A scam artist who hit the San Francisco Jewish community in January might be back in action — this time in the East Bay.
David Brown, president of Temple Beth Hillel in Richmond, recently received a call from a man identifying himself as Rabbi Mikhail Slovik of Temple Beth Israel in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
The caller proceeded to narrate the plight of a young Dutch student named David Levi, who while vacationing in Yosemite had his belongings stolen, including his passport and money.
The caller, allegedly telephoning from Amsterdam, then explained that he was helping the student’s parents make arrangements to get Levi home. He said the young man had to travel from Pinole, where he had been trying to locate family members, to San Francisco International Airport. There, he would board a flight to Los Angeles, where his parents had made reservations for him at the Hilton.
The student needed cash for the shuttle to SFO and additional money for the shuttle from LAX to the Hilton, according to the caller.
“OK, sez I to myself, this sounds a little fishy. But being the good Samaritan that I am, I’ll see what I can do,” Brown recalled in a recent e-mail. “I was willing to take the risk of losing $100.”
Brown went to the Days Inn in Pinole, where Levi was supposedly staying, and found a young man who fit the description the caller had given.
When Brown attempted to question the young man and verify his story, however, things started to get suspicious.
Brown asked him if he knew the Sh’ma. Only in Dutch, the young man said. Same with the Torah blessing, he added. When Brown went into the hotel office to make a few inquisitive phone calls, he came out to find that the youth had disappeared. The airport shuttle, which was supposed to pick Levi up at 5:15 p.m., never came.
When Brown called the Days Inn later, he was told that the young man never reappeared and that a shuttle never showed up.
“Perhaps my many years of criminal law practice made me a bit more cynical than most,” Brown said. “My guess is that others might well have been taken in. Basically, the kid split when he saw me on the telephone.”
Brown’s experience echoes that of Doug Heller, president of the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation. In January, Heller got a call at his office from a man claiming to be a rabbi from the Hague, the Netherlands’ de facto capital.
The caller told Heller that the college-age son of one of his congregants had been robbed of his money and passport while vacationing in the Napa Valley.
The caller said that San Francisco’s Dutch Consulate was currently closed for renovations, so arrangements had been made for the young man to pick up a new passport at the Dutch Consulate in Los Angeles the next day.
The youth would spend Friday night at the Hilton Hotel in downtown San Francisco, the story went, as his mother worked for the Hilton International chain. He needed only enough money to reach S.F. International Airport, the caller said, and then enough to reach the Dutch Consulate after arriving in Los Angeles.
Heller, who was on his way to a meeting at the federation, said he would leave an envelope containing cash with the federation’s security guard.
Fortunately, Patrice Rodda — assistant to federation executive vice president Wayne Feinstein — called the Dutch Consulate in Los Angeles to confirm that it would be open the following Saturday. The staffer said the office was never open on Saturdays.
Inspector Tom Perdue of the San Francisco police department’s fraud division said he is unfamiliar with the self-described Dutch rabbi. However, he said he has heard of similar schemes, especially around the holidays.
“Typically, what we get at this time of year is a lot of telephone scams,” Perdue said. “Everybody’s feeling very charitable. You get calls on behalf of a myriad of associations and groups.”
Shortly before Heller heard from the con artist, Rabbi Alan Lew, president of the Board of Rabbis of Northern California, got a similar call. In fact, he arranged for the young man to come to his house and pick up a check for a small sum that Lew had written from his discretionary fund.
Lew said he thought little of the incident until Heller mentioned his experience at a federation board meeting Lew also attended.