DANIA BEACH, Fla. – There will be no Facebook for a while for 18-year-old Maurice Vorroto.
He’s the man deputies say is behind an elaborate Facebook scam that turned victim against victim, and there were many, and unfortunately, things turned violent for some.
Prosecutors said it was a recipe for disaster.
“People have complete strangers coming to their home, saying they’re here to rent their car, having no idea who this person is. The person going to this home, having no idea they’re about to find out they’ve been scammed,” a prosecutor said in court.
According to authorities, Vorroto was posting fake rental ads, using his neighbors’ cars in Dania Beach, collecting deposits to rent those cars and then giving his neighbors’ addresses for pickup.
Strangers would keep showing up to those homes. One resident said she had eight people at her door over a three-week period looking to pick up rental cars.
Danny Rios was one of those victims. He wanted to rent a blue Mercedes-Benz for a five-day trip to Orlando and made two payments to Vorroto totaling $370.
He showed up at that woman’s address, which was given to him by Vorroto, and was just down the street from where the suspect lived.
“I’m mad,” Rios said. “It’s very good they arrested this scammer.”
Robert Vazquez is relieved. His son’s car was smashed up after one of those misunderstandings with a renter online.
Deputies got to Vorroto through a series of numbers and emails they received from several victims, writing subpoenas or warrants to companies like Google, Zelle and Facebook.
Investigators connected a million little pieces to Vorroto, who they said acknowledged creating fake Facebook screen names a while ago and always having backup accounts in case Facebook took them down.
Vorroto is facing a total of 13 charges and was granted a $50,000 bond.
After hearing the charges in court Monday, his mother was only focused on getting him out of jail and asked for the bond to be reduced.
There will be another hearing at a later date.
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