yea..I just heard from this guy.  he tried to rip me off but I cut him off at the pass.  what is your email and I will contact you privately.  he is a real jerk, can't stand the guy and I hope you all track him down.

Back in 08 my wife and I drove across country to move to Austin TX. My wife made the arrangements with "Thomas J Flanagan", and mailed a check to the Chicago address in spite of my misgivings.
Halfway across the country he stopped answering our emails  (Must have cashed the check!) When we got to Austin, hoping to have a place to live for a month while we looked for an apt - the place didn't exist. We got stuck with a room in a sleazy motel for a month, then under pressure we took an apartment that turned out to be really lousy.

The police were no help. If anybody knows any facts or details of his criminal record I'd be very grateful.

The number 774-200-6556 is still answered by machine today

Yea i am Pretty sure his New alias is Brian J. Cohler,considering he was in my Phone as Unknown and i had no idea who he was and told me his name is Brian,,and is completely denying every piece of hard evidence i have thrown at him so far..PPl these days make me f****ng sick..if you have no money go out and get a job..ever mcdonalds will hire him dammit!

This person is a scamming people out of money

Owner of this number takes on various pseudonyms (including Thomas J Flanagan, Ricky Botega, Carla Flanagan, etc) to engage in sublet scams based off advertisements in Craigslist.  Number is traced to Massachusetts; This person resides in Chicago.

YOU ARE A LIAR! THIS PERSON TRIED TO SCAM MY BEST FRIEND WHOM WAS TRYING TO HELP OUR OTHER BEST FRIEND WITH CANCER, WHO HAS SINCE DIED! HE WAS ONLY 31. MY FRIEND ALMOST RENTED A FAKE APARTMENT FOR OUR FRIEND DANIEL (WHO PASSED) FOR A MONTH IN HOUSTON BECAUSE OF A MEDICAL CENTER THERE.  THIS PERSON ( carl or carla  (which ever he goes by, I call him Slime of the Earth) I CONED MANY PEOPLE, GOOD PEOPLE!  


I HATE THIS PERSON FOR THE HEARTLESS CRIMINAL ACTS AND THE HAVOC HE HAS CAUSED SO MANY PEOPLE!  

HE NEEDS TO BE IMPRISONED!

kathe_dixon@yahoo.com     CONTACT ME IF YOU WANT INFO PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Does anybody know what happened to this con artist, Tom Flannagan? Is he still behind bars? Where does he live now? I want my money back from an apartment scam he did on Craigslist- Same details as the Salt Lake City victim. Don't care how much time, effort, or money it will cost to track him down- Any info?

I am curious if you ever received your money from this person. I may be able to help you with some further information as my son was scammed and its sounds like the same person. Ours was for an apartment in DC for Feb.  After 3 long months I was able to get all of our money. This person we
believe lives in MA as that is where our Fed Ex. came from.   Do you have the address that you sent the check to in MA.

He used the name Thomas Flanagan this Nov 2009 when I booked a condo in Salt lake City. Gave me the MA (413) 949-1579 number and said he was in NYC on business to pick up the check at Fed ex. My wife, I, the baby, and our dog showed up expecting to have a condo ready and had to scramble when he wouldn't return calls or emails to find a hotel. Gave the excuse of car breaking down out of town and being away from emails so he couldn't get to me. Promised to repay the deposit and extra to cover the hotel but its been 3 weeks since he "put the check in the mail" I'm contacting the police now.

Actually, I am a real person, and I was ripped off by this person, and I was refunded the full amount from his mother. I think this guy totally f****d up, but since my fiance and I had the balls to post on this board before when I was ripped off, I'm posting now when I was refunded. Fair is fair.

I live in Roseville, CA.

Instead of posting on here everyday everytime the dude takes a dump, why don't you just do what I did: e-mail him every day and tell him you want a refund. That's what I did. I called and e-mailed until he refunded me.

In case it's helpful, here is a list of the aliases I know he has used. I'm sure these are not the only ones:

Doug Mennin
Bert Cohler (must be a variation of Brian Cohler)
Carla Flanagan
Dr. Melvin (or Marvin?) Swartz
Jason (no last name)

Unless you got scammed from this guy, please try to not post on this site. It throws off everything, and it makes it seem like this is all a joke. I know that what this person did isn't great by any means, but I was actually scammed. I had money stolen, and I have posted on here already. I try to check this site out from time to time. Do not post if you are just some random guy who used to go bowling with this guy. Unless you were scammed, I really think you shouldn't post. You may think you are helping, but you are just confusing things.

Interesting that this "Brian J. Cohler" has positive things to say about Thomas.  After all, Bertram J. Cohler was a professor of his as an undergrad at the University of Chicago.  Also, Thomas worked at Yale the year after his college graduation (if you look a few posts back you will see he used a Yale Prof. as one of many aliases as well).  This leads me to believe that "Brian Cohler" is also an inspired fake from Thomas.

I was friends with Thomas in college.  I have not been scammed but a friend told me about what was happening to him and I found this site.  Sad that he is using old profs names and family members for aliases (Carla Flanagan is his mother, Kelly is the name of one of his sisters).  

