It was supposed to be a World Series surprise from daughter to dad, an old "Philly kid" who still remembers the pain of throwing away tickets for a Yanks-Phils showdown that never came to be in '64.

It turned into an Internet-age World Series scam, also ending in heartbreak. Instead of watching Dad recapture a lost childhood dream this week, Riva Litman asked the FBI, a bank, and other authorities to catch a thief.

A Craigslist con man apparently took $3,200 from the family of Philadelphia expat Robert Litman - and never sent the four World Series tickets he had promised for Citizens Bank Park. Litman was stranded back home in northern California with unneeded plane tickets and a big-kid heart full of grown-man grief.

Riva Litman, 23, who had orchestrated the purchase with help from her mother, was anguished as she shared her story leading into last night's make-or-break Game 6 at Yankee Stadium.

"What I'm most upset about is not necessarily the money," said Litman, a communications specialist in Washington and the oldest of four siblings. "It's just that my dad was so excited about this. It's the one thing in so long that really got him excited about something. He was just so disappointed in the end."

It all began when Robert Litman, a native of the city's Wynnefield section, realized the Phillies and the Yankees would face off in the World Series. He hadn't lived in Philly for decades, but childhood memories came rushing back. He shared them with Riva.

One of seven boys growing up in West Philadelphia, he was 16 when the Phillies were considered a lock for the Big Show in 1964, leading the Cincinnati Reds atop the National League by 61/2 games with just 12 games left.

The Yankees were on their way to the American League pennant, and Phils-Yanks World Series tickets were printed. Litman, one of his brothers, and his dad had gotten tickets for every single game planned for Connie Mack and Yankee Stadiums.

Then came the great collapse. The Phillies lost 10 straight. The St. Louis Cardinals won the pennant. Litman threw away his tickets, went to college in Connecticut, became a physician, and made a home far away from Philadelphia.

"I explained it to her," he said. "I said my heart was broken at that time."

As with any great love affair, though, he would keep the Phillies in his heart.

"Once you're a kid in Philly - I always consider myself a Philly kid," said Litman, who lives in Danville, just outside San Francisco. "Every single morning when I open the newspaper out here in California, the first thing I look at is whether the Phillies won or, in football season, whether the Eagles won."

Riva Litman hatched the plan last week to surprise her dad. Tickets were too expensive on StubHub, she said, so she trolled Craigslist. She found a guy selling four for $800 apiece.

Alleged Name: Richard Krauss. Supposed Hometown: South Jersey. Claims: Season-ticket holder for 30 years with a "tough as nails" mother who had died of cancer. He planned to donate some of his ticket proceeds, he wrote in two days of correspondences, to a cancer hospital in New York, in her memory.

Riva's mother, Niki, wired the prevaricating peddler $3,200 Friday afternoon via Western Union. That night, the family, including relatives in Philadelphia, hopped onto a conference call and announced the early birthday surprise to dad.

"He was in shock, so excited, over the moon, couldn't believe it," Riva said. "I asked him if he cared if we were going to be sitting far away. He said, 'It's the World Series. I could be sitting on the moon, I don't care!' "

The seller picked up the cash Saturday morning. Monday, the promised FedEx envelope with tickets did not arrive. By Tuesday, the scam had become clear, and Western Union urged Riva to file a fraud claim, she said. She also filed an online report with the FBI, she said.

The seller did not respond to her or her mother's e-mails - even though his ticket ad was still up on Craigslist. So Riva Litman set up an alias e-mail account and sent him a note, posing as another buyer.

"He responded enthusiastically, wanted to sell me each ticket for $1,500 apiece, for a total of $6,000," she said. "I can't imagine how many other people he scammed with just that one post alone."

Contact staff writer Maria Panaritis at 215-854-2431 or mpanaritis@phillynews.com.