TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

Category: Classifieds Crime

  • Big time craigslist scammer busted

    Redwood City woman charged with Internet scams, credit card fraud:

    Apparently, craigslist has become the internet home of scammers everywhere. This time it’s a woman by the name of Claudia Lindhorst who also uses the aliases, Leni Campbell and Claudia Becker. She’s been arrested and charged with identity theft, grand theft, burglary, and forgery.

    In the most recent incidents, Lindhorst allegedly posted craigslist ads offering to sell airline tickets, which were sometimes purchased with stolen credit card numbers, Gouldson said. Customers paid cash for the tickets.

    “For some people, it actually worked,” Gouldson said, and they got on their flights without incident. But other customers would show up at the airport and discover their tickets had been canceled.

    She had been convicted of forgery and identity theft in her native Germany and was apparently fleeing warrants when she came to the United States about a year ago, authorities said. Since then, she has allegedly scammed people in Florida, Texas and California.

    I guess the old saying applies here. If you see something on craigslist that’s too good to be true it probably is.

  • Nick Govind waives hearing

    Accused Internet solicitor waives right:

    Recently I told you about some “gentlemen” that were arrested for trying to solicit underage girls on craigslist. One of them, Nilesh “Nick” Govind, has decided to get things over with…

    REDWOOD CITY  Opting to go straight to trial, a San Carlos man accused of using the Internet to solicit teen girls for sex waived his right to a preliminary hearing Wednesday.
    Nilesh “Nick” Govind, 28, is charged with one count of attempting to commit a lewd act with a minor.

    A local parent tipped off police to the ad, prompting Belmont police to set up a sting operation on March 10. It was during that sting operation that Govind allegedly offered a Belmont police investigator  who he thought was a 15-year-old girl named Amber  $200 in exchange for performing specific sex acts.

    Govind has no known prior arrests and is not a registered sex offender, police said.

    Govind was released from custody on a $75,000 bail bond. He will return to court on Sept. 12 for his superior court arraignment.

    If convicted, he faces up to 18 months in prison.

    I could almost respect him because it sounds like he’s owning up to his crime if it wasn’t for the fact that he was trying to solicit underage girls.

     

  • Virginia craigslist rapist may have more victims

    Man Charged in Rape; Police Fear More Victims:

    Recently I talked about Michael Frese, the guy who raped a woman advertising massage services in craigslist. Police are saying there may be more victims…

    After a Dale City man was charged with raping a 19-year-old woman who advertised massage services online, Prince William County police said this week that they fear there might be more victims.

    “We need to know how many more are out there,” Detective Quenton Sallows said.

    The woman told police that after the man raped her at knifepoint last Thursday, he chastised her for advertising online and told her that “he was just trying to show her how dangerous it can be, that she could lose her life for $200,” Sallows said. The man then warned her not to call police, saying that he and his family were in law enforcement and that his home was used by officers to clean up the neighborhood, Sallows said.

    “We’re afraid that there might be other victims out there who were too intimidated by that speech to come forward,” Sallows said.

    The woman arrived at the home just before 4 p.m. and was immediately led down to the basement, police said. Feeling uncomfortable with the situation, she tried to leave, saying she forgot something in her car, police said, when Frese allegedly pulled out a serrated knife. The woman was then handcuffed and sexually assaulted, police said.

    She was allowed to leave only after receiving the lecture and being made to promise that she would never advertise massage services online again, Sallows said.

    The woman drove to a police station, where she reported the sexual assault. Sallows said the woman “did have some physical trauma to help substantiate the claims she was making.”

    Here’s the “not surprising” part of the article…

    Reached at the home Tuesday, Michael Frese’s father, Larry, said he couldn’t understand the charges against his son, who he said lives with him and had never been in any real trouble before.

    Lives in his dad’s basement huh? Go figure.

    Anyway…

    Police said they are investigating to see whether there are any additional victims and encourage anyone with information to call Sallows at 703-792-7234.

    They are not trying to charge anyone with prostitution, Sallows said. “We just want to know how many victims we have,” he said.

  • Michael Frese

    Man Sexually Assaults Masseuse, Police Say:

    This one is quite disturbing…

    WOODBRIDGE, Va. — Police in Prince William County said they have arrested a man in a sexual assault and police impersonation investigation.

    Police said that on Thursday at 3:55 p.m., a man used Craigslist.com to arrange a one-hour massage at his house in the 13100 block of Kumar Court in Woodbridge. A 19-year-old woman went to the home to perform the massage.

    At one point, the man pulled out a knife, handcuffed the woman and sexually assaulted her, police said. The man told the woman he was a police officer before letting her go.

    Michael Frese, 24, is charged with rape, forcible sodomy, abduction with intent to defile and impersonating a police officer. He was arrested Friday.

    Thanks to tipper Melissa we have Frese’s MySpace and Frese’s private MySpace

    Strange behavior for someone who claims to be married.

