I have a post on Craigslist Hartford, CT  offering cleaning services.  I included my phone with the posting.  Got an 8 part text from "Patrick Smith" from the number 657-667-7831 in response to it.  My scenario is basically the exact same as what other people have outline.   We can only assume this is the same person/s.  Of course, I recognized almost immediately it was a check scam attempt and provided no further personal information.    I did post on whitepages.com to flag the number as a scam attempt.   For a little personal satisfaction, I am acting as if I am interested and sending various mundane and benign text messages to Patrick Smith.    Hopefully I can waste as much of this persons time as possible.   Beware of this number   657-667-7831.