Strong Signs of Scammer...Ericwilliamss

[jusmeinbr]

Facts:

1.  This gentleman, https://rent.men/Ericwilliamss, showed up on RM late yesterday evening as being "in" New Orleans and ostensibly being in my home city tomorrow (Friday).

2.  His ad is only eight (8) days old.

3.  He has only one review; moreover, that one reviewer,  https://rent.men/Nicholaschangas, has had a RM Premium account for just over one (1) month.

4.  That one reviewer, as of yesterday, showed a total of five (5) reviews during that one month (of providers all over the U. S.), the most recent of which was (is) Eric Williamss.

5.  Of those five reviews, four (4) were links for providers which evidenced the fact that the provider was no longer available on Rent Men (but the screen indicating he was previously).  I wish I had screen saved those four, but trust me, there were five reviews, the first four of which all indicated providers who had left the profession during that one month period after Nicholaschangas reviewed them.

6.  As of this morning, Nicholaschangas has removed all of the four (4) other reviews he submitted, leaving only EricWillaimss' review.

7.  I reached out to Eric last night, provided a link to my own RM profile, and inquired if he may wish to meet when he's in my city (ostensibly, tomorrow, Friday).

8.  Eric responded saying, "I'm available sir."

9.  I responded (being highly, highly suspicious given all I've relayed above), "Okay.  Text me once you have arrived in my city."

10.  Eric responded within seconds indicating that he was "already in" my city.

11.  I am ceasing all communication as I've "been around the block" long enough to know that the potential for scammer and/or fraud is sky high AND it's all too easy (i.e. suddenly already in my city).

I welcome any other members' thoughts and contributions.

[+ PhileasFogg]

Interestingly, I also reached out to him when @jusmeinbr expressed his suspicions.   I was inclined to think he was legit except that his rates were too low...and I told him that.    Everything was fine until he asked for the deposit.   I said no.   He made excuses.   Since he'd already told me the name of his hotel near the Superdome, I asked him to send me a picture of his view.   He said I'm outside and sent me a picture of the front of the hotel from the sidewalk.   I sent him back a picture from the same vantage point that I got from apple maps and noted the IRONY that the SAME WHITE STATION WAGON was reflecting in the glass in my version.   Oddly enough, our correspondence ended there.

Definite case of "Deposit Fraud" and @jusmeinbr's instinct was SPOT ON!

[jusmeinbr]

Thanks, @PhileasFogg!!  I’m glad to know my intuition was correct and even verified by your excellent investigative skills!

[jusmeinbr]

UPDATE:  Those four previous reviews of https://rent.men/Nicholaschangas/reviews have suddenly resurfaced.  Here are the links:

https://rent.men/Kevinnthomas

https://rent.men/Anthonysmithh

https://rent.men/AntonioJennings

https://rent.men/Jonahzakim

I can only assume that "Nicholas" thought it looked even more incriminating for the reviews to vanish!!  That's a bunch of providers to suddenly leave the business after "Nicholas" reviewed them :).

[+ PhileasFogg]

3 minutes ago, jusmeinbr said:

UPDATE:  Those four previous reviews of https://rent.men/Nicholaschangas/reviews have suddenly resurfaced.  Here are the links:

https://rent.men/Kevinnthomas

https://rent.men/Anthonysmithh

https://rent.men/AntonioJennings

https://rent.men/Jonahzakim

I can only assume that "Nicholas" thought it looked even more incriminating for the reviews to vanish!!  That's a bunch of providers to suddenly leave the business after "Nicholas" reviewed them :).

I just clicked them....deadends on my end

 

[jusmeinbr]

Yep.  That's because "they" all left the profession.  "Nicholas" must scare off a bunch of providers!!  That HAS to be a record.....Have a RM Premium account for a month, meet with four (4) providers, and they ALL decide to leave the profession after meeting with him!  Wonder just how long "Eric" will hang around since he reviewed him only yesterday!

[TJMS]

Same, hear! Good job PhileasFogg!

[Paul FL]

Just had the same experience with him. I’m in New Orleans until tomorrow morning. I text and he was polite and we went back and forth with details & locations …. I set a time and he said he would come to my hotel. Then for the first time he said he needed a deposit. I told him I’d love to meet but I don’t do deposits & had been hiring in multiple states for years and never paid a deposit. He said he had been harassed in the past and that’s why he charges a deposit. I told him if he changed his mind to let ne know and he responded and said I guess you will have to hire someone else. 
 

side note : I messaged the one person who did his review on RM & asked several specific questions. There has been no response. 

[Ghadd]

If more info is still needed, the pictures used on Ericwilliamss are from an OF model who posts on X: @Leonardotwinkx

[jusmeinbr]

5 minutes ago, Ghadd said:

If more info is still needed, the pictures used on Ericwilliamss are from an OF model who posts on X: @Leonardotwinkx

The collective power of this forum is astounding!!  Great find @Ghadd!!

[jusmeinbr]

55 minutes ago, Paul FL said:

 
 

side note : I messaged the one person who did his review on RM & asked several specific questions. There has been no response. 

“Nicholas” just may be having trouble corresponding with “Eric” to try to figure out just how best to respond 😃.

He (Nicholas) may be receptive to a collective collection of cash from all of us as an incentive to cease meeting with providers.  After all, at the rate “he’s” going with “them” all leaving the profession within days of “him” meeting with “them,” we soon won’t have any providers left on RM 😃.

[+ PhileasFogg]

47 minutes ago, jusmeinbr said:

“Nicholas” just may be having trouble corresponding with “Eric” to try to figure out just how best to respond 😃.

