09 September Scams
09.20 The victim reported he replied to a house for rent on FB Marketplace. The company ID'd themselves as Michelle's Rentals. It showed the house renting for $1050/month. The victim reached out and they only communicated by messenger and he never got a phone number. They told him he could tour the house but they needed a $400 deposit fee and they could only accepted it by cash app. He said he could not do that so they told him $200. The victim looked the address up on google and found it listed by a realtor in Coon Rapids with Keller Williams. He called the realtor, and they said he was the 3rd scam incident this week on this property.
09.15 This is a long report so I will summarize. A woman found a home for rent on Craigslist in the city of Coon Rapids. She did all her due diligence to make sure it was real and identified the male saying the home was his. She completed the application and paid the $75 fee. She received approval and set up a tour of the property. The application collected all her personal information – banking, social security, etc. The ad ended up being fake. Her information was used to make multiple purchases on her credit cards.
09.11 The victim stated on 8-8-23 she was contacted via phone by a male named James Anderson. This male stated that she had won the Publisher's Clearing House competition and would be awarded 2.6 million dollars. She continued to communicate with this male and he requested $18,000 for MN State Taxes. She mailed him a check the same day, via priority mail. The check was mailed to PO Box
South Carolina. The check was made out to Cynthia Frazier of Fortune Flor LLC. The check was cashed on 8-11-23. The victim has been in phone contact with this unknown male and believed she had been scammed when they requested more money for federal taxes. The victim called Publisher's Clearing House and they confirmed she was not a winner. She went to her bank and they closed her current account but stated the check was cashed and there is no way to get her money back.
09.06 The victim stated an unknown person claimed they were from the fraud department of his bank and advised him that there was a person trying to remove $2,000 from his account and wanted to know if he wanted the transaction to be completed. The victim advised him that it was not him and to cancel the transaction. He stated that the person said he would be sending him and authorization number to his phone on record with the bank. He received the code and gave the number to the male. At that time he looked at his account online and he could see that someone just removed $500 from his account. He then hung up with the male and locked his account. He contacted his bank and they advised him that he was scammed.
09.04 The victim attempted to go online and schedule a massage. He made an appointment with a female named Kathy Beyonce. He reported that she was not forthcoming with the address where her studio was located but eventually provided him with an address which he determined belonged to the AmericInn. He stated that he then determined that the arranged massage was likely a scam and declined to make any further arrangements. He stated Beyonce began to harass him via text about canceling the massage and threatened that others would get involved if he failed to pay her. He reported he eventually agreed to Venmo her $200. He stated that Beyonce then requested that he pay her boss $100 which he complied with. He stated that he then received fictitious text messages claiming to be from Venmo indicating that his payment of $100 was not received and that he would need to attempt to make the payment again. He reported that in total he had provided $400 via Venmo to Beyonce or her acquaintances. He continued to get threatening texts. I advised him to end all contact.
09.03 The victim reported she had been scammed by a false Facebook page selling tickets. She found a FB page called student ticket exchange for the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She said she was trying to surprise her daughter who is a student there by purchasing tickets to some football games. She was speaking with the profile name of Karey Williamson. Karey offered her 5 tickets for $250. She sent the money using Zelle to an account with the name of Krystal Obst. She has since not received the tickets or had any further contact with anyone.
09.01 The victim stated he received a call from 651-899-0257. He reported that the caller said they were going to show up at his address later in the evening to serve him a "civil complaint." The person said they were with the "National Dispute Center" and had the last four numbers of his SSN. I advised him the call was almost certainly a scam attempt and to monitor his credit. Also to call 911 if anyone showed up at his residence later.