It was bound to happen sooner or later.
The crappy “P” word that most bloggers get hit with from time to time. You know, that word that means that content you have thought about, slaved over, and typity, typity, typed until your typer was sore was taken and put forth as someone else’s work and glory.
Yup.
PLAGIARISM.
I woke up today to information that my post on blogging jealousy had been copied, cut, tweaked slightly and pasted on the site of Miss Maria Francesca Ditas Chantal Cristina Molina Szabo. (You can all call her, Mia. Or “Coffee Girl”. )
See a staggering similarity?
Some people are of the mind, “I am not going to send you to their site because I don’t want to give them traffic.” Which is a fine attitude to have, but frankly, I could care less about that. Go if you want and say hi to Maria “Mia” Szabo. Don’t send death threats or anything, and if you do chastise her, your comments won’t see the light of day as they are all moderated. I would hurry, though. I fired off a comment demanding that she take it down.
If she doesn’t?
Lorelle has EXCELLENT ideas for going after someones ass when they steal content. And girlfriend left plenty of information (which I have copied and saved) to find her. Dude, don’t piss me off, people. I am the most lovable person on the planet until you cross THAT line. Then? I turn into a monster of rage and storming death that flings her unteathered bosoms and wrath at lame gas station attendants while wearing pajamas and a fugly hairdo. (For the record on this post? Judy still sucks. Just in case you were wondering.)
The immature part of me wants to egg her car and toilet paper her house. Hopefully, I will calm down and realize I am 33 instead of 12 and refrain from doing so. Heh.
Seriously though, it makes me feel more than a little upset that this person has a lecture and a Creative Commons button right at the tip top of her page chastising people about stealing content!
And apparently, she is going to be a lawyer.
Balls of brass, this one has.
Let me get something straight: I NEVER MIND PEOPLE WHO REPUBLISH MY WORK WITH PERMISSION, CREDIT AND LINKS ATTACHED. I also never mind people who “Copy” an idea. I have a post and they want to take the ball and run with it, too. That is beyond flattering.
Also? When I first started blogging and was clueless about the internet I didn’t understand intellectual property in regards to photos and art clips. I was stealing without meaning to. Once I learned? I try damn hard to never, ever do it. However, I have known since the age of 5 that copying other peoples written work and passing it off as your own is wrong, wrong, wrogity wrong.
THIS?
Is theft.
Pure and simple.
No if’s and’s or but’s about it.
I hate that my words have been taken and bastardized.
I almost feel like I have caught someone trying on my underwear.
It’s an icky feeling, people.
ICKY.
**UPDATE**
A reader sent this to me. Apparently all of mianeedscoffee’s accounts also link to this public bulletin about dating scam artist. The emails listed coordinate with the email information she used on this blog and so does the photo.
Seems Mia Szabo (Also known as Mia Szabo-Bautista)was a loan officer in Las Vegas who ripped off $75,000 from at least 4 people. She has also taken to posing as a representative for a consulting company lately. Color me totally not surprised.
http://www.stop-scammers.com/scammer.asp?id=4023
She has a new blog: http://diaryofaretailtherapist.blogspot.com/. Invitation only. Comments closed. Go, figure. Also, her married name may now be Maria Szasbo Bergman and may be living in New York. I have no idea if this is true, nothing can be counted as truth when it comes to her, it seems. She may be faking her entire marriage on the internet for all I know.
I get emails from her victims almost every month. One victim was from SCOTLAND.
One of the saddest, sickest things I’ve ever seen.
Plane? She t old me she was driving! She was doing a “road trip” of sorts. In the beginning she was in the Berkshires, in Vermont. Then in the Gulf (due to storm, she could not get on internet), then in Kansas, , Oregon, Washigton, Idaho, Montana….. Claimed her friend Carmi sent my money to me, but could not produce a tracking number for me.
Granted when we last spoke, she said the internet was down at her friends and her friend was on the phone for tech support. She said she’d go to Kinko’s the next morning. Well, the morning came and left… then the bank closed earlier than she thought…she was still waiting for her car….
My cell is jammed with all the saved texts (and lies).
