Need to tell if I'm getting scammed.. help is appreciated.

[Frank the Frowner]

I've been actively looking for a Macbook online, trying to get a good deal. I find a pretty good one for $500, and made an inquiry. The person tells me they're in Italy, studying abroad, and this is how they want to do the transaction, which seems real shady. All help in confirming is appreciated, thanks.

We will use Royal Mail for our safety ,they will provide assistance in handling the payment and delivery of the laptop.
The process works like this, I will go at Royal Mail's office and let the package in their possession and start the process, they will notify you about this and send you an email with an invoice with the tracking number and the instruction on how to complete the transaction. You'll have to send them the payment for the item, after your transfer is verified the package will be on his way to your address, You'll have 5 days inspection period from the moment you have the package. If you're satisfied with the purchase you can instruct them to release the funds to me.If not you can return the item and Royal Mail will make a full refund.
So if you want to make this happen please provide me your full name,shipping address and phone#. I will support the shipping and handling cost.

Model: MB466LL/A
Processor: 2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
L2 Cache: 3MB shared
System Bus: 1066MHz
Memory: 2GB (two 1GB SO-DIMMs) of 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM (PC3-8500); supports up to 4GB
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics processor with 256MB of DDR3 SDRAM shared with main memory
Display: 13.3-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit glossy widescreen display, 1280-by-800 resolution
Expansion: One FireWire 400, one FireWire 800, two USB 2.0 ports, and ExpressCard/34 slot
Hard Drive: 160GB Serial ATA; 5400 rpm
Input: Multi-Touch trackpad for precise cursor control; supports two-finger scrolling, pinch, rotate, three-finger swipe, four-finger swipe, tap, double-tap, and drag capabilities
Slot-loading Optical Drive: 8x SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Wireless: Built-in AirPort Extreme Wi-Fi (based on IEEE 802.11n draft specification); built-in Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR (Enhanced Data Rate) module

 

[Ms. TM Canada]

Sounds like a scam to me.
I think I read a transaction that sounded almost identical to this on the prank website Zug.com. It was a scam, and the blogger scammed the scammer in the end.

Also, there are too many grammatic screw ups in that letter for me to believe this person is "studying abroad" anywhere. I would say English is not this person's first language, and he/she therefore lives in Europe or elsewhere and doesn't do much writing in English.

Also, $500 for a Macbook is too good to be true. It's either broken, or a scam. My bet is on the scam.

 

[klunderbunker]

Scam.

 

[CCS]

My operation is not a scam.

 

[CCS]

My operation is not a scam.

 

[BooCocky]

i agree with her.

the price makes me wonder

 

[Sparky]

My operation is not a scam.

So.... your completley a women now??

 

[Lee]

The main thing is the Royal Mail is British NOT Italian = scam.

 

[Uncle Sam]

I dunno, it's being privatised.