as a birthday present. and i want everything to be in place when i come back. the discription u gave me it is okay. concerning payment i will instuct my business representative whom we did business together and is owing me $2800 and he said he will be paying me via cashiers check. i will instruct him to issue you the certified cashiers check of the above amount ($2800)to you, as soon as you receive the check you will cash it then deduct the cost of your 5 foot male yellow anacondas and wire the remaining balance of $2475 to my shipper via western union money transfer in inorder to make arrangement in coming over to your location for the pick up of the 5 foot yellow anacondas. u will make use of the extra $50 for the running around. my shipper will be coming to your location as soon as the funds is being sent to him and to make sure that the 5 foot male yellow anacondas is in good condition.all reciept paper will be handled my shipper if this is okay by u pls i will need ur full name , address and phone number as it should be on the check.
thanks
await your soonest reply
williams....

Well thats it if you would like to see the actual e-mail let me knoe i should be able to e-mail it to you.
thanks,
billie garr

Billie,
This is a scam, do not proceed with this deal. Email whoever you have been communicating with and cancel! Do not except this check, it's a fake check. When you deposit that check into your account, and then forward the rest of the money to him, minus the cost of the snake, your bank will inform you that the check was a forgery. By then it will be to late as you would have already forwarded the left over money to him via Western Union.

It's a well known scam. The casheirs check his "Partner" sends you will be bogus. It will look good enough for your bank to take it. You will wire REAL money via Western Union to his account. later (1 week, maybe two) your bank discovers the bogus cashiers check, removes the $2800 from your account~ your out the snakes and $2475, your bouncing checks all over town, and your bank says:

"OOOps, sorry, here is the accounting of all the bounced check fee's you also owe"

thanks for the quick info. I was not going to plan on doing it but was not sure how the scam worked. I will cut any contact off with him.
thanks again,
billie Garr

I think the most remarkable thing about this is that it appears that the government might actually be DOING SOMETHING bout these horrendous scams.

I'm so GLAD this person came to ask here about this person and hope he got the warning in time to save him from making a huge mistake.

O yeah, the old Nigerian cashiers check scam! There have actually been people killed in the other incarnation of this scam. The one that states I am with such and such a government agency, we have however many millions of dollars from an old president and we need all of your bank account information to transfer it to you so we can get it out of the country cleanly. In return you will get 10% of the millions of dollars. Some people have given them their information, been taken for 10's of thousands of dollars, actually convinced to fly to Nigeria to finish the deal personally, then held captive for ransom and killed. I would play this out a little bit, get the shipping address and all the information you can, then take it to the authorities, since you can't ship the snakes to Africa, it has to be a US accomplice. Good luck to ya.
Adam