I do hope that she doesn’t screw you and your husband over. Though I didn’t do it from the start, document everything. It’s sad that we need to “be on our toes” with friends (or thought were friends). :o(
OMG! Diane, you HAVE to read this blog post by her…. http://themainlinestartshere.blogspot.com/2010/08/i-eschew-these-shoes.html
So ironic. So hypocritical.
Yesterday brought more excuses & ridiculous texts from her. First she said paypal takes 3 days – did we want to have her wire the money to our bank account instead? We said just paypal it and send confirmation#. Was in a meeting, would do it later. Then she claimed that a Richard Dalton cashed the check she sent us. We asked “how could that be? Didn’t you make it out to us?” Nope. Said she wrote it out to “cash” because she didn’t know who would cash it(my husband or I). Nice excuse. Isn’t she supposed to be a savvy business person? Who would believe that she sent a check made out to cash through the US mail?! Then she claimed that they were at temple & celebrating a holy holiday starting at sundown & she was not supposed to use any electronics during that time. Said she would have to sneak it in so nobody knew.
Where does she come up with this stuff???? Seriously.
WOW!! OMG!! She texted me on Fri saying she was tired of the BS etc and would sent me the money via pay pal that night. NADA!!
I highly doubt she even mailed out a check. I can’t believe she used the excuse of “I wasn’t sure who would cash it”.
What holiday is it? I don’t follow the Jewish faith…
Be prepared for more excuses from her. :o(
I couldn’t access the link. I’m not a “member”
http://www.chabad.org/calendar/holidays_cdo/aid/672022/jewish/2010-Holidays.htm
She’s loosing her touch, there is no “holy holiday” this month.
I guess it was the Sabbath(Friday night sundown till Sat sundown). Whatever. All it has brought is 4 more days of her excuses & nothing happening. Claims she is at the hospital tending to her daughter who attempted suicide now. I am not heartless, but I don’t believe her for one second. Luckily, I don’t have to deal with her – my poor husband is the one who keeps having to do it. He is about ready to lose it with her.
The saga continues…
WOW…She does use her kids as “pity”…I can’t believe she’d lie about something like that!
Document everything!! It may come in handy.
I sent her an email yesterday which she did not respond to. I also sent her a message thru paypal (same day) which she did reply to, saying she’ll try to get the money together” But of course still no money.
I just texted her, often…then she claimed harassment. (!!) She’ll mention her lawyer as scare tactic…then claim she’ll stick you with the court fees as well. o_O
I got a partial “refund” at the 9 week mark…I think I’m upon my 3 months mark.
Hopefully she won’t drag it out as long with you and your husband.
BTW, what was the link about? She blocked me from reading it.
It was about how she won’t buy Steve Madden shoes because he “bamboozled” people out of their money. Thought that was funny, coming from her.
She better not drag it out much longer. My husband is about ready to call our lawyer. She better not try to cry “harassment” when we contact her. We will be crying “fraud”.
I am about ready to send her an “invoice” via paypal.
I feel bad we are hijacking these comments – lol!
She has blocked me from reading her blog now, too….oh well!
I emailed her AND sent her a pay pal request. She said tomorrow is “pay day” and that I will get my money. We’ll see. I got so frustrated that I even emailed Judge Judy. LOL. I highly doubt that they will even email me back, but it did feel good to know that there is a slim chance that I may get a a reply. I don’t think Mia wants to be on national TV….too many people may see her.
Not once did she mention her daughters “delicate” situation….so I think that it was a lie.
I’ll be back to texting her frequently tomorrow. I have the morning off. :o)
Good luck! Hopefully tomorrow will be OUR pay day as well.
Well, yet another delay tactic. She said she’d send the money by 6P today. I requested it be sent in her time zone( EST) vs mine (PST). well, well well…she’s in my time zone, so she claims!
well, I tried to call her on both cells, she didn’t pick up (naturally), one went directly to VM. I tried to text as well…NADA!!
She sickens me!!! I see someone kindly posted her info on here. Yahhh!!!
Anyhow, here is her info:
Her latest link:http:
//www.themainlinestartshere.blogspot.com/
Aliases: Mia/Maria Szabo/Bautista/Bergman.
Mostly Mia Szabo is tagged. Right now she currently has her name as a
Maria Molina S. Bergman on FB.
