It's been a while since I've posted about Rafe Holoman-Franklin, multi-state scam artist and thief who swindled Cambridge, MA residents in 2009, and others before and since. We have on occasion received emails from people who have seen our victims blog, telling us where he is. We then contact the local police to give them a "heads up", and also contact area churches. The police usually thank us. The churches never respond. God forbid that they shouldn't trust someone, and Rafe, who just LOVES to go to church, (any church) counts on that. His fake religiosity is part of what makes his scams effective.
We received the following "Rafe update" today:
"From: fdzi@live.com
To: jaegerstatter@hotmail.com
Subject: Raphael Holoman Franklin
Date: Tue, 14 Sep 2010 13:01:14 -0400
A friend of mine evicted Rafael Holoman Franklin yesterday from a house he was renting with him in Bellport, NY on Long Island. Only after issues developed with missing rent money and funds from a local church parish did my friend 'Google' him....only to find such a horrific story. Rafael had my friend convinced that he was from England, here in the US and waiting to be accepted into the priesthood.
Frank Sergiano
fdzi@live.com"
Typical. When Rafe moved in with us in 2009, he had us convinced that he was from England too, until it became apparent that he knew little about London - where he claims to come from. My mother's parents moved from Holland to London before WW2, so I have some knowledge of it. Good ol' "from an old English family, been to Oxford" Rafe was oblivious as to major city landmarks there that even I knew of. He also gave us the "priest" story. Rafe has been a Mormon, an Anglican, a Roman Catholic - he even had a voodoo priest come to bless his room when he moved in with us. Rafe uses religions like he uses people.
If we get information from the actual victim, we'll post it here. Should Rafe return to Cambridge (which he's done before) DON'T TRUST HIM!
hi my name is joe and i lived with franklin too. he just got thrown out of my house in sound beach newyork we were able to find out about him before he could pull any scams. thanks to you guys you all saved me a ton of money and keep up the good work
ReplyDeleteHi Joe, you're welcome!
ReplyDeleteSomeone told me a few weeks ago that Holoman-Franklin was living in Sound Beach. I asked her if she knew who he was living with - maybe she contacted you? At any rate, glad to hear. Holoman-Franklin KNOWS that rent scamming is treated as a civil matter and that the police don't want to get involved. He COUNTS on that. Most victims are so surprised at what he's done to them that they just throw him out. And then he moves on to others.
Hans