Beware of appliance repair scam

Jonathan Davis, 37 is wanted by Cobb County Police

COBB COUNTY, Ga -- If you need repairs for any of your appliances you might want to pay attention to a warning from Cobb County Police. They are looking for a suspect who has scammed consumers out of thousands of dollars.

Since January six residents in Cobb County have filed criminal complaints against Jonathan Davis, age 37. Lt. Destiny Davidson said Davis is a suspect in similar scams in Douglas County, Fulton County and DeKalb County. She said he purports to be an appliance repair man. "He does an initial examination of their appliance and usually says we'll have to order this part or that part and requests money up front," Lt. Davidson said.

Even though she's not alone, Jennifer Ciarletta of Marietta said she feels embarrassed that she and her husband were duped by Davis. "There's a part of you that feels silly and there's a part of you that's like, then you get kind of mad," she said.

Ciarletta said her dish washer broke and she reached out to Davis after searching for someone to repair it on line. "So what he told my husband was that it was $240 for a part plus $150 for the repairs and he needed the money for the part up front," she said.

Her husband wrote the check for $240 and Davis cashed it immediately. She said he never came back to their house to fix the dishwasher.

Marietta resident Claudia Morace said she wrote Davis a check for $500 for a part to fix her expensive stove. She said Davis had the audacity to come back to her house and tell her she needed more work. "The second time he came out it was just for another check for $124 and I've never heard from him again," she said.

"Besides the fact that I work hard for my money, as most people do, the second thing that hurts is I feel stupid," Morace said. "I feel that I was taken advantage of and should have known better."

Lt. Davidson said the victims got in touch with Jonathan Davis by Googling "appliance repairs" on line. She said Davis was able to manipulate Google so that his bogus companies would come up at the top of the list. She listed three of his companies as Apex Appliance, Atlanta Appliance and Triple Crown Movers.

"Apparently he's also learned to link himself into actual reputable businesses so that when people click on those businesses it re-directs to his phone number somehow," Lt. Davidson said.

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Beware of appliance repair scam