Buying and selling over the Internet has risks

Detectives with the Financial Crimes unit of the St Johns County Sheriff’s Office told Historic City News reporters that they have concluded the first step in a lengthy investigation that began in April of 2014, when they announced the arrest of 38-year-old Robert Scott Allen on Thursday.

According to the announcement, Allen was arrested and charged with committing an organized scheme to defraud. He was taken into custody and held on $25,000 bond.

The 14-month investigation began when two victims reported similar Internet crimes involving Allen; the list of victims grew to seven as the investigation continued. In all the seven victims were swindled out of nearly $20,000 total, according to Detective Kevin Greene.

Allen, who reportedly lives at 141 Decoy Alley in St Augustine, repeated the same fraudulent scheme with each of the seven victims. He pretended either to be a buyer or seller of vehicles, vehicle parts, or trailers; answering or placing classified ads that required the victims to pay Allen a portion of the total purchase price of the sale in order to place a hold on the goods.

The victims stated in affidavits that, after they paid Allen, they never received the property or their money back. The deposits were between $750 and $5,000.