He (Nicholas) may be receptive to a collective collection of cash from all of us as an incentive to cease meeting with providers.  After all, at the rate “he’s” going with “them” all leaving the profession within days of “him” meeting with “them,” we soon won’t have any providers left on RM 😃.

I wonder if the mafia is involved in the disappearances??

[+ PhileasFogg]

He admitted to me that he's LeonardoTwinkX - I pitched it "are you he or did you simply use his pics without permission"...he deflected about the implication of why he sent me a screen shot from a map app rather than his immediate NOLO location.   

Sometimes inconvenient truths are hard to reconcile for the deceiver.

 

[TJMS]

So he is a gay porn star of sorts. Why not just trade on that?

[jusmeinbr]

It also doesn’t help that, when “Nicholas” brought back his reviews, notice how the attached reviews have two different screen names, yet the lead photos for each are identical!

Edited Thursday at 08:15 PM by jusmeinbr
Typo.

[+ PhileasFogg]

1 minute ago, TJMS said:

So he is a gay porn star of sorts. Why not just trade on that?

According to OF and X...he's in 

A

U

S

T

R

I

A

 

 

[jusmeinbr]

1 minute ago, PhileasFogg said:

According to OF and X...he's in 

A

U

S

T

R

I

A

 

 

Well, that’s only a very short commute to New Orleans and back, huh?  😃

[+ PhileasFogg]

The picture he sent me to show his location and my picture taken fro Apple Maps…I get towed for missing street cleaning day on Thursdays in the French Quarter and that white station wagon has never moved 😂

 

Edited yesterday at 11:06 AM by PhileasFogg

[jusmeinbr]

Well, I privately told @PhileasFogg yesterday that, “I predict that Eric’s ad will vanish within 24 hours,” and I also sarcastically asked a few entries above just how long Eric may hang around given that “Nicholas” reviewed him on Thursday.

Drum roll please …………………..

 

[+ PhileasFogg]

2 minutes ago, jusmeinbr said:

Well, I privately told @PhileasFogg yesterday that, “I predict that Eric’s ad will vanish within 24 hours,” and I also sarcastically asked a few entries above just how long Eric may hang around given that “Nicholas” reviewed him on Thursday.

Drum roll please …………………..

 

Called it!

I still have his number…wonder if that’s changed?

[jusmeinbr]

15 minutes ago, PhileasFogg said:

Called it!

I still have his number…wonder if that’s changed?

I bet you it will.  I think this fraudster is more than willing to spend the nominal money an app like Sideline charges for you to get an alternate phone number ($15 or so for a month), so that it can look more authentic like he actually resides in the city he chooses to reside at for purposes of pulling off these thefts.  
 

He would not keep doing this if it were not working, so God only knows how many deposits he has collected, and he likely won’t hesitate to show screenshots of those receipts to falsely demonstrate authenticity.

The best thing everyone can do is commit those photos to memory (which are almost assuredly stolen) because, if he is smart (and that’s debatable), he will create a new client profile to replace “Nicholas.”  Doing so (committing the photos to memory) will at least force him to steal someone else’s photos to try to keep this scam going.

Edited 21 hours ago by jusmeinbr

[NJF]

8 hours ago, PhileasFogg said:

The picture he sent me to show his location and my picture taken fro Apple Maps…I get towed for missing street cleaning day on Thursdays in the French Quarter and that white station wagon has never moved 😂

 

Is that the one near the city library?

[maninsoma]

I love the sleuthing, but I have a few genuine questions:

1. If you have a strong suspicion that someone is a scammer, why even bother to contact them unless you think your efforts will result in something good happening (e.g., they realize they are being monitored and they stop scamming).

2. If someone's a scammer who is willing to misrepresent where he is and that he is available for in person meetings, why believe anything else he says?  For example, we don't know if he's actually the porn performer whose pictures were identified.  Once confronted with that information, it makes sense that a scammer would simply lie that they are, in fact, that person versus admitting to having used someone else's photos in his ad.

I hate to say it, but there really isn't a way for us clients to rid sites like Rent.men of scammers.  Rent.men could be more proactive by putting in place some guardrails, but they aren't interested or are unwilling to do so.  The best thing we can do as clients is to repeat the mantra of "no deposits unless you actually know someone."  Earlier today I read here a post from someone warning of an alleged escort who scammed him out of "hundreds" of dollars in a deposit.  I checked the poster's posting history and confirmed that it likely wasn't just a hit piece on the escort -- the poster has hired and commented on other providers.  That goes to show that sometimes even experienced clients get conned by someone with bad intentions.  The only person I've ever paid in advance was someone I hired multiple times over many years and I paid him in advance more than once for trips we were taking.

[jusmeinbr]

1 hour ago, maninsoma said:

1. If you have a strong suspicion that someone is a scammer, why even bother to contact them?

2.  Why believe anything else he says?  For example, we don't know if he's actually the porn performer whose pictures were identified.  

 

1.  My initial contact was not with the expectation that he was a scammer.  It was after the “I am available” and “I am in your city” statements he made that alarm bells went off (too easy) and I strongly intensified my research.

2.  I don’t.  That’s why I ceased all communication with him when he said, “I’m already in your city.”  It’s also why I had no reservations referring to the pictures as “stolen” which, ironically, seems to be a huge problem for the real person depicted in the pictures given the warnings he issues about any such photo theft.

Had he not made the mistake of listing my city as one he would be visiting (today), I have no doubt we would not have uncovered any of this fraudulent activity.

Edited 14 hours ago by jusmeinbr