We have a '57 coupe deville we've been trying to sell and had a guy (who of course was a big importer) that had a customer that wanted the car for his son for christmas(last year) and was sending us a check for the amount + shipping fees (oh yeah) that we would return to him so he could make the necessary arrangements. It was an obvious scam, but we played along in case it was legitimate, and we received the check through Federal Express. It looked real (although Ann who has more experience with large fund trans actions thought it "felt" wrong) and we took it to the bank where Ann expressed her scepticism and the bank assured her it was legit. She deposited it and waited for it to clear before sending him the money. Since Ann told him it was to be a Western Union money order instead of a bank draft, we weren't getting off of anything until funds cleared and she made that very clear to him (it), he apparently didn't read those e's. Within days he was wanting money sent and then his client had gotten ill (poor guy) and needed part of the funds for the doctor bills. Well, in about 10 days we received it back and it was a forgery (very good the bank said),but because Ann had raised the issue with the bank they didn't charge anything. We basically wanted to know how the scam worked and weren't going to part with any cash, which was their plan. It was kind of fun, but as I said "P.T.Barnum". We haven't heard back and I think the poor guy must have succumbed to his illness since he was unable to get funds for the doctor.
Ann has heard from friends in the software business that it's a big problem there, so I'm glad that the individual you refered to wasn't in such a haste to make some money that he let his common sense go.