The police literally do not help with this sort of scam unless the amount is big enough to matter. People run scams like this all the time on craigslist, whethe

The police literally do not help with this sort of scam unless the amount is big enough to matter. People run scams like this all the time on craigslist, whether it's for tickets or apartment rentals or whatever. It's so common that police simply don't have the resources to chase them down, and if you call to file a complaint sometimes they'll tell you not to bother. I previously ran across a scam like this while apartment hunting, and ended up contacting the local police along with the scammer's bank. Neither of them were willing to do anything about it so I left it be. Hopefully they didn't get anyone's money, but they probably did...