By Billy Davis

Two men arrested in Madison, Miss. last week were not the same con artists who duped a woman in Batesville, a police spokesman said Monday.

“It wasn’t the same people,” Deputy Chief Don Province said of those arrested during a traffic stop.

The Clarion-Ledger reported that Madison police found seven fake laptops, designed to look like Apple Macbook Pros, in the vehicle.

Ray Charles Kersh and Corey Jermaine Bridges, both of Jackson, were charged with conspiracy to commit false pretense, the newspaper reported.

Province, just days earlier, had warned of a similar scam in Batesville, where a woman at Wal-Mart was duped by two men selling a $250 “laptop.”

The laptop computer was actually a pair of black three-ring binders taped together, wrapped with bubble wrap, with a Wal-Mart sticker affixed on top.

Batesville police were unable to locate the two black males who sold the “laptop.”

The Jackson newspaper reported the alleged con artists also used the binders and bubble wrap, and also used an extension cord to appear as the laptop’s power cord.

Madison police said the counterfeit computers were selling there for $200.