NEW YORK — A Long Island man was arrested after scamming several victims out of thousands of dollars, making them believe they were putting down deposits on rental homes along the coast and then walking away with the money.
Christian Anderson was captured Thursday night by police at his home on Hay Road in Shirley and was charged with grand larceny, Suffolk County police said Friday. His plan was to find rental properties online in the Mastic and Mastic Beach area and then repost them on social media, claiming he was the real estate agent.
Using the alias Benjamin Conyers, Anderson ran the scam from January to March in early 2023, police said. After being contacted online, he would arrange meetings with his targets in bank parking lots in Shirley and Center Moriches, allegedly giving them bogus residential agreements and keys in exchange for cash deposits.
After arriving at their supposed rental property, the victims of their fraud would discover that the house keys did not work or that there were already occupants inside the house at the time. But when they tried to contact Anderson, they discovered that he had blocked them or deleted his social media account, according to police. Anderson would cut off all communication with his victims, authorities said.
Attorney information for Anderson, an unlicensed real estate agent, was not immediately available. He was scheduled to be arraigned on Friday.
Anyone who believes they may have also been a victim of Anderson’s alleged scam is asked to contact Suffolk County detectives.
2023-09-09 04:10:21
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