PINECREST, Fla. – A Pinecrest resident told police officers he invited a fraudster to his home twice and was politely scammed out of $12,500.
According to the Pinecrest Police Department, the village resident said OfferUp made the meetings possible in August. Police released a surveillance video showing the scammer wearing a belt with the Louis Vuitton buckle to their first meeting about a green jet ski.
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The Pinecrest victim reported the thief impersonated a legitimate OfferUp buyer who trusted him with a $12,500 advance payment with a personal check.
“The owner deposited the check via mobile banking and confirmed the money was available. The next day, the man returned in a white Ford truck, took the jet ski, the title, and some accessories, and left,” Michelle Hammontree, a spokeswoman for the Village of Pinecrest, wrote in a statement sent to Local 10 News on Friday morning.
The victim thought he had confirmed the check’s legitimacy when the mobile bank app deposit went through, but he later learned the fraudster had exploited the time it took for the bank to report the check was invalid. According to police, the fraudulent check deposit was on Aug. 16, but it wasn’t until Aug. 22 that his bank reported it wasn’t worth anything.
“His account was overdrawn by $12,500,” Hammontree wrote in the statement about the victim. “Despite several attempts to reach the man, he claimed he was out of town and would fix the problem, but the owner now believes he was scammed.”
According to Hammontree, Sgt. Carlos Villanueva is the detective in the case of “possible” fraud.
“Officers tried to track down the man and the truck involved,” Hammontree wrote. “Detectives are seeking additional information on the suspect, who is seen in the video wearing a blue shirt.”
Hammontree asked anyone with information about the suspect in the surveillance video to contact Villanueva at 786-397-3009 or 305-234-2100.