JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A realtor across the country received a suspicious email from a Jacksonville real-estate agent who was killed earlier this year.
News4Jax first aired a story about the scam in July after receiving reports of a person claiming to be Mary Anne Rolnick, 76, emailing other real-estate agents about potential listings.
But now it seems it's happening again.
California realtor, Kim Zappulla, told News4Jax on Monday that she received the suspicious email. She said the first red flag was the timing of the email about a listing, which she got during Hurricane Irma.
“It just didn’t make sense that somebody from Florida would be emailing me this while the hurricane was hitting there,” Zappulla said.
After a quick Google search, Zappula said she found News4Jax’s story from July about other real-estate agents across the country who had received an email from Rolnick.
According to police, Rolnick was killed by her adult son in June.
Zapulla said she became curious and responded to the sender.
“I just wanted to see how far I could get these people to go, basically," Zappulla said. "Obviously I wasn’t going to open any links, but I just wanted to see how far along the dialogue would go.”
She said after the sender started to catch on that she knew they were up to something, the emails stopped.
“It's horrifying. How could somebody do that?" she said. "Someone just takes her name and her license info and starts emailing agents around the country. It’s awful.”
Zappulla said she hopes something can be done to stop the sender from posing as Rolnick, for the sake of the real-estate agent's family.
Zappulla said she reached out to the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, but officials there told her she would have to contact the police department in Los Angeles.
News4Jax reached out to the Better Business Bureau and Rolnick’s former employer, Watson Realty, but didn’t hear back.
Rolnick's son, Scott Rolnick, is charged with murder. Police said he stabbed and strangled his mother in her Sutton Lakes home.