A South Florida man who posed as a purchasing director for the county to make fake orders from vendors was caught when he tried to activate a stolen Starlink satellite kit, deputies said.
The suspected scammer, Keith Merard, 26, of Miramar, was arrested Monday and booked at the Broward County Jail on charges of organized scheme to defraud and criminal use of personal identification information, according to a Facebook post by the sheriff’s office.
The sheriff’s office said Merard was part of a group that for 11 months pretended to be Volusia County officials to con vendors out of their products.
The scammers contacted hundreds of vendors to open lines of credit and make fraudulent purchases. In many cases, the vendors got suspicious, and orders for various types of equipment were rejected, the sheriff’s office said.
But some fake orders were processed and a scammer successfully ordered more than $7,000 in reusable respirators that were shipped to Miami in August and September.
Detectives discovered another case where in October a company selling Starlink kits delivered an order of $48,000 to a storage unit in Davie that was never paid for. That same company became suspicious when another high-end order was made from the scammer posing as Volusia County’s purchasing director. The company contacted the county’s purchasing director, who told them the order was fake, according to the sheriff’s office.