Long Branch, NJ – Six Arrested in Scam Involving $260,000 in GPS Units

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    Long Branch, NJ – Five members of a Monmouth County family took part in a scam in which they conned a cell phone company out of reward points, used those points to fraudulently obtain Amazon.com “bucks,” then used those “bucks,” to buy GPS units, which they sold on eBay for cash, authorities said.

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    A sixth person, a Long Branch woman, also was arrested in connection with the scheme because a portion of the $260,000 worth of GPS units was delivered to her, authorities said.

    Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office detectives, with help from police in Long Branch and Ocean Township, made the six arrests on Thursday.

    Leon Kassin, 61, of Ocean Township, his son, Morris Kassin, 33, of Ocean Township, and daughter, Julie Kassin, 23, of Long Branch, and the spouses of the son and daughter, Rosie Kassin, 25, of Ocean Township, were each charged with conspiracy to commit theft by deception and receiving stolen property.

    The sixth person, Michele Harary, 32, of Long Branch, was charged with receiving stolen property.

    Harary and Morris Kassin worked together at a Brick store that sold Samsung cell phones, authorities said.

    On March 17, Samsung started running a nationwide sales promotion program, in which sales people who worked in stores that sold more than one brand of cell phones received Samsung Rewards Points every time they sold one of that company’s phones. The amount of reward points — between $1 and $10 — was based on the cell phone model that was sold.

    As a result of a police investigation conducted in Oswego, N.Y., Samsung was notified that people in the Long Branch area were using fake names and cell phone serial numbers to fraudulently acquire Samsung Reward Points, authorities said.

    Samsung officials contacted the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office, and an investigation was launched about two months ago.

    Authorities said they determined the five family members were fraudulently acquiring Samsung Rewards Points, then redeeming those points online to obtain Amazon “bucks.” They used those “bucks,” to buy about $260,000 worth of Garmin and TomTom navigation units, according to the Prosecutor’s Office.

    Then, they sold those GPS units on eBay, authorities said.

    Authorities said they determined about $23,000 worth of those navigational devices were delivered by UPS to Harary.

    Leon Kassin’s bail was set at $200,000; bail for Morris Kassin, Julie Kassin, and
    Goldstein was set at $100,000; Michelle Harary’s bail was $50,000. Rosie Kassin was charged on a summons and released on her own recognizance.

    Authorities said Samsung, Amazon, eBay and UPS cooperated with the investigation.

    “These defendants purposely engaged in fraudulent criminal conduct for purposes of benefiting from a program designed to motivate and reward hard working salespeople engaged in legitimate business transactions,” Monmouth County Prosecutor Luis A. Valentin said in a prepared statement.

    Assistant Monmouth County Prosecutor Barbara J. Suppa is handling the state’s case.

    The defendants could not immediately be reached for comment. A message left for Harary was not immediately returned. A telephone number listed for Morris Kassin was disconnected. The other four defendants do not have listed telephone numbers.


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    20 Comments
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    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    u would think that the people in deal learned a lesson from the muti million dollar real estate scandel which happened a short time ago from among thier own. apparently not!

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    the people in deal… their own… lachem velo lo. them- not us.

    these are your brothers and sisters. you make me sick. you know, nobody always HAS to comment if what they post serves as twisting the knife. are you going to daven for these people (leniency, teshuva, etc) or are you just going to gloat at their downfall?

    i somehow doubt i want to know the answer.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    Terrible. What drives people to do these things?

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    u would think that the people on planet earth will become smarter.
    also, It is a self-defeating practice to stereotype and point fingers at certain sub-groups within the community. For the same measure, people can take these type of stories & point at the Jews at large, or religious Jews etc. – in which case we will all take offence, wave the ‘Anti-Semitic’ card, called it prejudice, xenophobia etc.
    Stop this self-righteous preaching.

    Avraham abba
    Avraham abba
    15 years ago

    Innocent until proven guilty.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    anon #1 excuse yourself.

    authenticsatmar
    authenticsatmar
    15 years ago

    I can’t believe the hypocricy here. When we talk about Obama and the things he did in public, then we are just creating false panic and its not true. But when we talk about yidden, and their alleged activity we all condemn them. No wonder moshiach hasn’t come.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    Those of us who are shomer Torah v’Mitzvah always are dissappointed when one of our brothers or sisters feels it necessary to break the law & I am not just referring to the law of the land but Torah law, which also prohibits stealing (surprising that a frum person would forget this). The Yatzer Hora must be so strong as to push a normally observant person to this obscene behaviour. We are so driven by the amassing of material wealth that we will go to all ends to acheive the goal. People please remember this is all fake, those who are given wealth are entrusted it by Ha’Kodesh Boruchu to do good with the wealth they are given and to help. Stealing and fraud are not the way to get that wealth and unfortuanetly bring only shame to the individual his family & worst of all to the Klal in the eyes of the gentile world. Wake up we are supposed to be the AM Kodesh, not Am Ganavim. I hope & pray that if, I repeat if, these people are proven guilty of the crimes they are accused of, they will do Teshuva and spend the rest of the time the Abishter will provide them in this world to correct their mis guided ways.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    I guess the high class are not higher than the (lower) class from BRooklyn ( chillul hashem??? )

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    WUT A CHILUL HASHEM.. SERIOUSLY WHY DO WE STOOP TO THIS LEVEL?? I MEAN UR KASSINS U MUST HAVE SOME FLOOSE Y BE GREEDY… IS IT WORTH IT??? EVEN IF YOU DIDN’T GET CAUGHT . YOM KIPPUR WAS 2 WEEKS AGO….

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    tell them to just get lost ! a real chilul hashem !

    Martin
    Martin
    15 years ago

    got to admit that this was a real lumdish scheme

    egghead
    egghead
    15 years ago

    isreal Goldstein? Sounds heimish

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    for all of you concerned individuals that found it in their hearts to forgive the transgressors immediately, “hashem kel rachum vechanun erech apayim”, and hashem should forgive you for your iniquities…

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    They disobeyed the eleventh commandment, “thou shall not get caught” .

    Willi Boy
    Willi Boy
    15 years ago

    Had this happened in Williamsburg, there would be 10x more comments.

    And gd only knows how many times the word Chillul Hashem would be uttered.

    Chicago
    Chicago
    15 years ago

    Really? All those phones and most of them do not have phone numbers?

    It's the Economy
    It's the Economy
    15 years ago

    Expect to see and hear, a lot more of such similar sounding stories.

    It’s the Economy that drives people to seek out desperate measures to survive in business when the normal income dries up, because of the bad economy.

    I am not justifying breaking of any laws, I am only predicting that although it’s wrong, you can be certain to hear a lot more such stories as hard economic times, drive a lot more people, to do things, they otherwise would never even contemplate.

    It’s not an excuse.

    It’s just the reality.