Perhaps we can all learn from this situation.  I want to protect the public from Thomas because clearly he is on a destructive path (haven't spoken to him in years but obviously he is troubled).  When he was a child, I know that his father was sent to prison for abusing the family.  Perhaps he is just acting out.  I really hope he gets help.

I answered an ad on craigslist in New York City.  Got a reply from tdmartin88@gmail.com.  When I googled that email, I found all this info.  Needless to say I'm staying far away from this one.

I have been scammed by this person.  I have exchanged around 20 emails for a NYC apartment.  He has used the following email addresses:
--> tdmartin88@gmail.com
--> drflanaganphd@gmail.com

He has cashed a personal check that I have sent him in the amount of $300.00.  I was directed to send this to his "daughter" who lived in Massachusetts.  Not only this, but he gave me the following phone number: 413-949-1579.

I had indicated that I was flying to NYC with my fiancee.  He indicated that he was a psychiatrist by the name of Dr. Gellar and that he would pick me up from the airport to take me to the apartment.  Wow, now I'm freaked out by what COULD HAVE HAPPENED.  

If I do not hear from him tonight, then I will be contacting the authorities tomorrow.

Now it's a crime to hook up with someone? You people have all lost your mind. This is like sensationalized to the fullest.

This person first emailed me with the email address: tdmartin88@gmail.com

Next, i received his phone number.  We did not talk, but texted a few times.  I googled this number after the fact and found all of this information.  I had a different experience with this person.  The ad had nothing to do with property rentals.  He had put up an ad on the western MA craigslist in the men seeking men personals section and we were planning to meet for a blind date / hookup.  He gave me an address in Brimfield, MA (probably some random innocent person's house), and made up stories about being a former marine and claimed to be this sexy straight stud.  He sent me a photo of a different person initially.

This person is clearly disturbed and in need of serious psychological help.

Thanks to those of you who offered legit comments.  Looks like he is indeed still reading this board!

I can also state I was able to get a refund last month by e-mailing him at thomasjflanagan@gmail.com, which is the e-mail address I originally rented from. It seems to me the police busted this, and the guy is now trying to make good. My refund was for 750.00, and it came from his mother. Feel free to contact me at bjcohler@gmail.com. Not defending what this guy did, but credit is due where credit is due.

How do you know he didn't steal from someone else to give you your refund?  (Not meant to offend- just curious.)

I was able to get a refund overnighted to me by just e-mailing him and telling him I wanted one and that if I didn't, I'd contact the police until I got one. Honestly, I think this guy has had enough problems and realizes what he has done. He seem reasonably intelligent, and now has a felony on his background and will likely never get a job or have a life. Granted, my refund was only for $80.00, but I think even people like this have an ability to discern right and wrong. Instead of posting anon threads on a web board nobody important will likely ever see, why not just e-mail or call the guy? I think if you bug him a few times, especially after the whole thing that happened to him this summer, he is likely to  reply. Good luck fellow CLers

Short of getting an actual refund from him (which I know is unlikely), is there anything else we as a group can do?  

It seems like there are lots of us, which makes me wonder if there is anything we as a group can do about this.  Are there any (100% legal and safe) ways we can bug him-- at the very least make it a little harder for him to feel good about what he is doing?  Or can we each monitor the craigslist ads for his scam, etc?

hey. This clown scammed a friend of mine a year and half ago..he has since been busted for a bunch of things and now it seems he is doing his scam again. I talked with him on line a number of times,trying to figure out a way to get my out of town friends' deposit for an apt.back.Never happened..This Flanagan is a  pathological N.U.T..It would be nice to see this guy busted, he is a parasite that seemingly has no moral compass.I think the thought of getting a refund has to be thought of in terms of seeing him drop  kicked into jail for awhile > i would imagine the guy has no fluid assets as he probably spends the money he scams on dresses and wigs,which might be handy in jail.

i was also scammed.  has anyone been able to get a refund from him? is it even worth trying?

He is going back to his old ways. He is running the scam while out on bail. This has been reported to the Philadelphia and NYC authorities.

BEWARE this person has been released from jail and could be going back to his old ways. re read all these old posts and beware!! Im sure his phone number will change again!

My boyfriend and I tried to sublet an apartment for a week last March.  We are graduates students  at Arizona State University and were visiting for our professional meetings.  We transferred 100 dollars as a deposit.  Our initial contact was a Kelly Jacobs, but Thomas Flanagan ("her husband") was the account we transferred the money too.  The account number is 005310756480 at bank of america, and the zip code associated is 60613.  We retailed all the emails if necessary.  Please contact us if you require any further information.  tknalley@asu.edu

OMG   I know this guy!!  Hw was a creep when I met him.  I didn't realize he was into this kind of stuff though..YIKES!

I know Thomas and heard about this scam months ago but didn't believe it.

If there is anything I can do to help please let me know most of the information that i have is second hand but if it helps let me know

312 771 8198

Please know that Thomas Flanagan or Lady Vera Parker was arrested on July 2nd and now is in the cook county Jail and his arraignment is tomorrow