A Romanian programmer sold a toolkit for fake vacation rental ads, and admitted at least 14,000 victims
Liviu Mihai Dumitru, a 44-year-old Romanian national, created and ran a software platform from January 2016 to September 2023 that fraudsters paid to use. It generated fake ads, built spoofed websites that mimicked legitimate listing pages, produced convincing invoices, notified users when a victim paid, and helped create cryptocurrency addresses. Users posted ads on eBay, Craigslist and Airbnb for cars or vacation rentals that did not exist. Dumitru admitted operating the platform for 99 months and conceded that at least 14,000 people were victimized through it. He was sentenced on July 8, 2026 to 48 months in prison for conspiracy to commit money laundering by U.S. District Judge Karen Caldwell in Lexington, Kentucky. The U.S. Secret Service investigated with the Romanian National Police.
- Year
- 2026
- Where
- United States, Romania
- Outcome
- Sentenced
- Victims
- 14,000
- Schemes
- Vacation rental scams
- Last reviewed
- 2026-10-04
The facts, as recorded
- Dumitru created and ran a software platform from January 2016 to September 2023 that helped users carry out online auction fraud and vacation rental fraud.
- The platform offered tools for producing ads, creating and managing invoices, and handling payments.
- Users paid for access and used it to generate fake ads, create spoofed websites that mimicked legitimate listing pages, and integrate payment mechanisms.
- Users posted fraudulent ads on sites such as eBay, Craigslist and Airbnb advertising cars or vacation rentals that did not exist.
- Once a victim was persuaded, users sent convincing invoices generated through the platform, and the platform notified them when a victim submitted payment.
- Many victims were encouraged to pay in cryptocurrency, and for a period of time the platform helped create cryptocurrency addresses managed through Coinbase accounts registered under false identities.
- Dumitru admitted operating the platform for 99 months and conceded at least 14,000 individuals were victimized through its use.
- He was sentenced to 48 months of incarceration for conspiracy to commit money laundering by U.S. District Judge Karen Caldwell in the Eastern District of Kentucky.
- The Justice Department's case page describes the vacation rental version of the fraud: victims who responded to ads on legitimate vacation rental sites were redirected to spoofed sites for homes that did not exist or that the fraudsters had no right to rent.
Why this case matters
Dumitru is not the person who posted the fake rental ads. He is the person who sold the tools to the people who did. That makes the case a view of the supply chain behind vacation rental fraud: a paid service that supplied the fake ads, the lookalike websites, the invoices, the payment notifications and the cryptocurrency addresses, so that each user had less to build. An admitted 14,000 victims over 99 months of operation is a measure of the scale a shared toolkit allows.
How the scheme is described
The Justice Department’s case page says victims who answered ads for vacation homes on legitimate rental websites were redirected to spoofed rental websites controlled by the perpetrators. There, people posing as owners, lessors or managers asked for money, by bank wire, gift card, cryptocurrency or other methods, for rentals that did not exist or that the perpetrators had no right to rent. The page invites other victims to come forward, and the Secret Service is collecting information from them.
The caveat
Liviu Mihai Dumitru was sentenced on a conspiracy to commit money laundering charge, and the figures of 99 months and at least 14,000 victims are his own admissions as reported by the Justice Department. The release read for this page does not give a total dollar loss, so none is stated here. His co-defendant Mihai Daniel Dan was described as pending extradition; he has been charged but not convicted, and is presumed innocent.
Sources
- Romanian National Sentenced for Money Laundering Scheme Involving Fake Vacation Rentals. U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of Kentucky. Accessed 2026-10-04. Supports: Dumitru's age and nationality, the January 2016 to September 2023 platform, its functions, the spoofed sites and invoices, the cryptocurrency addresses, the 99 months and at least 14,000 victims admission, the 48-month sentence, Judge Caldwell, the Secret Service investigation, and Mihai Dan's pending extradition.
- United States v. Liviu Mihai Dumitru and Mihai Daniel Dan, 5:23-cr-00106-GFVT. U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of Kentucky. Accessed 2026-10-04. Supports: The description of the vacation rental scheme, the September 21, 2023 indictment, the July 8, 2026 sentencing, and the 48-month sentence.