Crime & Safety

Online Scammer Arrested in Marlton, Police Say

Max Gratz ran a high-end car parts operation, but didn't deliver on thousands of dollars' worth of parts, police said.

A Marlton man who scammed customers of his online, high-end car parts company was arrested Thursday, Evesham Township Police said.

Max Gratz, 26, who ran MG-Motorwerks, faces multiple charges after taking payment for thousands of dollars in parts, but never delivering, police said.

Gratz would advertise BMW and Dodge Viper parts on eBay and Craigslist, police said, then direct customers away from those sites and on to his own.

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Customers would then negotiate a price with Gratz and wire him the money, police said—only he’d never deliver.

Gratz’s website, which was still online Thursday night, listed several BMW and Porsche superchargers going for anywhere from $4,100 to more than $11,000, but was mostly a shell, with default text and Latin passages filling in space.

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Threads on several car forums reference Gratz being an alleged scammer going back at least to July 2012, with posters as far away as Australia alleging wrongdoing on the Marlton man’s part.

Evesham Police said at least two victims—one from Massachusetts, the other from Minnesota—have come forward so far alleging Gratz took a total of roughly $10,000 from them for parts he never delivered.

Other victims from elsewhere in the United States and abroad have been identified, police said, but those individuals have decided to pursue their cases in civil court.

Gratz, who has previous convictions for possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose and threatening violence, faces two counts of third-degree theft by deception, and was lodged in the Burlington County Jail in lieu of $20,000 full cash bail.


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