Craigslist Scams

So my girlfriend and I are moving into a new place as of May 1st, and while we were looking around we were exposed to some of craiglists' finest fake apartment ads. We'd only apartment hunted once before, so initially we didn't know how to spot the obvious scams. If you look on the help page on the site it makes things pretty clear, but we didn't see that till after. Nevertheless the overall weirdness of these people, once they emailed us, was enough to turn us away, even though at the time we didn't know if they were scamming us or if they were just mentally challenged. Here's the first email we saw:

Thanks for your email and it is my gladness to hearing from you.I am Rev Gary Buck,the owner of the house you are making inquiring of.Actually I resided in the house with my family,such as my wife and my only daughter before and recently we had packed due to my transfer from my working place and now situated in the London in UK,and presently my house is still available for rent  for $640 per month including the utilities like hydro,washer and security,it is furnished.Morose Now, i went for a Crusade in the West Africa and i will like you to get in touch with my wife in the state for more discussion as She is with the keys and the document to the house.Pl i want you to note that,i am a kind and honest man and also i spent a lot on my property that i want to give you for rent,so i will solicit for your absolute maintenance of this house and want you to treat it as your own,is that taken,it is not the money the main problem but want you to keep it tidy all the time so that i will be glad to see it neat when i came for  a check up.i do that once in a while.I also want you to let me have trust in you as i always stand on my word.Where are you located and where do you see our advert also let us know if you need more pictures.

Address of the Condo :-   761 Bay St Toronto, ON, Canada

 Email my wife Jessica on ( bryanjeff98@gmail.com ) and she will attends to you better.

Rev Gary Buck.
God Bless You.

I was baffled by his strange grammar, and his use of phrases like "morose now" and "it is my gladness". Notice how he has supplied two reasons why he's not available to give us the keys in person. Being "now situated in London" wasn't convincing enough, so he added that he also happens to be in the middle of a "Crusade in West Africa" to give his story some credibility. And we're supposed to be further reassured because he "always stand[s] on his word". Regardless, I emailed him (or rather his "wife") back because of the incredibly low rent and the good location. This is what his wife sent back:

         Thanks for the email and also Yes, my husband in respect of Rev Gary Buck owned the apartment and also want you to know that t was due to my husband transfer that makes us to leave the apartment and also want to give it out for rent and looking for a responsible person that can take very good care of it as we are not after the money for the rent but want it to be clean at all time and the person that will rent it should take it as if it were its own.So for now,Am here in the London in UK, in our new house and also with the keys of the house,we try to look for an agent that we can give this document before we left but could not see and we are as well as don't want our house to be used any how in our absent that is why we took it along with us here and as you know that,my husband transfer to the West Africa for a mission of God,so i hope you will promise us to take very good care of the apartment....

 She went on to ask that fill out a "Rent Application Form" and send it to her. It was actually just 12 questions written in the email there was no attached document or place to sign, and the last question was "first and last month's deposit" , which isn't really a question at all. She ended with:

Await your urgent reply so that we can discuss on how to get the documents and the keys to you,please we are giving you all this based on trust and again i want you to stick to your words,We are putting everything into God's hand,so please do not let us down in this property of ours and God bless you more as you do this.
Regards..

Now I understand why these two are husband and wife. They both have the same bizarre, convoluted and idiotic way of writing. I just don't understand this scam. Why is this person writing as if he/she is a five year old? Also, he could have at least tried to write in two distinct styles, or at least not in one so authentically weird style. I'm glad, though, that they're both so explicit about they're trust in me. Because of that I'm obviously going to ignore all the other suspicious stuff and go ahead and send them $1, 200.

I'd like to note that her name was Jessica Jackson, which is ridiculous when you realize that she made up the name. You'd think when making up a name you'd try and stay away from those that are basically a famous person's name (Jesse Jackson) changed around a little.

*edit* Also, what's even funnier than Jessica Jackson is the name of the husband, Gary Buck. It turns out that there is a real Gary Buck, and he's not a reverend but a Canadian country singer. This might be a coincidence, I'd never heard of the guy, so there's a chance that whoever emailed me hadn't either. But I like to think they chose the name as an homage to the late, great Gary Buck, CCMA hall of famer.