Help me stop a guy who stole my info & is using my name to scam people.

January 29, 2014 1:52 PM

So, one week ago I posted an ad on the website "HotPads", advertising my house in Portland for rent, for $2395. A few days later, I noticed that someone had posted a duplicate ad of my listing, but for $1900. People then started knocking on my door (the address on my ad), all saying the same thing -- telling me about a guy in Brooklyn, NY, who is USING MY NAME, posing as me, sending people emails and talking with them on the phone, trying to scam them into sending him a deposit for my house. Gah!

Thanks to these door-knocking people, I now have his phone number and some of the sketchy emails he sent to them. I already contacted HotPads and they took his ad down, but meanwhile this guy is out there, posing as me, using my name, trying to scam people. How do I shut this guy down? (I'm also insanely busy, so I can't spend a whole day on this). Any ideas?

posted by dacoit to Law & Government (5 answers total)

I'd call the non-emergency number for your police station to report the fraud and ask them. Even if they can't/won't do anything about it, and even if there's nothing that you can do about it, at least you'll have an official record of it if anything should ever escalate in the future.
posted by phunniemee at 1:58 PM on January 29, 2014 [3 favorites]

There may not be much you can do about it apart from notifying Hotpads and the police. Consider posting a new version of the ad on Hotpads, with a note that other versions of the ad are scams, and hope he moves on to someone else soon.
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 2:00 PM on January 29, 2014 [2 favorites]

I'd call the NYPD and file a report as well.

If you want, call the guy and record it. New York is a "One-Party Consent" state for phone recordings.

Then you'd have caught him in his scam.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 2:06 PM on January 29, 2014 [8 favorites]

I'd also call the FBI. If he's doing fraud across state lines, I dare say it's a federal crime.
posted by musofire at 2:32 PM on January 29, 2014 [6 favorites]

Response by poster: Thanks everyone. I have contacted the police and they took down a report. Doesn't seem like they can do much (the people are probably overseas) but at least it's documented!
posted by dacoit at 5:51 PM on January 29, 2014