A reader reports with respect to the details and magnitude of Rachael Marie Smith’s scam:

As one of the scammed, the $5100 to $5600 Ms. Smith got was for deposit and first month’s rent, pretty typical for SF rentals. She is not the owner of the property and there are at least 26 other families that were defrauded by this woman. Tally it up, over a few weeks, she collected more than $150,000.

The Chronicle reported four known victims and $20,000 scammed.
Would Be Renters Remember This Name: Rachael Marie Smith [SocketSite]

12 thoughts on “A Firsthand Report On The Magnitude Of Rachael Marie Smith’s Scam”
  1. She used to work at Guarantee mortgage in SOMA as a receptionist/ office manager/ LOAN PROCESSOR!!!!! Imagine all those social secutiry #’s, bank account #’s she had access too.
    If you refied- or bought a house using that company I would pull your own credit and see if there was any other fraud done.
    (if I recall she is a berkley grad too- might be off on that though)

  2. So, is this woman missing part of her face or is that an odd shadow? Her left eye is wonky too so maybe it is an injury of some sort.

  3. Hah, the figure keeps climbing every day. I’m sure the prosecutors will charge her with the highest number to get her to plead rather than have to prove all of the reported victims are telling the truth. I’m sure her email and cellphone records can corroborate the true number.

  4. This is a hellish town to rent in, unless you are the ideal renter, which I always was. But even then the price is high and the availability scarce.
    So one could reasonably say, that San Francisco’s rental market is the Rachael Marie Smith of rental markets, Rachael Marie Smith or no.

  5. > So, is this woman missing part of her face or is that an odd shadow?
    if you click on the larger image and zoom, part of her jaw appears missing.

  6. Its telling all this focus on a measly scam artist who bilked a handful of folks out of their security deposits eats up all the air in the room – meanwhile, Lloyd Blankfein and rest of the scumbag parasites on Wall Street continue to feed off the carcass of the economy they destroyed in order to amass their plutocratic fortunes.

  7. khaki wrote:

    …she has already posted bail and u-hauled her a** out of town. She’s on the run.

    It looks that way. According to The Chronicle today, Woman on the lam from tenant-scamming charges:

    An arrest warrant is out for a San Francisco woman for failing to show up in court on charges that she bilked would-be apartment renters of thousands of dollars apiece, authorities said today.
    Rachael Marie Smith, 30, allegedly accepted would-be tenants’ money for her Inner Richmond District apartment, then told them they couldn’t move in immediately because her mother had cancer.
    Smith is being sought on a $200,000 bench warrant after missing two court dates on numerous charges of grand theft and obtaining money under false pretenses, said Seth Steward, a spokesman for San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón.

    Probably departed to a country with no extradition treaty with the U.S., if she was smart. Then again, the FBI isn’t hunting for her, so she probably just could have gone to Canada with all of that money.

  8. Well she didn’t go to some other country with her ill-gotten gains. She copped a plea instead.
    According to the Chronicle, dateline today at 17:08 PDT — Guilty plea for woman who bilked would-be renters:

    A San Francisco woman is expected to spend two years behind bars after pleading guilty Monday to grand theft for bilking would-be apartment renters of $110,000, authorities said.
    Rachael Marie Smith, 30, entered pleas to three counts of grand theft in San Francisco Superior Court and is to pay full restitution, authorities said.

    If you’re one of the people who got scammed, I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for restitution, even after she gets out of the slammer.
    If the two years is her expected sentence and not the projected time she’ll serve, seeing as how the state prison overcrowding crisis is still with us she’ll probably be out of Chowchilla in six months, tops.

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