Saturday, September 13, 2014

Craigslist apartment scammer is on the loose again


[From March: NYPD photo of the suspect, aka David Horowitz and Michael Bryant]

You may recall a post back in March, in which police were looking for a man who they say conned 10 women out of more than $20,000 with fake Craigslist ads for East Village apartments.

Apparently he's still up to his old apartment-scamming tricks.

Someone left this comment on the post last week:

I was just scammed by this individual. He did the exact same thing. I was shown the apt with keys and everything. I went to move in yesterday and found two other individuals already living in the studio who said they had rented it from the same guy. He took two payments from me of $2,200. He also showed the studio to the couple that are currently staying there.

This man works with a woman and also took two payments of $2,200. I went online and googled East Village Craigslist rental scams and the picture of this man came up and recognized him immediately as this is who I met that subleased this studio to me and the other renters.

I went to the Police yesterday [Sept. 5] and told them the story and have a meeting with a detective tomorrow. The other renter is coming with me and said she went to the police today and was told that this man was arrested a few months ago and got out and is now doing the same scam again using a different alias. The police officer also mentioned that this was a big case and there are some 36 accounts against this man.

The apartment in question this time is at 178 Ludlow St. CBS New York broadcast the story last night. There's some surveillance video too, though it's not the greatest quality. You can watch the video and report here.

As always: Anyone with information that could help in the investigation may call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477). You may also submit tips online.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Former Andy Warhol-owned townhouse used to swindle apartment hunters in the East Village

6 comments:

  1. Fuck this guy straight to prison. Something like this happened to me once, fortunately it was upstate so the money conned was a hell of a lot less than it would be here, and we were splitting it 4 ways.

    Still felt like shit at the time, and we still had to find another apartment and pay first months and deposit on THAT ONE.

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  2. Just email him your bank account info and he'll transfer the funds right back into your account.

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  3. Well if you're dumb enough to pay $2400 a month for a studio......
    One born every min.

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  4. I wonder, are these people paying him cash? If so they are somewhat to blame; when you hand someone you do not know an envelope with thousands of dollars in cash in it, you need to be damn sure that everything is absolutely proper, and if that means doing some homework, then you are obliged to do it, or it's your ass on the line, don' come crying to me.

    If its not cash, I wonder what the play is, cashing a check nowdays takes a bit of background. And in the event of fraud the party cashing the check may wind up in court as well.

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  5. I know for a fact that this guy is full of warm, gooey, stinking shit. 💩

    ReplyDelete

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