Twitter acct:
http://twitter.com/CheeksNMonkey
Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/MariaBergman
(She’s hidden on FB, she’s virtually impossible to find)
Myspace:
http://www.myspace.com/miainvegas
LinkedIN:(not sure if this ones works..)
http://www.linkedin.com/profile?viewProfile=&key=53474193&authToken=_rOP&authType=name&goback=%2Esmg_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1
attached to page is:
http://www.unbagleavable.com/
Husband is Ben Bergman of Takes All Types. All numbers for him are wrong.
Email: ben@takesalltypes.org
(He’ll just bounce the email to her and tell you to leave him alone)
(Though she claiming they are no longer together–not sure if she means
that he’s not physically with her, or he found out about her rap sheet)
Her contact numbers are: (718) 753-3281 and (917) 304-8004
she claims the 1st number’s charger piece is broken thus she’s using the
2nd number…which has a broken . She texts from the 2nd number.
Ah yes, no money yesterday. She thought it was pay day but because she’s ‘new’ she gets paid next week, direct deposit. I wonder she’ll come up with next week…
Of course nothing here. She got upset at my husband & asked why he is being “so hurtful & mean”(via text, of course). Yesterday she said she was going over to her uncle’s house to get the Fedex tracking number for us. Who in the world knows WHAT time zone she is really in?!?! She said she is paypal-ing it to us tomorrow. Uh huh. Sure.
She’s cowering behind a “broken” cell. I wonder if she’d pick up if a NY number showed up?
I never did get that state she’s in now. Last I heard she said Montana/Idaho. yes “/” I guess she couldn’t make up her mind. When I asked her if she lied or if “Carmi” lied, she quickly stopped responding to me.
Rather, she only replied once to my many handful of texts to her. I’m tempted to annoy her with calls since she’s ignoring texts, but alas, her VM box is full yet again.
WOW…I wonder what she’ll pin on her “uncle”. She can’t really claim that she can’t get a hold of him, like she did for “Carmi” She stated that she’s been trying to get a hold of her but can’t.
In the beginning she was telling me that Carmi has a life and that my tracking number was not a priority to her. Gee thanks….
my cell is jammed with the texts I’ve saved….I need to transfer it to a word doc.
So, did she get the tracking number from her Uncle? I’m still waiting for my money. I did write to Judy Judy, I got a reply, but I guess she deals with assaults and harassment. I did state that SHE was claiming that I was harassing HER. They assured me that I am not harassing.
I’m still doing research on other televised court shows. I know that she herself won’t pay–the show will, but it seems the best way to go. This way I am guaranteed to get the money, while if I went thru the traditional route she can still take weeks, months,….to pay.
Mia claimed that “she’s doing the best she can”. Maddening that she’s not responding to texts really. I think she has her phone off once she’s done with work.
She’s such a vile human….karma will come.
After she put us off for the past two weeks again with all her excuses, NOW she actually has the nerve to say that she is sitting shiva because her daughter died this week. And this is after she said yesterday that she was working last night until 8pm. C’mon. I don’t wish a child’s death on anyone and I pray it is not true(pretty sure it is a lie….), but how could we possibly believe her?! Who in the world would be working late a few days after her own daughter has passed away?!?! It’s just another stall tactic.
WTF!!!! In the texts she NEVER mentioned “the death of her kid”. She said she pulled a double shift and was just getting in and headed to bed.
What parent fakes her kids death? She’s seriously sick in the head! I wonder what would happen if I called her on it…lol.
According to her my texts are sent to a spam folder…since she doesn’t like hearing from me. Ummm…can blackberries (a broken one as at) do that?
I need to contact a TV court show again, Judge Judy only does assault and harassment cases.
Perhaps we should all write Ben a “condolence letter”…
I know, this is some crazy sh*t! My husband is just baffled by all of this, since he personally knew her in school. And, according to him, they weren’t just acquaintances, they were actually good friends. What kind of person does this stuff?! My emotions run between being completely pissed off and feeling sorry for her because she is truly a sad, sick excuse for a human being. Using her kids like this is really the lowest of the low. I am beginning to wonder if she does this stuff to support some sort of drug habit or something?!
I texted her this AM again, and naturally she did the usual “OK”…and now I can’t get her to respond.
I’m seriously contemplating on emailing Ben. Not sure if that would do anything…as apparently he’s being investigated as well, well according to past posts.
