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I have a question.  Who told the world that Richard Young was the easiest mark in the world?  Seriously, cause that wasn't cool.  Yesterday the crooks almost got me.  As many of you know I am a huge Jayhawks fan.  College Basketball is my favorite sport and Allen Fieldhouse is my favorite venue to watch sports in.  Yesterday I was perusing craigslist.com to see if there were any deals on the some Jayhawks tickets for Wednesday night's last game of the season and my boy Sherron Collins's last game in the crimson and blue.  I would not say that I am an expert on craigslist.  I bought my playstation 3 off of there and it was working fine until I got jacked the other day.  Read about that mug here.  (Side note:  I wonder how many times the word "Mug" is used on this blog?  I was thinking that I should go back and count them mugs.  Whatever).  So I'm cruising through what craig has chosen for his list and I see someone selling 4 tickets to the game for 500 dollars.  I think the most I have ever spent to go to a game is around 115 bucks.  If I found four people that would be 125 a person with a free parking pass. Since Sherron is about to be my new favorite basketball player of all time (Kirk Hinrich is slowing down) I would gladly pay that to go to his final collegiate game (Will he get drafted?  That conversation is for another time).  This is an amazing deal.  for those of you who don't go to sporting events you think I'm crazy for even thinking about spending this on a game (Mami, Buell) but for a fan of the game you would understand that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity.   So I got on the horn with my KU watching pals and tried to assemble a crew to make our pilgrimage to Lawrence.  It all looked like it was goin to work out amazing.  The seats were 9 rows from the floor.  We were going to be able to visibly see the tears run down Sherron's cheek after the game when he addresses the crowd! Now I know what some of you are thinking.  For the person who has read this far you are either related to me or you like when I write about how stupid I am.  Now you have done the math and realized that there is no way in the world that you could get the biggest game of the year tickets for 125 on craigslist when they are selling for 400 other places.  You have also realized that this deal is actually "to good to be true".  In my defense the guy had a pretty good ad saying that he was a season ticket holder and he also mentioned some things that made it seem like he knew what was up in Lawrence.  So basically I didn't think it was a scam.  All my people called me up and told me they were down.  I emailed the dude saying that I was down and he emailed me back the information that I would need to get him the cash.  What was supposed to happen was I would email an ebay "agent" who would hold onto the money till I got the tickets and then after I got the tickets the "agent" would foward the money to the guy.  This all sounds really safe and comforting.  If I don't get the tickets the guy doesn't get the money.  So my first step was to wire transfer the money through Western Union to this guy in London named Louis.  I thought that was kinda wierd.  The Ebay agent lives in London?  Hmm.  So after that I look on the internet to find the closest Western Union.  How convenient there is one at the Kwik shop at 48th and Calvert.  So I walk over there and I ask the lady if I can wire money.  Essentially what I am doing here is going out of my way to wire some guy 500 dollars so he can take it from me and laugh.  The lady at the Kwik shop informs me that they don't wire money there but they do at the Russ's on Highway 2.  If they would have been able to wire money from the Kwik shop this article would not have been written and I would have been a little more upset then I am now.  She also tells me that I need cash to wire the money.  I stop by the bank grab some cash and walk back to the school.  Right before I go to Russ's I decided to check craigslist one more time.  I wanted to find out if the internet had any pictures from the view where my seats were.  As I open the tickets page I see this thing that says THE DUDE THAT IS SELLING KSTATE KU TICKETS FOR 125 IS A SCAMMER, DON'T GIVE HIM ANY INFORMATION.  HE ACTS LIKE HE IS FROM EBAY BUT HE'S NOT.  Oh snap.  My heart sank down and I couldn't believe it.  I emailed the dude back.  "Hey somebody just said you were a scammer.  Whats up dude?  He wrote me back Who said that?  What???  It's then and only then that I knew that it was Barzini all along (Godfather reference)  I called my buddy/coworker Kevin into the room.  If I was walking down a dark alley on the internet I would want to have him with me.  In retrospect I should have had him look at it before I emailed this dude.  He looked at the whole situation and said.  "Nah dude that mug is a scam".  Ok Kevin is from Nebraska so he probably didn't say it just like that but that's the bullet point.  As I sat back and looked at the whole situation I can't believe that I almost sent some dude in London 500$.  I would have been so mad.  Luckily Kevin Erickson helped me defeat the terrorists once again.  And that is really my new vow for 2010.  Don't let the terrorists win.  Who's with me?