I think I've been scammed - help!

Ok, So I found a camera lens for sale (craigslist), sent a few emails the guy seemed genuine.

After sending the cash using moneygram it's all gone quiet..

I've sent him numerous emails trying to get in contact and finally thought of sending him another email from a random gmail account I have asking if the lens is still for sale.
Almost instantly I've heard back from him saying "yes, it is"
This tells me that he's basically ignoring all my emails.

What can I do?? Should I just go straight to the police?
I've got some basic IP stuff from the emails he's sent me but it's not a lot.
"X-Originating-IP: [79.67.83.58]"

The guy is meant to be in Elgin, Scotland but this IP says he is in Manchester.

He's previously sent me an email with his full name and address for the moneygram.

Any advice on what to do next would be great as I'm clutching at straws at the moment.

EDIT:I should say I was initially aware of using moneygram, but did a very basic google and the guys name came up a few times in the same location (within a few miles) of his address and indicated he could be Alexander Webster, a Teacher at "Elgin Academy" so became confident that the guy was genuine, his reasons for selling and using moneygram also seemed valid.

Sorry to bump this unnecessarily.

I've just done some more digging and each of the emails he's sent me come from a different IP...

79.67.83.58
77.86.95.57
86.18.153.170
82.40.35.111
82.19.43.75

Welcome here notrub.

It is possible that this person doesn't have a static IP, which means his IP is changing all the time. It looks like you have been scammed by this person. Could you please foreward his name address and email addresses via PM to me or one of the moderators? Then we can have a look at it and do some investigation of our own. Maybe we can dig up something.

I had considered his IP being dynamic, but not so dynamic that it changes providers and counties

Hello notrub,

79.67.83.58 - Tiscali
77.86.95.57 - KCOM
86.18.153.170 - Virgin
82.40.35.111 - Telewest
82.19.43.75 - Virgin

If this person is using different internet cafés or libraries to send his emails, then those emails would originate from different IP addresses, belonging to different Internet Service Providers. They are all UK ISPs, and the 'addresses' of them are the addresses of the ISP, not the actual location of the sender of the emails.

My own IP address is London. I do not live in London. I do live in England, but if I moved to Scotland, I would still subscribe to the same ISP. It would still be an English IP address, even though I was now living in Scotland.

The person who took your money but did not send you the goods might be a once-off thief, or might be an ongoing scammer. The name and address he gave you might be false, or it might be a faked identity of a real person. Because of this, and the probable use of public computers, it might be impossible to track down the real thief/scammer.

The Craigslist website states:

If you suspect that an item posted for sale on craigslist may be part of a scam, please email the details to "[email protected]". Be sure to include the URL (or 10-digit post ID number) in your message.

I'm sorry that you have lost of your money. But I think it is unlikely that you will be able to get it back.