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Kidnapping Scam

Source: Telemundo / Telemundo

CLEVELAND, OH (WOIO) –

After more than a year eluding law enforcement, a Cleveland woman wanted for running a lucrative scam on social media is now in custody.

The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department has confirmed Zienup Sbeih-Maddox, 24, was arrested on August 1.

Sbeih-Maddox is currently being held in Nevada on a warrant issued by the Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority last September.

Cleveland 19 Chief Investigator Carl Monday was first to expose Sbeih-Maddox in June 2017.

Sbeih-Maddox is accused of using Facebook to scam hundreds of people across the United States and Canada out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. She ran a Facebook group called “Zee’s Place,” where she sold everything from heavily discounted baby products to Disney vacations.

Many of the victims who belonged to the group say Sbeih-Maddox never delivered the goods they had purchased.

Investigators say Sbeih-Maddox pulled in over $200,000 as part of the scam. At the same time, she was living in public housing in Cleveland and paying less than $80 per month in rent.

On Sept. 25, 2017, a Cuyahoga County grand jury indited Sbeih-Maddox on felony charges of grand theft, theft and tampering with records. The Cleveland Division of Police also issued a warrant for Sbeih-Maddox’s arrest on July 28, 2017 after charging her with telecommunications fraud and theft.

While it is still unknown where Sbeih-Maddox spent most of the last 12 months that she had been wanted by police, Cleveland 19 News can confirm that she had been living under an alias at a Las Vegas homeless shelter since May.

Speaking under the condition of anonymity, current and former residents of the Shannon West Homeless Youth Center said Sbeih-Maddox was using the name Spencer Stevenson. They say the 24-year-old told residents that she was 18 and that she had recently been kicked out of foster care in California.

 

READ MORE: Cleveland19.com

Article Courtesy of WOIO Cleveland 19 News

First Picture Courtesy of Mike Simons and Getty Images

Second Picture Courtesy of Telemundo

Post and Third Picture Courtesy of Facebook and WOIO Cleveland 19 News

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