Actually, you wont be out any firewood, and there wont be any law to be standing by when the "freight company" shows up to collect the dough and the firewood.Our company nearly fell for that same scam, just better written and a lot more communication.
here is how it works.In our case, the guy ordered supplies for a wedding from our online craft store.Large purchase didnt cause any alarms to go off, and the shipping info matched the credit card.$6000 involved.We ordered the stuff because we didnt have all of it onhand.Everything sounded legit until I sent the guy the info that it was ready for pickup.Even the name of the carrier was known to us.
Then he dropped the bomb on us,he wanted a different carrier to pickup the stuff,but wanted us to bill the credit card the funds for the carrier,then wire the funds to the carrier.A quick check showed no carrier existed,so with the help of the credit card company we called the owner of the card who of course had no idea about his card being stolen.
In the end,it was clear that all the thief wanted was the funds for the shipping wired to him or his buddy.Carrier never would have showed up to pick up squat cause Im sure the dude was riding a camel somewhere else in the world.It was a close call for us, but Im glad we caught the scam before any funds got wired anywhere.