Another part of me wants to find her daughters facebook page and send her this page as well as other links. I mean what teenager doesn’t have a facebook right?? But the other side of me feels that she’s still “just a kid” and needs to “sheltered” from this.
I am still looking into a court show to take her on. Granted I doubt she’d go on, but perhaps that’ll light a fire under her ass.
Apparently her daughter came back from the dead. Erika claims that her mom is letting her use her (broken) phone while hers is being fixed. What’s up with them and “broken” cells?
Erika claims that her dad is visiting from Hong Hong. (they are in San Fran right now for Rosh Hashanah…I didn’t know there were Philipino Jew….)..yet she went to school in the Philippines where he dad lives.. She’s losing track of her lies…after all there is SO much to keep track of.
I’ll play along and told her to google “Mia Szabo”…
I guess Mia lives in Boise now.
So she too is claiming I’m harassing…riiiiiiight. Oh and sending mean things about her mom is illegal since she’s a minor…and she’s going to tell her dad. That’s soo not teenager speak…
Calling your bluff Mia…WOMEN UP AND CALL.
WOW there is NO end to the lies. Her daughter claims that they DO NOT have internet at home, they only have access via work, and school. riiiiiiiiiiight….then how on earth did her son do the you tube clips????
Daughter like mother….(but I highly doubt I was conversing with teenager)…claiming harassment. Also claiming that they will file a restraining order against me…
How about just pay up, and I’ll leave you (her) the eff alone…
Unless of course she finally does get taken to court, then I will be more than happy to be there as a character witness. I have kept and transcribed the text messages (aka lies) to a word doc. As well as the correspondence via Facebook, and emails.
OMG! Can’t believe all of this. She claimed she sent us a check last week and even gave us a (phony) tracking#. When my husband questioned her on which carrier she used, of course we’ve gotten no response. If anyone wants to take her to court, I would be more than happy to join in. I would LOVE to see her brought to justice. We have kept all correspondence, too. Wasn’t sure if there was a way to download my husband’s text conversations with her? Is the only way to do it is type it up in a word doc?
My husband has considered emailing/calling Ben, too. Someone (maybe you?) said she is claiming to not be with him anymore anyway? Maybe he found out what she has been doing. I am sure he has to get calls/emails from people frequently. The more I think about it, the more pissed off I get, so I try not to think about it too much. She is obviously crazy.
I was told to contact my cell carrier to see if they can document it as well, just in case the word doc won’t hold up in court. (Since it could be fabricated.) I dunno if getting it notarized would work or not…show proof via cell and compare it to the word doc.
My cell is getting jammed with her lies. I had to delete some of the messages…granted not the one that contains the info that she sent it, or her friend sent it…
I did inform her that I received a response to the televised court tv show, and that I wanted payment today….otherwise I would have no choice but to call them. She bought herself another day….stated she’d pay by 11AM tommorrow…since she only has $10 to pay right now…so I’d only get like $7 via paypal ($3 free of paypal).
She also claims again that I’m harassing her and her kid.
Oh yeah…she alleges her daughter will have her cell again….what BS!
Interesting. Especially since JUST last night she used the excuse that she was sitting shiva for 7 days due to her daughter’s death & that is why it has taken her so long. She is so seriously messed up. She also claims that she hasn’t sent it via paypal for us because paypal takes 3 days & we didn’t want to wait 3 days(my husband then pointed out that it’s now been OVER two months since we have been asking for our money back). Claimed the check she sent via a carrier was sent through a Philippino store in New York & they use a variety of carriers, that is why she didn’t know exactly who the tracking # was from.
He came right out & told her to own up to what she did, she STOLE our money & has been lying to us about sending it to us. She still claims she is going to pay us back & she did not steal her money. She says she will be “vindicated” when we get our money from her. I have noticed that when she doesn’t have a good (lie) excuse, then she will just not respond.
Maybe I should contact the cell carrier to see if they can retrieve/print out the records for us. If I tell them that we are going to need them for a court case, I bet they will do it.
