California

Man shot at after responding to Craigslist ad:

Again here’s another story showing the perils of using the erotic services section of craigslist.

A 37-year-old guy from Concord, California ordered a hooker off of craigslist.

After she got there the guy put $100 on the table, because some people seem to think that if the money doesn’t actually change hands there’s no crime.

Anyway she asks for a glass of water and when he goes to get it she grabs the $100 and tries to take off.

He grabs her, she screams, which causes a big man with a gun to show up.

The first guy pushes her out the door then two shots are fired through the door.

Luckily the man wasn’t injured except for in his wallet. This isn’t the first time either that I’ve posted a story about a guy who was shot at through the door. Let us not forget about the guy in Minnesota who was shot in the face after trying to cancel his hooker order.

Another rental scam e-mail sent in by reader Rose. This time about a property in the Costa Mesa, California area…

From: Andre Ulla Jose Uribe [mailto:anrdreulla@yahoo.com]
Sent: Wednesday, November 12, 2008 9:50 PM
Subject: Re: $1000 / 3br - 2 bath single family home. (Canyon Cir Costa
Mesa)

Hello,

Thanks for your email and interest in renting my house..I am Andre ulla,the
owner of the house you are making inquiry of…Actually I resided in the
house with my family, my wife and my only daughter before and presently we
have moved out due to my transfer from my work now in Warsaw,Poland.
Presently my house is still available for rent for $1000 USD (rent already
includes utilities).Moreso Now, I’m currently in Lagos,Nigeria for an
international Christian follower’s crusade.

Please i want you to note that,i am a kind, honest and trustworthy man and
also i spent a lot on my property that i want to give to you for rent,so i
will solicit for your absolute maintenance of this house and want you to
treat it as your own, It is not the money that is the main problem but i
want you to keep it tidy all the time so that i will be glad to see it neat
when i come for a check up.I also want you to let me have trust in you as i
always stand on my word.This is the address of the House (**** ****** ***
Costa Mesa, CA 92627).
It has a dramatic entry foyer with ceramic floor. Extremely spacious rooms
throughout with lots of big windows…nice and light! New neutral paint and
some newer carpet..Very quiet, low traffic area. New fridge (7/07)…I
believe its absolutely a perfect home for you and your family.Utilities
include Water,Trash,Sewer,Gas
SO IF YOU ARE REALLY INTERESTED I WILL WANT YOU TO FILL THE
RENT APPLICATION FORM BELOW

RENT APPLICATION FORM.
FIRST NAME:__________?
MIDDLE NAME:__________?
LAST NAME:__________?
PROFESSION:__________?
PHONE:
(CELL)PHONE__________?
(WORK)PHONE__________?
(HOME)PHONE__________?
KIDS _____ (YES/NO), HOW MANY ________
PRESENT ADDRESS: _____________________
CITY: _______________
STATE:______________
ZIP CODE: ____________
HOW LONG? ___________IF RENTING
WHY ARE YOU LEAVING__________?
IF THIS HOUSE IS BEING GIVEN TO YOU,
HOW LONG DO YOU INTEND STAYING? ____________?
WHEN DO YOU INTEND MOVING IN? ______________?
IF YOU HAVE A PET,
NAME OF PET: _____________?
KIND OF PETS: _____________?
HABITS
DO YOU SMOKE ______________ ?
DO YOU DRINK ______________?
DO YOU WORK LATE NIGHT? ____?

Looking forward to hearing from you with all this details so that i can
have it in my file in case of issuing the receipt for you and contacting
you…Await your urgent reply so that we can discuss on how to get the
document and the keys to you,please we are giving you all this based on
trust and again i will want you to stick to your words,you know that we have
not seen yet and only putting everything into Gods hands,so please do not
let us down in this our property and God bless you more as you do this…

The house is available for rent at the moment so you are free to move in as
soon as you wish to…A Deposit of $1000 (which happens to be the first
months rent) is required before moving in…Feel free to call me for more
information and arrangements on how to get the keys and other necessary
documents delivered to you…my number is (+2347084066248 or
0112347084066248).The house will be available for rent for a period of 4
years so you have a choice of deciding how long you intend staying there…

God Bless,
Andre Ulla.

This one is right out of the Nigerian handbook. Warsaw, Nigeria, Christian missionary, all the usual red flags.

I wonder if scam rental ads out number the real ones yet on craigslist.

Santa Clara County jury convicts Craigslist attacker:

26-year-old Kanari Nelson of San Jose, California was convicted yesterday for the assault and rapes of various craigslist prostitutes. He’s looking at a max of 200 years behind bars. That’s not a misprint. He could be sentenced up to 2 centuries.

