Paid $500 deposit for an apartment and he disappeared.

I was offered an appartment for rent by somebody called Alex Kingsle by the agency Planet Vacation Rentals. i would like to know if he is reliable. thanks

Hello, I've also rent the same apartement to Jason for april and I've just read they are swindlers! We are so desappointed because we should be arrive in two weeks with our 2 children. The police told you a nice adress of hotel. Have you yet this adress ? Thank you very much for your help.
                      Karine

Detective Egan does exist as I met him after spending four hours at his police station. Similar story. Craigslist. Anastasia Nekoz. Deposit. No one at the apartment when we got there in November this year... He showed me the statements from the bank account. We got off lightly. This guy's scammed sums exceeding $40,000 dollars off some people. Turns out he was married to Anastasia. They divorced but their joint account is still active. I just don't understand why the don't just shut the account down to deter any more crimes. It might not stop him but it might make it more difficult.

I really don't think any of us will ever see our money back. Have to give it to him. He's very smart! Never felt so stupid in my life but it makes it less painful to realise that he's duped so many of us. We trusted somebody who misused it.

A good way of seeing if these apartments are "kosher" is to suggest that a friend you have living in that city takes a look around on your behalf... if its a fake the game would soon be up. Anyway, subletting in New York is apparently against the law. I wonder why this isn't mentioned on Craigslist in the first place...

I guess you are right. After a lot of google research, I read someplace that renting a sublet is not legal in NY. So the police really can't do anything, it would be like going there to complain that you paid for drugs and the dealer didn't deliver them. But it is a crime using internet, so maybe it's the way to go. Again, this comes from some forum, so I can't be sure about it. Perhaps one of the US residents in here might be able to verify. Also I called Det. Egan, he asked me to send everything I had (emails, deposit receipt) thru email. I did, but he never replied. Now I worry that he might just be Jason Rockland Tejada - he found this forum, posted something and is now taking all the calls and having the greatest laugh while he counts his thousands.

Hi Everyone,
  I think we all should make a complaint to http://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx
which is the Internet Crime complaint Center of the FBI. If they recieve alot of complaints from about the same person, at least it will take their attention.

Ken

At least they took you guys seriously. If you need more supporting documentation. I got a International Transfer from my bank here and the police report as well. My email is ken.chee@gmail.com

Hi Guy,
  We got scammed by the same person as well. We booked from the 17th of Nov 2008 till the 24th of Nov 2008. We did go to the 1st Prescient but was told that the detectives will not do anything about it as it's less than $1000. How ever we did manage to get a police report done as we had a bank document that showed us transfering money to this "Anastasia Nekoz" person. But that's as far as we got. Our travel insurance does not cover this as well. Had to search for a Hotel with our suitcase. Not fun after a 24hours flight from Melbourne

Hello!
we are scammed to by Jason!
We come on the 20th of decmber (so saturday!) for 10 days in NY!
I think we go to complain to the police and we try to met det. Egan.
But I am so surprised to see so much people scamed? How long it takes to stop this robber? Because it seems to be not new!
I send a link to a french website where people testify the same thing with Jason:
http://blog.dandyman.fr/post/2008/11/16/CONFIANCE-EN-PERSONNE?pub=1
It's in french but this is maybe a proof.

Salve,
per tutti gli italiani, sono stato truffato anch'io! Abbiamo perso 500 dollari, ne parlo qui nel mio blog di viaggio

http://www.newyorktrip.it/2008/12/10/affitto-truffa-a-new-york/

appena arrivo a newyork vado a fare la denuncia, intanto se qualcuno lo ha già fatto o ha aggiornamenti, farebbe cosa gradita nel commentare il mio post. Il blog è a disposizione di tutti!
Grazie
Angelo

What a f*** - us too. Why doesn't Craiglist take them off or post a warning?

Hahahahahaha!!!!
Vc contou a história toda!
Mas acabou com um mentira, afinal de contas estou sorrindo até hoje, inclusive ri na hora enquanto vc dizia: Ffffffffffffuuuuuuuuckkkkkkkk!!!!

Inside a taxi, at the airport, I feel my stomach churning as I turn to my girlfriend:
- He's not answering the phone.
- Leave a message.
- His voicebox is full...
- What did he say?
- He said I should call when I got here.
I turn to the taxi driver:
- Just take us there...

About 40 minutes later, I spot the apartment I saw on google maps. I recognize it and feel overwhelmed with relief. As I go for the doorbell, though, as I find thru the apartment owner's name list, the undeniable, obvious truth slaps me across the face. 6D has no Anastacia or anything like it written on it.
- It's a sublet, that's why...
My voice is so weary, it doesn't convince neither one of us.

But as soon as I push the intercom button, the door gets buzzed and is opened. We hug, in another flush of relief. As we walk in, we get even happier with the spotless perfection of the building, the location on West Village.
- No hotel could beat this!

We step out of the elevator, we find the apartment, I ring the bell. A startled voice comes from inside:
- Who is this???
- Gustavo from Brazil.
- Who?
- Are you Jason?
- No! There's no Jason here. What apartment are you looking for?
- This one...
My legs are weak. I just blew 500 dollars out the window and a big hunk of my trust in human kind went flying along.

