Police warn of Craigslist scheme involving cheap phones

DULUTH, Ga. — Police think there could be more victims of a smart phone scam that promises new phones at really low prices.
 
When the customers show up with cash, thieves run off with their money.
 
Channel 2 Action News has learned of eight cases in Gwinnett County and at least one case in Atlanta and Dunwoody.
 
Channel 2's Amy Napier Viteri obtained surveillance video that shows one of the crimes as it happened.
 
Viteri asked Gwinnett County police for reports on the people who have been victims in the scheme and got a stack of incident reports -- all of them from a Best Buy in Duluth.
 
Police say suspects used the store location so many times that store security got involved and helped police get video to make an arrest.
 
Gwinnett County police said the video from Nov. 12 at the Best Buy store on Pleasant Hill Road shows their suspect Carey Carter, 21, walking to a victim's car after setting up a sale through an ad on Craigslist.
 
"He's told the victim he's going to go inside, use the cash that was just given to him, and purchase the phones with his employee discount," said Cpl. Jake Smith with the Gwinnett County Police Department.
 
Store cameras show Carter smiling, talking on the phone as he walked to the victim's car.
 
Pretending to be a store employee, Carter took $2,000 from the victim to buy several iPhones, police say.
 
On the video, Carter can be seen telling the victim to pull around back to pick them up.  Instead Carter runs to a waiting SUV and takes off with the cash.
 
"It was just like … I couldn't believe it," victim Jason Cross told Viteri.  
 
Cross said the same thing happened to him in April. He met a man at the store wearing a Best Buy badge. He gave him more than $2,200 for several tablets.
 
He says the man even had him sign two copies of a receipt then disappeared.
 
"I even had my wife and baby with me. My not-even-year-old baby and these people do not care," Cross said.  
 
Smith said the first case happened in November of last year and it's not just in Gwinnett County.
 
Police in Dunwoody arrested Cameron Thompson to a similar scheme and Atlanta police also made an arrest. 
 
"Our detectives suspect that all three of these guys have been working together. There may be others working with them as well," Smith said.
 
Cross said it was a costly lesson.
 
"Don't give any money until you actually have it in your hands," Cross warned.