Let’s hear from the D.A.

“Anytime this guy wanted to sexually assault somebody, he just had to go online and pick from a menu,” said Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney James Leonard, who won the case.

Craigslist, of course, had no comment but their mouthpiece, Susan Mactavish Best, said there would be a significant announcement about that topic today. I’m all a-flutter wondering what that announcement might be. You don’t think it could be *gasp* that they’re eliminating the erotic services section? Nah. They’d never do that no matter how many women get raped.

Some more fake craigslist scammer names to add to the list. The first one is Arsenio Calle which was used on the typical renter scam, thanks to reader Keith.

We also have Peter Terry and Liana Costello with the email address of lai.costello@yahoo.com which were used on rental scams in the Felton, California area. Thanks to reader Denica for those.

Two arrested for posting Craigslist pot ads:

Who says pot doesn’t make you stupid?

36-year-old Ronald Gray and 30-year-old Frank Lewis, both of the Riverside, California area, were arrested after police noticed their ad on craigslist for high grade marijuana.

When police in Hemet, CA responded to their ad they found a nice little grow house. They also found pot plants growing outside, a few pounds of high grade pot in the house, and an unloaded rifle.

If this ad was blatantly stating that marijuana was for sale why wasn’t it flagged by craigslist’s infamous self policing community?

Sonoman loses $4K in online scam:

A 63-year-old woman from Sonoma, California was lost $4000 when she ‘bought’ a used car on craigslist.

The ’seller’ claimed to be David Bruno and stated that he was selling the car because he was shipping out to Iraq. He then requested the woman to wire the money to him for the car. He provided all sorts of proof of ownership that turned out to be fake.

The VIN for the vehicle traced back to a used car lot outside of Philadelphia. The lot manager said he had received several phone calls about that car. It seems that the car may have been ’sold’ numerous times on craigslist.

The moneygram was cashed in North Las Vegas, Nevada.

I wonder if that was the money’s last stop or was it headed overseas?

Homicide Victim’s “Craig’s List” Connection:

Charles Parrish Murphy of Fresno, California had a business buying old cares, fixing them up and selling them on craigslist.

This past Saturday Mr. Murphy went to meet a potential buyer and never came back. His body was found Sunday morning but the car he went to sell was nowhere to be found.

The car is described as a 1990 convertible red Ford Mustang. It has a white top, white interior and chrome rims. The California license plate number is 6EUS257.

Fresno County Sheriff’s investigators are asking the public to call crime stoppers at #498-STOP if they’ve seen the Mustang or have any information about Murphy’s whereabouts on Saturday evening.

I believe this would be the 2nd confirmed murder that can be connected to craigslist. The first being that of Katherine Ann Olson.

Escalon man arrested in alleged rental scam on Craigslist:

49-year-old Cornell Albescu was arrested for running a craigslist rental scam in Modesto, California. His scam added a new twist to the usual scam.

Albescu would rent out properties that he didn’t own of course. The new wrinkle is that he would get unwitting handymen involved. He would have someone break into the foreclosed property and leave the back door unlocked. He’d tell the handymen to go fix up the place. Then when the renters showed up he’s have the renters give the handymen the money. The handymen would take their cut and send the rest to Albescu.

But he’s been caught. Police are also looking for Mike Russo and Anthony Russo who are also believed to be part of the scam.

Just in writing about these scams I’ve noticed that California seems to actually catch their real estate scammers more than any other state. Just sayin’.

I got the following e-mail from Christa who was looking for an apartment on carigslist…

I’m 20 years old and this is the first time I began searching for apartments. When I saw an ad that looked too good to be true- I hesitated but gave the guy the benefit of the doubt and emailed him. This was his exact response:

“Hello. We are so much excited. My name is Mcgrath Garrett the owner of the apartment and also want you to know that it was due to my transfer that makes me and my wife and little daughter to leave the apartment and also want to give it out for rent and looking for a responsible person that can take very good care of it while we are not at the state as we are not after the money for the rent but want it to be clean at the time and the person that will rent it to take it as if it were its own. So for now, we are here in West Africa, our new house and put all my worries off concerning the maintenance of the apartment for, since i am not residing there for now. I left behind some Facilities and electonics which include the rent, DVD player, air conditioning, alarm system. The kitchen is fully equipped with all necessary cooking utensils, refrigerator-freezer, four-hob and oven, microwave, dishwasher and washing machine, my computer connected with Internet access also the keys and document of the apartment are right here with us in West Africa, and the lease document. Which i can send to you after all necessary agreement has been accepted. Also i will like you to know that the rent charges is not really the issue, hope you are okay with the price of $900 per month including utilities like hydro, water, gas, heat laundry facilities, air condition and so on, but your absolute maintenance of my apartment is most important thing, if you are really interested in renting this apartment get back to me so that i can forward you an application form for you to fill so that i can start all necesary arrangement asap.