I once had a run-in with a person like this. It was only $20 or so, but I trustingly sent a product to them before receiving payment, since they were part of the local homeschooling community and it was just before Christmas. Weeks of excuses turned into months of excuses, until I finally went public with what this person had done to me right on the homeschool board, and then I finally received payment. I also received private emails from others who knew this person well and they told me that this person was a scam artist with a long history. Clearly, this Mia chick has a Personality Disorder of some sort. She is probably loving the drama and getting her kicks out of putting you off over and over again. Either seek to prosecute her – can you file a police report or something? Or maybe it’s best to just let it go if you can live without the money. She is just going to keep finding new victims anyway…I don’t think that calling her out on it will be a deterrent. Only legal action is likely to stop her and even then, I think she’ll be back at it anyway. Just my humble opinion.
@Carolyn, that’s just it, she claims her cell phones, yes plural are broken. Yet, she’s able to be in contact with a lawyers and her kids….??
She has scammed SO many individuals. The only address I have for her wound up being Ben’s business office. I’m writing to various televised court TV shows now. I did get a partial payment after nine weeks, I’m now coming upon four months. Luckily my amount is not as high as others, but it’s still wrong. I work part time as a preschool teacher…I wanted to treat myself to a little something…and I wind up getting scammed.
I never had one inkling of doubt of her doing such a thing…now the stories I’m hearing left and right, I have no idea what is the truth and what are falsehoods. I mean she faked her daughters death. You can’t get much lower than that.
The stories she tells Amy greatly differ the tales she tells me….she tells me she’s working double shifts and trying to pay me via pay pal but her card is giving her issues…then she was going to attempt money gram and I have not heard from her since. Not once did she mention her kid died.
Her daughter allegedly had her cell over the weekend and her kid was supposedly the one texting back, kids were in SF with their dad who was visiting from Hong Hong for Yom Kipur–Mia was in Idaho working double shifts.
That’s another thing who lends a broken cell? Daughter has Mia’s cell and Mia took her sons…where’s the logic in that? Mia got a loaner cell, why not the daughter??
She’s losing track of her lies…I’d love to see her explain it all away to a judge…
One court show offers to have people bring in witnesses–all expenses paid even a per diem…when that happens I guarantee there will be hoards of people wanting to tell their run in with her.
For her future endeavors, I’m hoping we all caused such a stink on all her names that people will run the other way…
Sorry for my rant…I hope it didn’t come off at bitching at you…She’s just such an aggravating person….and I’ve been up since 4AM…not a good combo…
@Amy….we need to find a way to chat…. I feel bad for taking over Loralee’s blog. Although, it does also provide more evidence…. but still I feel bad.
@Diane – I get it – I really do! Mine was only $20 and it would have been easy to let it go, but it was the PRINCIPLE!! You hate to see evil prevail, y’know?! But you are obviously wasting a lot of your thoughts on this person, even trying to reason around her gazillion excuses, when she may as well be saying “blah, blah, blah”. It’s ALL lies!!! Obviously, there is a sickness there. I don’t say that in a “We should all feel sorry for her” way though! It’s more of a “You shouldn’t waste your energy on this because she FEEDS off of that”. It’s hard to let go, because it seems like a personal hit to you, but it ain’t personal…if it wasn’t you, it’d be somebody else she victimized. Just consider this all a great learning lesson and get on and enjoy your life! :-)
Oh…and if you think letting this go will somehow allow her to get away with it, just remember: She always has to live with her sorry self, she will never EVER have a REAL friend or friends, AND she will in time reap what she has sown! Think about WHY she probably does this: She is a MISERABLE person, with extremely LOW self-esteem, and can only resort to lies because the truth is all too painful for her. She had to lie to score a husband and he probably ditched her when he found out. It’s really all rather sad.
Thanks to that someone who posted the entry here in comment, I went to the site and it can no longer be found. I was curious. Lorelle, you were quite right to do the post and link it to her (never mind the traffic), for her to realize what she did. And realize she did. Dropping by from BlogHer.
Hope those who copy entries, especially wholeheartedly, passionately, painstakingly written entries be doomed. No – that’s too hard, or is it?
Happy blogging!
Just call your local police and file a report. They will contact the police in her city. If enough people were scammed, she will be arrested. Also report her to the District Attorney in her state if she is conducting any illegal online activities. They will investigate her.
Very good perception on this subject. I will try to take it in and actually listen for once!