I went to the police, 10th Precinct like everybody else, and they told us about a group from Barcelona who fell for the same scam.

And as strange as it may seem, this did not spoil our trip for more than a couple of hours. But at our last night, Nov. 1st, right outside of the B52's concert at Hammerstein Ballroom, I lost our camera with 8 days of NY pictures in it. My girlfriend has not smiled to me ever since.

hi, we were scammed too..we gave him 500$.
we can't believe jet.
we want to meet Detective Egad for bring him the documents.

We are a four people group from Barcelona who were scammed too. We are flying tomorrow to NY. We'll go to your police station to make the official complaint. We'll bring you all the emails and the transfer confirmation. Should we bring anything else? Thank you very much

we came from naples and we have had the same experience with jason, we'll arrive in new york the 30/11. Do you know an apartament for us?

Hi,

I will like to send a report to detective Egan.
Does somebody have his email ?

Thanks
Benoit.

FYI

all people involved in this scam please contact with Det. Egan on this forum (telephone number provided). I just spoke with him by phone and understood he is very aware of the matter and leading the investigation.

To be more effective I guess is better to refer to the same officer

Det. Egan, tx for your support

w/regards
m-.

I took down my facebook for an unrelated reason. Yes, it was Detective Egan I spoke to. Thank you for sending me a copy of my DL. I can't believe somebody has it. I'm trying to think who I've sent it to. Maybe reserving a hotel. Its my old DL with my old address too. I guess it could also be somebody at the DMV. I used to get phone calls on my phone (not the 917 number everybody has seen) from people saying they were waiting to get into my apartment, but they've stopped over the last 10 days. My guess is the people doing the fraud have moved on to new names.

Jason,



Who is the detective you are speaking to? Is Det. Egan as in this forum?


I assume that BoA should know who are their currentists, I know the bank account does exist in BoA in NYC and the name they provided me as owner  is Rodrigue Tejada (same as the one owing the telephone line)

Will send on your personal

The facebook account Jason Rockland does not exist now anymore...

Roser, Fa and Max,

we are also from Spain. We are flying to New York for Christmas and also rented an appartment to Anastasia and Jason. Any suggestion about what should we do? We already started to look for a hotel.

Ignasi

I am all those people, and I am in NY. I went to the police dept yesterday and spoke to the detective. I didnt know anybody was using my name until I googled it 2 days ago. I am not actually a music producer, just a partner in a small record label. I am not going to give out my Driver License number, but can you send me a copy of it? My real email is jrockland@hotmail.com. Not that weird Yahoo acct. I need to know if they have a copy of the license. Is the address on Avenue A?

All the scammed people involved.

I have been chcking with BoA and found the owner of the bank account is Rodrigue Tejada, this names appears also in this forum associated to the telephone number we did call to reserve.

Useless to keep on mentioning Anastasia or Jason: I doubt they exist...

Let's start using the name of the responsible to have him investigate
rgds
m-.

Je me suis fait avoir aussi par Jason et Anastasia. Nous sommes très énervé car nous avions envoyé la totalité de la somme pour être tranquille et profiter du taux actuel de l'euro... 1570$... je porte plainte aujourd'hui au commissariat de ma ville (angoulême) et espère que ma banque et l'assurance pourront faire quelque chose. Aux français piégés, qu'allez vous faire ?

Bon courage,
Benoit Leriche

Etienne,

When I look for Bank of Am. in NYC 100 W 33rd St. I can find only
Banc of America Securities LLC, 100 West 33rd Street, 3rd Floor New York, New York 10001
that seems not to be a public bank...
may I know what BoA was telling you about Anastasia account? Is it real? They should have done some sort of "identification" check before to open that account.. So they are somehow accountabel if this person does not exist...
tx for your answer m.-

Hello Jason,

Property to rent they do not have either, it seems...

Are you the music producer as in facebook
http://es-la.facebook.com/people/Jason_Rockland/1423570820
and also showing up on this website?
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=102734685
Are you based in NYC? can you provide Drive License ID #? I have received scanned copy from Jason
I still wonder why to use a number similar to yours...any other would be easier to get and work just the same for this purpose...
We will chase who had access to Anastasia Nekos account and to which accounts money have been moved, better you report yourself to police and clarify your position
rgds
m.-

I am Jason Rockland. I know for a fact I am the only one with that name in the US. I keep getting voicemails about people waiting for keys for my apartment. Its my home phone which I never use and goes right to voicemail. Then when I check the voicemail I am always confused. Today I typed my name into google b/c I was bored and saw this and it all makes sense now. Weird thing is, my home phone is a 212 number, not 917, and the email they use isn't mine. Just wondering how they chose my name. And I have no property for rent. And I'm definitely not a scammer.

Hi Rosers, send an e-mail to the addres I wrote and forward if you have any e-mailconversation from Jason or Anastasia so he will get as much information as possible. Good Luck!

Hi Roser, we are a Spanish couple who have just found out one week prior our flight to NYC. We deffinitely want to prosecute these " Bas...rds" ..As you are spanish maybe we can keep in contact to start doing something here in Spain..What do you think?
Fa & max