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I came to CD a little over a month ago to get some advice. I've stuck around and learned so much from reading these pages! Thank you so much to all the contributors! We have this local scam artist, and I've wondered how he continues to get away with his behavior. It just occurred to me to ask you all.
We first became aware of this man a few years ago. Let's call him Dean. An acquaintance of ours had rented their beautiful home to Dean. Long story short, Dean moved in, wrote a bad check for furnishings to the previous tenants' employer (gas guys; their company paid for furnishing and the bad check wasn't enough for them to pursue apparently - ~$5000), he began running the house as a B&B, collecting rental fees from guests, but never paying our acquaintance's rent. They finally got him out, but the way I understand it, he was able to get away without paying a dime in back rent or fees because he agreed to vacate within three days of their final court date or something like that.
His name came up again last year when we had several people call to ask about vacancy at our vacation rental because they arrived to the area, only to find the property Dean advertised didn't exist. Luckily, they had all paid deposits via credit card, so they would be able to dispute the charges.
More recently, we learned from someone "in the loop" on the legal side of things that he is still running this scam. He has a multitude of websites advertising accommodations with lavish appointments, promising the world and more (one I saw still has pictures of our acquaintance's house, with their address listed WHERE THEY CURRENTLY LIVE!). He secures a deposit via credit card for your reservation, but never delivers. The customers get their money back by filing a dispute, and the credit card companies don't pursue charges because the amount is under a certain threshold. I did see where one woman has started a post on ripped off report dot com about him (which he hilariously tries to defend, including posting a picture of the house and claiming he's started legal proceedings for defamation, lol). He does have positive reviews on trip advisor, vrbo, etc, all self penned I'm sure.
So, how does a person like this continue to get away with it? I'm sure karma will eventually catch up, but I just don't understand why he hasn't been criminally prosecuted yet.
I came to CD a little over a month ago to get some advice. I've stuck around and learned so much from reading these pages! Thank you so much to all the contributors! We have this local scam artist, and I've wondered how he continues to get away with his behavior. It just occurred to me to ask you all.
We first became aware of this man a few years ago. Let's call him Dean. An acquaintance of ours had rented their beautiful home to Dean. Long story short, Dean moved in, wrote a bad check for furnishings to the previous tenants' employer (gas guys; their company paid for furnishing and the bad check wasn't enough for them to pursue apparently - ~$5000), he began running the house as a B&B, collecting rental fees from guests, but never paying our acquaintance's rent. They finally got him out, but the way I understand it, he was able to get away without paying a dime in back rent or fees because he agreed to vacate within three days of their final court date or something like that.
His name came up again last year when we had several people call to ask about vacancy at our vacation rental because they arrived to the area, only to find the property Dean advertised didn't exist. Luckily, they had all paid deposits via credit card, so they would be able to dispute the charges.
More recently, we learned from someone "in the loop" on the legal side of things that he is still running this scam. He has a multitude of websites advertising accommodations with lavish appointments, promising the world and more (one I saw still has pictures of our acquaintance's house, with their address listed WHERE THEY CURRENTLY LIVE!). He secures a deposit via credit card for your reservation, but never delivers. The customers get their money back by filing a dispute, and the credit card companies don't pursue charges because the amount is under a certain threshold. I did see where one woman has started a post on ripped off report dot com about him (which he hilariously tries to defend, including posting a picture of the house and claiming he's started legal proceedings for defamation, lol). He does have positive reviews on trip advisor, vrbo, etc, all self penned I'm sure.
So, how does a person like this continue to get away with it? I'm sure karma will eventually catch up, but I just don't understand why he hasn't been criminally prosecuted yet.
The problem is that people are letting him get away with it, writing a bad check is a crime. Letting him agree to vacate and letting him agree to not pay what he wasn't going to pay anyway is a problem and some other sucker is going to fall for his scam, You have to evict these professional scam artists so they can't prey on decent people who look into his past, after that he can only scam dumb people.
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Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
We have this local scam artist, and I've wondered how he continues to get away with his behavior. It just occurred to me to ask you all.