@blueskies, that’s just it, she’s been elusive about where she actually lives. She claims it New York, but she’s allegedly in Idaho now…her “dead” daughter is now in Pennsylvania…
I’m finally getting my money back….slllllloooooowly, but I’m getting it back. Once I get it ALL back, my hands are wiped clean of her. BUT, should anything go awry I have taken pictures of ALL the texts we had to one another as proof–my cell is jammed with all our texts to the point that my cell no longer saves any outgoing test messages.
@Carolyn, I agree that she does have A LOT of issues, but I can’t find sympathy in my heart for a women who fakes the attempted suicide THEN the successful suicide of a their child.
Karma right? :o)
Diane,
We have been too busy to bother with her lately. But you say you’re getting more money back? I think it’s time for my husband to get back in touch with her again….this is getting so freakin’ old!
Glad to hear you are getting some back, though. :-)
@Amy, I am getting my money back, ever so slowly, but yes, I am getting paid back. I reminded her that she can do payments, she acted completely shocked that she could do that! Hello!, her first payment was $100 and she’s been dragging out the rest, over the course of time I got two payments of $15.
I’ll go thru my spurts with her, so typically my texts to her are early AM or late PM. BTW, her 718 number is disconnected, so I’m gathering she ditched her cell and is now relying on her ‘loaner’ cell the 917 number. Oh yes and apparently she occasionally lends her cell to her daughter that came back from the dead.
Keep on her ass, at least on Fridays. She claims every Fri is her payday. Rather,…the FIRST time she claimed she was paid weekly. About a month or so later, it changed to every other week.
She may balk and claim that she has to pay a $3 fee every time on paypal. It’s been a looong time since I’v sendt money via paypal, but I don’t recall paying a fee and likewise a friend of mine said there is no fee.
Good luck Amy! :o)
OMG!!! My same EXACT story about the Hawaii house….same excuses, but mine has been going on since April 2010! A mutual friend of mine just got her money back today PAID IN FULL, so I hope I (or one of you) am/are next on Maria’s list. What a crazy chick! I will keep texting her and see what happens. Good luck!
@Stacey – sorry to hear she got you too. My husband is still in touch with her. Just last night she was texting him again & she said she can’t afford the $27 fee for moneygram. This is a far cry from the woman who supposedly owned a house in Hawaii and so many designer handbags that she didn’t know what to do with them. Disgusting. It is encouraging to hear that some people got money back or even payments. We will continue to hound her. I wish we could get the word out to everyone about this, but she’s blocked us from her blog & disappeared off facebook. Since my husband actually knew her from high school, the best we can do is warn the people that we know that knew her & might be in touch with her.
@Diane – I just sent some money on paypal to someone & there was no fee. I guess Maria did offer payments to my husband at one point because, as she put it, it is an “outstanding debt”. My husband was like “what the heck?! Debt?! You STOLE from us!” Crazy that all of this is still going on.
I have been hounding her all week with texts and she told me she has paid back over $75,000 this week, HA!!! I am supposed to have my money wired to me today by 9am west coast time. I told her I wasn’t holding my breath…..
I went to junior high and a short time in high school with her, then she got back in touch with me on FB (after 20 years) 2 years ago and acted like my best friend. She was still on FB up until 2 days ago. Although she blocked me, we still had many mutual friends. I posted somethig on my staus about her and people started emailing me about how they have been scammed by her too. Now she has disappeared. I have made some other contacts and got their phone numbers. I will be talking to them later today and let you know if I find out any info. I will also let you know if I recieve my money!!
PS: Do you think she reads these comments?
Oh, pretty sure she reads them. And whenever someone finds her newest blog they link it here…it gets attention and then she shuts it down. It may not be much help, but I figure it is at least a place other people can vent about being ripped off.
The Main Line
http://themainlinestartshere.blogspot.com/
This is the latest blog, but its invite only. It may be shut down by now, as this is from 3 days ago…..
Anyway, I am happy to report she PAID ME IN FULL!! today! A miracle since I have been battling her for 6 months!
Is there anyway you can email me? stacey.rdh3@yahoo.com I may have info you need :)
WOW, I have not been on here in a while. She was going to try and send me money via pay pal, but she was getting some sort of error message, which she did email to me. Moneygram was going to charge her a fee….nevermind the fact that I paid a fee to send her money.
She wanted to use Wells Fargo or B of A, to send money which would have been fine, if I banked with them. So now I’m trying to find friends that I see often that banks with them.
