Victim alerts others about con artist Brian Ellington

Eve Hawkins of Queens, New York City, first contacted Lovefraud in absolute frustration. She said her ex-boyfriend was a con artist, she brought 200 pages of evidence to her local NYPD precinct, and the cops did nothing.

I asked Eve to tell me a little more about her story. To my surprise, she sent me an 8,000-word narration: How she met Brian Ellington. How he wormed his way into living with her. The stories and lies Ellington told. How she struggled to get rid of him. How she finally succeeded.

Eve’s story captured the confusion, mixed emotions, anger and frustration known by anyone who has been targeted by a sociopath. Her story was so passionate and so well-written that I decided to publish it as a case study. Read it here:

Brian Ellington combines sex and fraud

Eve builds a website

Eve took another step. She purchased the domain name james-brian-ellington.com and built a website. She posted information that she had collected about Ellington, like his arrest record and fake resumes. Eve also purchased a few Google ads related to the lies Ellington kept trying to tell.

Within seven days of james-brian-ellington.com going live, two other women whom Ellington had scammed contacted Eve. And through one of the women, Eve found a whole group of people that Ellington had conned. Needless to say, they were angry.

Ellington, in the meantime, found out about Eve’s website, and he was angry. So he went to the police—the same NYPD precinct where Eve had filed numerous complaints—apparently to complain about the website. The cops arrested Ellington and charged him with aggravated harassment.

Ellington is supposed to appear in court sometime in the future. What are the chances he’ll show up? I don’t know.

Eve is glad that the police have taken action. “I want to thank the New York Police Department who called to let me know they are listening to me,” she says.

Harassment

The police were concerned that because of james-brian-ellington.com, Ellington could accuse Eve of harassment. So they recommended that she take the website down. Eve has removed the information that she had posted about Ellington’s history.

“I want to state that the intent of what I have personally published was to help the public protect itself,” she says. “I want to apologize if I said something that overstepped boundaries because I do respect the law and other people’s rights.”

Still, the website has been effective.

“I have had a huge response from victims that have come forward as a result of the website,” Eve says. “I consider these people to be additional victims. They tell me Brian was living on their couches and borrowed, or tried to borrow, money. They tell me he was exaggerating and lying about what happened when I kicked him out. One woman told me he stole cash from her purse, as he did with me.”

Eve has been told that Ellington was seen spending large amounts of cash. Since Ellington hasn’t worked since August 8, 2006, she wonders where he got the money. To anyone who has run across Ellington, Eve says, “Please do not give him any money and watch your credit.”

Information works

I think Eve has done a wonderful public service in exposing Ellington. And I find it frustrating that she is supposed to remove the true information that she published because Ellington might feel harassed.

Excuse me, but who is the victim here and who is the criminal?

It’s almost as bad as the Phil Haberman story—the victim tells the truth, and a judge orders her to stop talking.

Ellington is not violent, so the chances are slim that he’s going to do any jail time. That means he’ll soon be looking for someone to give him a place to live and pay his expenses. The only defense people have against someone like Ellington is information.

At least one woman Googled Brian Ellington’s name, found Eve’s website, and got out of a relationship with him before she lost a lot of money. That’s the power of information on the Internet. And in these cases, it’s the only thing that really works.