Update: Casey Serin, Investor Turned Foreclosure Blogger, Flees to Australia and Threatens to Sue His Enemies

This one's complicated, but I'll just spell it out: remember Casey Serin, the 24-year-old no-money-down investor from Sacramento who bought eight houses, lost them all to foreclosure, then became famous for blogging about it? Then, tail between his legs and marriage on the rocks, he shut down his blog? OK, here's the new part: According to CNET, he has reopened the blog, says he has fled to Australia, and is threatening to sue all the bloggers who pick on him for not paying his bills.

Declan McCullagh of CNET News.com: "A failed real estate speculator who created a popular website touting his exploits has begun threatening to sue his critics and claims to be in hiding in Australia. ... The latest kerfuffle arose last week after Serin blogged about a contract with a mysterious "independent publisher" for self-help material about how to deal with foreclosure. To the so-called haterz, this represented an enticing challenge, which they met by outing the publisher as self-styled Internet marketer Marty Stewart and even unearthing a confidential business plan for iamfacingforeclosure.com and related audio files that Stewart left on a website that was not password-protected. The files have since been mirrored elsewhere."

Follow the Haterz' Hunt For Casey at Exurban Nation.

 

Photo Credit: CNET News.com

Comments

[Cal]

Not about Casey, but the Dataquick numbers are out for So. Cal.:

http://www.dqnews.com/RRSCA0607.shtm

Over time parsing the last paragraph versus previous months is always interesting:

This month:
"Indicators of market distress are moving in different directions. Financing with adjustable-rate mortgages has declined significantly. Foreclosure activity is high, although foreclosure properties are not yet a drag home on home values in most markets. Down payment sizes are stable and flipping rates and non-owner occupied buying activity is down, DataQuick reported. "

Last Month:

"Indicators of market distress are moving in different directions. Financing with adjustable-rate mortgages has declined significantly. Foreclosure activity is rising but is still within the normal range in most areas. Several inland markets are showing early signs of distress. Down payment sizes are stable and flipping rates and non-owner occupied buying activity is down, DataQuick reported"

Last year:
"Indicators of market distress are still largely absent. Financing with adjustable-rate mortgages has dropped during the last six months. Foreclosure activity is edging up from its bottom, but is still low. Down payment sizes are stable, as are flipping rates and non-owner occupied buying activity, DataQuick reported. "

2 years ago:
"Indicators of market distress are still largely absent. Foreclosure activity has bottomed out, but is still low. Down payment sizes are stable, as are flipping rates and non-owner occupied buying activity , DataQuick reported. "

No need to buckle up on this one, things have stopped. :)

[sunsetbeachguy]

If the authorities don't put Casey away, all of my respect for the law is gone.

The FBI shouldn't take kindly to twenty-something punks thumbing their nose at the law.

Maybe if his profile gets a bit higher his arrest and prison sentence will have more of a deterrent affect of the RE scumbags.

[Mr Income Stream]

I haven't ran across anyone yet who doesn't know about good ole Casey ... How much higher is his profile going to have to get.

[Rob McMillin]

"Waah," cried Casey. "I wish my head would stop exploding! And what are these bees doing in my ears?"

This is the funniest thing I've read in weeks.

[AnnS]

"Serin handed the haterz even more ammunition this week by disclosing that he had left his wife, Galina, behind in West Sacramento, Calif., with only about $300 in the bank and had set up operations in an undisclosed location in Australia. Because Serin has refused to get a full-time job--preferring instead to chase dreams of instant wealth through real estate deals--Galina lives with her sister and cleans houses to pay for food and rent. "

Uh huh.... oh well, no big deal.

(1) Australia has VERY stiff immigration laws. You have to pass credit and criminal history checks, have several hundred thousand dollars in funds or a very very firm job offer for only a few select occupations..... (And none of the occupations include such things as being skilled at failed real estate transactions or of the sort where admitting to financial fraud is a qualification.)

He may visit but if he overstays his visa,the Aussies will (unlike the US) scoop him and toss him in jail with no bail.

(2) Australia has an extradition treaty with the US.

[Rob Dawg]

Kudos to Declan for the fine reporting and CREDITING the original source of the story. HINT.

[www.BetterVillage.com]

Rob Dawg: Any relation to Dog the Bounty Hunter? Maybe you and the haterz and I could grab a can of mace and head over to Sydney next week and bring Casey to justice? We would probably need to do this on spec as I doubt bail's been posted as yet.

On another note... I got an interesting phishing email this morning that apparently was sent out through the "Smartblast" company of Chicago, IL.
It directed the recipient to pickup a postcard (executable) from "postcard.org", but this was a spoof... the address was: 219.248.62.85 which is supposedly in Korea. I was wondering.. how did you establish that Casey had set up shop in Australia? Are you sure that's accurate? Apnic's physical address is Milton, Aus.. which is 3 hours from Sydney... you sure this isn't what you picked up on? Smartblast has a big disclaimer about sending spam through their systems... they're very tough on this.. but I suspect they wouldn't let old virii go through their servers that easily.

[Rob Dawg]

Thank you.

[John]

The attempt at shutting down iamforeclosure.com was Casey Serin's latest attempt at getting the so-called haterz to keep talking about him and the site.

[Kaye Thomas]

OH... Please..It's time for him to fade away.. he's had his 15 minutes and then some..