  • More pimpin’ on craigslist

    Oakland Man Indicted For Pimping Teens On Web:

    OAKLAND — An Oakland man — captured after a footchase on a Las Vegas street — has been indicted on charges he used using various Web sites, including Craigslist, to prostitute two girls under the age of 18, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

    Prosecutors said a federal grand jury in Oakland has indicted 34-year-old Marcus Sewell Aug. 10 on charges of sex trafficking of children and transporting minors in interstate commerce with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity.

    According to the indictment, Sewell is alleged to have prostituted the two teenage girls and transported them from Northern California, Nevada and Florida for the purpose of prostituting themselves between April 2005 and June 2006.

    The indictment alleges that Sewell advertised the girls as escorts on Craigslist and other Web sites.

    The maximum sentence for sex trafficking of children is life in prison and a $250,000 fine.

    The maximum sentence for transporting a minor in interstate commerce with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity is 30 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

    This is no less than human trafficking and should carry more than just a life sentence and $250K fine. How about life without parole and a $2.5M fine?

  • Portland craigslist predator

    Man who advertised for teen models on craigslist arrested for sex abuse:

    A convicted Portland-area sex offender who advertised for teenage “models” on the popular Web site craigslist was arrested Tuesday for allegedly having sex with a 17-year-old girl, authorities said.

    Douglas Steven French, 36, is being held in the Washington County Jail. French faces charges of sex abuse and using a child in a display of sexually explicit conduct, said Sgt. David Thompson, spokesman for the Washington County Sheriff’s Office.

    He said Washington County detectives learned that French had posted an advertisement on craigslist for “16 to 19-year-old models.” The name given under the listing was “Premier Modeling.”

    The 17-year-old victim responded to French’s add and over the past month, French had been meeting with her on a regular basis, Thompson said. During that time, French allegedly provided her with alcohol and illegal drugs.

    French was arrested in 2004 after being found in Montana with missing Molalla, Ore. girl Cynthia Lamb, who was 16 at the time. Lamb had been missing for nine months. She met French online and had moved to Montana with him, according to Thompson.

    A sex offender who went on to strike again. Who would have thought?

  • Predators use craigslist

    Police target online predators:

    Did they really think this would work?

    REDWOOD CITY — Recent arrests of online predators using the Internet to solicit teens for sex has local law enforcement agencies advising parents to keep tabs on their children while they are surfing the World Wide Web.

    San Carlos resident Nilesh “Nick” Govind, 28; San Jose resident Julio Cesar Barbery, 25; and Pacifica resident James John Koch, Jr., 48, have all recently been arrested on charges of attempting to solicit sex from teenage girls over the Internet.

    Nilesh Govind allegedly placed an ad on the Craigslist.org Web site offering money to “Carlmont/Notre Dame” high school girls willing to meet him and be his “girlfriend” for an hour, according to the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office.

    A local parent tipped off police to the ad in early March, prompting the Belmont Police Department to set up a sting operation on March 10. It was during that sting operation that Govind allegedly offered a Belmont police investigator, who he thought was a 15-year-old girl named Amber, $200 in exchange for performing specific sex acts.

    It was an anonymous informant who led San Mateo County sheriff’s investigators to a Craigslist ad titled “Daddy seeking young girl right now,” according to a search warrant affidavit filed by San Mateo County Sheriff’s Det. Jacqueline Chong.

    According to the affidavit, the informant visited the “Casual Encounters” section of Craigslist after watching a television news special dealing with sexual predators on the Internet.

    From late June to July 5, the adult informant, who identified herself as a 17-year-old girl named Natalie, traded e-mails with the ad’s alleged author, James Koch. In a series of e-mails Koch allegedly told Natalie he wanted to meet her, forwarding descriptions of the sexual acts he wanted to engage in with the girl. He reportedly sent the informant photos of his face and his body from the waist down, according to the affidavit.

    The informant later told Koch that Natalie was only 15, however, once reassured that Natalie was not a police officer, Koch agreed to meet her. Koch was arrested July 6 at the Vista rest stop off Interstate Highway 280 in San Carlos while allegedly waiting to meet Natalie.

    It was on March 29 that Menlo Park police officers arrested Julio Barbery after he allegedly engaged in a sexual conversation over the Internet with a police officer posing as a 13-year-old girl, according to San Mateo County Deputy District Attorney Greg Devitt.

    Who knew that you could find pedophiles in the classifieds?

     

  • Hooker placed ad on craigslist day after she watched murder

    Prostie posted ad after slay?:

    The baby-faced hooker who allegedly watched while her ex-con boyfriend raped and strangled a New Jersey teen tried to sell herself for sex on craigslist a day after the murder, police sources said.

    Krystal Riordan, charged with helping Draymond Coleman ditch the body of 18-year-old Jennifer Moore, tried to make money by billing herself as “Lisa” on the popular online flea market, a police source said.

    The 20-year-old posted her ad July 26 – just a day after police say Coleman strangled and suffocated Moore as Riordan watched, and did nothing.

    “Cold-hearted, to say the least,” said another police source.

    Riordan billed herself as a New Jersey escort working out of Weehawken, where the murder occurred.

    Her ad offered a “$150 special.”

    Cold-hearted is an understatement.