SFAppeal reports this morning that a woman has been arrested recently for allegedly scamming $20,000 from potential apartment renters.
Rachel Marie Smith was placing ads to rent her Richmond District apartment on Craigslist. After seeing the apartment, located in a building on the 5300 block of California, victims would sign the lease and leave a deposit for the apartment – as much as $5,600.
Shortly thereafter, Smith would inform the renters that she learned her mother had cancer, so she would not be vacating the apartment for at least another month. It was at that point that Smith would disappear, not returning calls or the hefty deposits.
The latest victim, a 22 year old woman, reported the incident to police on July 19 after learning a co-worker had signed a lease and provided a deposit down for the exact same apartment.
Prosecutors have charged Smith with eight counts each of grand theft and obtaining money under false pretenses, in connection with four alleged victims, according to district attorney’s office spokeswoman Erica Derryck.
Sarah B.
Thanks Sarah! You’re always have the latest on the hot stories~
I’m very happy you have posted about this evil woman. We came within an inch of signing a “lease” with her.
Wow, mycrobe, that’s horrible. Glad you didn’t get sucked into the scam.
Unfortunately, my husband and I were victims of Rachel Smith’s scam. So far, her total victim count is 26. I’m still trying to understand how we ended up in this horrible situation. In all the times we met with her, Rachel was warm, meticulous, and well-organized. I think every person’s story is a little different–didn’t tell us the cancer thing or delay our move in. In fact, we only found out about the scam this morning when we went to the collect the keys to our new apt. Altogether, a pretty horrible day. There’s going to be a story on the cbs 11o’clock news with more information hopefully. Thanks everyone for getting this information out–I suspect there are still more victims.
SFist says she swindled $100k, and victims are organizing. Meanwhile, Smith disappeared.
http://sfist.com/2010/07/30/victims_of_rachael_smith_unite.php
Is it the 5300 block or the 5600 block? I’m getting conflicting reports from sfgate and everywhere else.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/07/30/BAR51ELOR0.DTL&feed=rss.crime