Auto con nets Sonoma victim

A car-sales scam with apparent ties to Pennsylvania and Las Vegas resulted in a Sonoma woman being swindled out of more than $4,000 after the scammer told her he was shipping out to Iraq.
The 63-year-old victim was doing some online car-shopping when she spotted a Craigslist ad for a 2002 Honda CR-V, Sonoma police Sgt. Ruben Martinez said Friday. The owner, who gave his name as “David Bruno,” said he was a soldier who had just been deployed overseas and needed to quickly sell the vehicle.
Apparently satisfied with “Bruno’s” electronic credentials, the woman drafted a MoneyGram for $4,200 and sent it off, Martinez said.
When four days had passed with no Honda, the woman called the transport company, Texas-based Dependable Auto Shippers, Inc., only to be told that her address wasn’t scheduled for a delivery.
The woman contacted Sonoma police on Oct. 2, who traced the VIN number supplied by “Bruno” to a car on a dealer’s lot in Westchester, PA. The lot’s manager had recently received several telephone calls from would-be buyers and said it’s not uncommon for criminals to craft online scams by cutting and pasting vehicle information from other Web sites for their own purposes.
The check was later found cashed in North Las Vegas, Martinez said.