What started off as a simple ebay auction, became a fabled internet scam of a known scammer. The scammer tried to use a fake escrow service in order to rip a apple powerbook off a legitimate seller on eBay. Knowing what was really going on, the seller hatched a hilarious plot that took advantage of the scammer. The seller ended up enclosing a pieced together "P-P-P-Powerbook" which consisted of a 3-ring binder with old keyboard keys glued to it. On the sides and back; fire wire, monitor!, and various other ports were drawn on with a black marker. Also included in the package were pencil shavings and misburned cdrs. The seller reported a 2000 dollar value for the package, so the scammer had to pay the full 27% tax in order to receive his parcel. Eventually the scammer did pay this tax and received his package only to find out "it is broken". During the whole event, members from the message boards the prank originated from staked out the address the package was being delivered to. The address was for a barbershop with an internet cafe above. One of the "undercover agents" even had his hair cut there while he was doing reconnaissance. Simply searching for “P-P-P-Powerbook” on any search engine will yield more detailed results.
by KQH May 28, 2004