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Bergen woman accused of stealing more than $58,000 via the Internet

By Howard B. Owens

A Bergen woman is accused of stealing more than $58,000 using Internet transfers from an acquaintance.

Renee E. Rowan, 45, of 7527 Gilbert Road, Bergen, allegedly initiated four different transfers of at least $9,000 each.

Rowan was arraigned in Le Roy Town Court and is held in Genesee County Jail on $10,000 bail.

The investigation was conducted by Deputy Matthew Butler and Investigator Timothy Weis, with assistance from Deputy Joseph Graff.

UPDATE: I'm not sure if this is related or not, but a reader points out that Rowan owns staubitzofbuffalo.com (WHOIS database).  The other domains that seem affiliated with that business are registered via an off-shore source that apparently hides the true identity of the domain owners. Here's the WHOIS for hartmanmodelboats.com and loyalhannadockyard.com and taubmansonline.com. All three sites have contact information for Rowan.

UPDATE: I just spoke to Investigator Weis and he said the alleged theft was unrelated to Rowan's businesses and there is no further investigation going on related to those businesses.  He said Rowan allegedly had direct access to the victim's account, but it wasn't business related.

bud prevost

My wife and I are friends of the victim in this case. She trusted this evil predator and now is out a huge sum of money. And the sad thing is, even if restitution is ordered, the lowlife won't be able to pay it all back at once. And more than likely, will never pay it. It's sad and I hope this bitch rots in hell. Nothing worse than betrayal by a friend!

Jul 10, 2009, 1:50pm Permalink
Gabor Deutsch

Bud, the worst part is if u jail someone and they are convicted they cant pay anyone back. It would be great if they can seize property or at least bail to pay restitution.

Jul 10, 2009, 2:05pm Permalink
Don Vickers

How could she believe she could get away with this? Didn't she think they would miss the money? It is so easy to track pretty much everything online now, I can't understand why someone would even try this.

Jul 10, 2009, 2:07pm Permalink
Gabor Deutsch

Don, I dont have a pot to pee in but I had a debit card hacked into years ago. (thru the internet purchase). Luckily they didnt get much but to this day the bank wont let me know who, what, where, why....

Jul 10, 2009, 2:12pm Permalink
Howard B. Owens

I recently had a credit card that I hadn't used in two years and had a zero balance that entire time suddenly go over the limit.

All of the charges were in Los Angeles (all physical store purchases), and I haven't been in LA in a year.

Jul 10, 2009, 2:22pm Permalink
Karen Miconi

Can You trace back a year ago, to where you used it? Someone must have got ahold of your numbers, name and ex: date. Come on Howard, you can nail these people. I think you're a born detective. Start a list and backtrack.

Jul 10, 2009, 2:30pm Permalink
Karen Miconi

Howard, Do you still have to pay on the balance, while its being investigated? Also are you expected to pay it back? Just wondering what the process is.

Jul 10, 2009, 2:42pm Permalink
Amy Davis

Watch out for PayPal too...the "hackers" are getting more clever in their deeds, they've been "spoofing" me for a while now. Good Luck to all, keep watch!

Jul 11, 2009, 12:00am Permalink
C D

There's nothing to worry or watch out for when using PayPal. You've got a better chance of getting bit by a rattlesnake than having someone break into PayPal's databases.

What I think Amy is getting at is a different type of spoofing attack -- called phishing.

A website is designed to imitate PayPal. When you arrive at the site, you don't see or notice anything is different, so you go ahead and login, unknowingly giving your account e-mail address and password to whoever put up the site.

Most (popular) browsers have some sort of anti-phishing utility built-in to them. I could go out on a long and drawn out explanation on what to look for, but it's pointless. All of it is just using some common sense and paying some attention to your surroundings, sort to speak, that can be easily found by using Google to search the following obvious phrase "How can I protect myself against phishing".

Jul 11, 2009, 7:24am Permalink
Howard B. Owens

Basically, never log into PayPal via a link sent to you in e-mail. Even if you think the e-mail is legitimately from PayPal, type in "paypal.com" and then log in. Do that, and you won't get phished.

Jul 11, 2009, 8:31am Permalink
Bea McManis

PayPal has had problems in the past. I've worked with the folks from PayPal and I can tell you that they are just as concerned as the consumers about security. They are a good bunch of people.
I've had a paypal account for years with no problems.

Jul 11, 2009, 8:46am Permalink
bud prevost

I know this post is a couple of weeks old, but I spoke to the victim in this case today. She wanted me to give the particulars of the situation, which originally I refrained from doing because I didn't feel it my place.
Basically, the victim has had a rough time the last several years. Her only sister died, allegedly because of a doctor's incompetence. She sued the doctor on behalf of her mom, bro-in-law and herself. The doctor settled out of court after a length of time for a lot of money. During the process, the victim was befriended by Renee.She was her confidant, gave her rides to lawyer appts and doctor visits, basically buddied up to her.
When the settlement was paid, the victim didn't have a bank account, or valid ID for that matter. She did an ignorant and naive thing...she deposited the money in an account set up by Renee. From what I've been told, and I wasn't there first hand to see for myself, is she had a online gambling problem and helped herself to the money in that account. It wasn't anything to do with her businesses, rather just straight up stealing.
She was arraigned today on 4 felonies in Genesee County Court, and each charge carries a 1 to 4 year sentence, so could be a min of 4 years. I just want to see the victim get her money back. She has battled many hardships in her life, and she didn't deserve this. No one would deserve it.
Oh, BTW, in reply to the last post on here before this, this chick is actually a cosmetologist!! I laughed my ass off when I read what you wrote!

Jul 23, 2009, 8:45pm Permalink
Doug Yeomans

Bud, now that I take a closer look (I didn't really want to) doesn't she look like she could be the offspring of Phil Spector and John Travolta?

I also hope that restitution will be possible for anyone that she stole from. In cases like this, upon conviction, I can't see how prison time would benefit anyone. she'll just cost tax payers a ton of money and she can't work to pay restitution to those she stole from.

A better way to handle these cases would be to tax anyone convicted of felony theft for the remainder of their life. Demand that they remain legitimately employed so that their wages can be garnished as a means of restitution to all victims. Place the convicted into house arrest instead of into jail.

We need to start making thieves pay for their crimes, literally. Sending them to jail doesn't seem to work.

Jul 26, 2009, 6:14am Permalink
Doug Yeomans

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Jul 26, 2009, 7:00am Permalink

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