California cops busted a serial con artist accused of “capitalizing on her physical attraction” to rip off people she met on dating and home rental web sites.
Maria Christina Johnson was arrested last week at a luxury resort in Santa Barbara following a months-long joint investigation by the FBI and local police into her alleged swindling , which cops said span several states and date back to 1997, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Johnson, 43, would allegedly date, or rent from her victims to get access to their homes, where she would dig up personal information– which she would use to open new lines of credit, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
She had already blown through $250,000 from her latest victim when she was caught at the beach hotel last Thursday and hauled off to Century Regional Detention Facility on a $2 million bail, police said. She’s due back in court on Wednesday.
This is not Johnson’s first time getting thrown into the slammer for fraud and identity theft.
Also known as Maria Hendricks, Gia Hendricks, Maria Christina Gia and Maria Hainka — Johnson has a criminal history that dates to at least 1997 in Washington, where she served two years in a state prison for identity theft, officials said.
After assuming an identity, she’d live the high life, putting thousands of dollars worth of charges on the credit cards of victims, police said.
Johnson has posed as a modeling agency manager, a member of NASCAR’s Hendrick Motorsports team, and most recently, a dog trainer, authorities said.
Authorities told the LA Times she arrived in California in 2008, where she was arrested and jailed for 11 charges related to identity theft and credit card fraud.
Cops are not sure how many victims she has scammed in the past due to her multiple aliases.