Here is the apartment address : (California address)
…. Pls note that you will be viewing the apartment from outside only and 100 % sure that you would love to stay in the place because it is locatedin a very cool, quiet and safe neigbourhood. There was a man who want to rent my apartment his name was Mr Daniel called me about the apartment, i told him that I can’t give him the apartment because he loves smoking, drinking and dont want him to get drunked and damaged my property one day so If you are still interested, no extra fees. I will like you to give me a call at (foreign number) or (other foreign number) on this effect to know how serious you are. I personally will actually come visiting you sometimes during the year as our new tenant. Looking forward to hear from you with all this details so that i can have it in my file in case of issueing the receipt for you and contacting you. Awaiting your reply so that we can discuss on how to get the document and the keys of the apartment to you. “

I soon googled the e-mail and the only response was for a rental fraud website. I want to make sure this story gets posted because it might help a stupid person from making an even more stupid decision of sending money.

Thanks for your time

Thank you Christa for sending this in. It gives one more fake scammer name to post.

I received the following from e-mail from Paula after she read about one of the many tutor scams…

I just read about one of your readers who was almost a victim of a tutor scam. I’m a student at (a California university) and was looking for a tutoring job. I came upon this job that looked wonderful. A woman wanted an English tutor for her 7 year old son from the Philippines, and she was willing to pay $80 per hour. My instincts told me that was way to high for a tutor, but I kept thinking maybe she is just really serious about her son learning English. She said she would pay me for the first two weeks. She would send me a money order for over $2000 by UPS and then have me wire the difference to the boy’s nanny. This was fishy and I was starting to worry because I sent my name, address and phone number to her. So I went online and looked up “tutor scams” and found the exact copy of the email “Mrs.Mary Phillips” had sent me. I sent her an email back saying I will not cash the check until I meet with her and her son fact to face. I’ll wait and see what happens. I’m glad that I listened to my guts. I hope others will, too.

The more people that send it in will the more people that hear about it. Thank you Paula.

And in case you’re caught in the middle of one of these scams and you’ve already given out your info I highly recommend calling your credit bureau and let them know that you may be an identity theft victim.

Stalking charges may follow Internet postings:

If you ever wanted to know what a stalker looks like they kind of look like that.

That’s 38-year-old William Baldwin of Atwater, California. He’s under investigation for stalking after posting on craigslist intimate details of the life of a woman whose family Baldwin used to work for.

He claims he did it because he was bi-polar and off his meds. Here’s a thought, stay on your meds.

I wonder why these ads weren’t flagged by craigslist’s alleged self-policing community?

Craigslist scams continue - Complaint Desk - OregonLive

A great post from the Oregon Live blog about a reader of theirs who found a rental scam in Fullerton, CA. The post gives us new fake nakmes the scammers are using and those would be Dr.Michael & Laurie Haling.

Roseville police arrest 3 men in theft of tires, rims:

Police in Roseville, California have arrested three men for trying to sell stolen rims and tires on craigslist.

Police were first notified when a local car dealer found that cars on their lot had their rims and tires stolen and the cars were left on milk crates. They didn’t even have the courtesy to use blocks.

Police arrested 21-year-old Sam Shahbazi, 41-year-old Gabriel Castillon Garcia, and 19-year-old Edwin Gabriel Garcia. The Garcias even had stolen tires and rims on the truck they were driving.

I never understood the whole ‘rim’ culture but to each his own I guess.

Police say 14-year-old arrested for prostitution deal at Desert Hot Springs motel:

In Desert Hot Springs, California police there arrested a 14-year-old prostitute. The girl was reported as a runaway and was placed in juvenile attention. She advertised herself on craigslist as a ‘call girl’.

Not only do we have an ‘unvictim’ here but it shows how well that craigslist users flagging illegal ads is working. And by that I mean not at all.

Alameda County Prostitution Sting Operation Nets 56 Arrests:

Several different police organizations in Alameda County, California got together and arrested 56 in several different craigslist hooker stings.

Various offenses included prostitution (of course), facilitating prostitution (pimps), and various charges of drug trafficking. At least one arrest included selling meth so again I say it’s not a victimless crime.