Interestingly enough, as common as this scam is, and as easy to track,
there's but a handful of prosecutions each year in the US.
I got such a bite when I was selling a transponder. As soon as I got an
e-mail saying a mistake had been made and a check had been issued for
thousands more than the selling price I told them to bug off. They persisted
and sent a very real looking money order. My bank issues this brand of money
order, so I took the phony money order and copies of all e-mail
correspondence to my bank. The manager could not tell the money order from
real. As far as I know the bank made no follow-up with the police.

Cheers:

Paul
N1431A
KPLU