A few weeks earlier she said that I was ‘being nasty’ to her thus she really didn’t want to pay me back!!! WTF??!! Yeah, I had to use my preschool lingo on her to ‘smooth’ things over.
I think she’s back east again too.
@Stacey I’m glad you got your money back! @Amy, we will get our money back soon too! We gotta keep on her ass.
@Stacey – I am going to email you. Anything that might help us is great! I am encouraged to hear that you finally got your money back. She got our money in May & we have been asking for it back since July.
My husband has still been texting her multiple times a week. Last week he told her to cut the BS and she told him that cursing at her is not going to expedite our payment. Whatever. He didn’t even curse – he actually only typed “BS”. She just uses anything possible to try to stall. We are supposed to get our money via a Fedex package that is going out tomorrow. I am not going to hold my breath. My husband has threatened her with telling all their mutual acquaintances about this.
She also claims she has many satisfied customers who have stayed in her Hawaii home. Yah, sure. I’d just love to hear a testimonial from one of those people. Ugh. So tired of all this!
WOW….I got that line too. That I needed to be nice to her. What are we in…. preschool? My kids there have better manner than her AND they know right from wrong.
She claims to have issues with paypal and moneygram, she wanted to use a Wachovia or B of A bank to deposit the money. I don’t have either. One of my friends was kind enough to let me use their account for her to put the money into.
She had the nerve to tell me that she waited for 4 days to get the info from me, never mind that I waited MONTHS. (As it happened, he had a family emergency to tend to, so yes naturally that was the top priority.)
She claimed to have deposited money into the acct Fri evening. My friend called Sat and nothing had gone thru–I gave her the benefit of the doubt and waited til Mon. Mon, nothing showed up…then I texted her about. she came up with some excuse that banks don’t process Fri deposits until the end of Mon to early Tues riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight….
Now she says she needs to go to the bank to put in more money… O_o Ummm….that’s a HUGE red flag that she never put the money in. Not to mention that amount that she claimed to have put in is slightly more than what she owes me. I HIGHLY doubt she paid a “sorry for the troubles” “fee”.
How much does it cost to send something certified? I’m almost willing to pay for it myself.
My husband just said last night that he feels like sending her a Fedex package label. She claims she is sending us back $400 for our trouble. I don’t believe anything till I see it. And, I won’t even believe a check when I see it, until it is cleared in our account. @Diane – where does she tell you she is living now? She told my husband she is living in Golden, Colorado now because “do you know how expensive it is to live in New York?!?!”
She also keeps using the Sabbath excuse, saying she doesn’t use electronics OR drive from sundown Friday to Sunday. My husband told her that’s great & all, but how does her religion feel about lying & cheating?! I seriously would love to gather information from everyone we can find who has been a victim of hers & see what it would take to press charges. I hate to think of all the other people out there who probably think they’re the only one she’s scammed like this.
Diane – Stacey has my email address. I told her it is OK to give it to you if you email her.
WOW…where to start…..Her daughter came back from the dead and stated her mom is in Boise. This was when Mia loaned her kid her cell phone for the weekend. Mia was in Boise, kids were in San Fran with their dad. riiiiiiiight….how does THAT work??? Oh yeah and Mia then took her sons phone so she would have one. O_o Craziness. Kids were together, why can’t the kids share the sons phone???
She claimed that she went to the Rally to Restore Sanity….which I found highly ironic and amusing. More so when I questioned as to how she afforded the flight/hotel/taxi/food etc..when she can’t pay me and others back. Her reply….HER CHURCH PAID FOR EVERYTHING!!! (not temple) And of course her reply to most everything…DON’T ASSUME. Arghhhh!!
Mia claims she’s been having issues with moneygram and paypal she wanted to use Bank of America or Wachoiva/Wells Fargo. A friend of mine kindly offered his account. She claims that she did a deposit…it never reflected. She “bought” time by doing it over the weekend and claimed that deposits done that way are not processed until Monday evening/Tuesday morning. WTH?!!
I humored her, Tues passed and still nothing. Her reply, she did not put enough in, (never mind NO DEPOSITS went thru–my friend even called up once I got her reply that she did it) or it went to the wrong account and she’s resend.
I gave her the option to send me cash or cashiers check via certified mail, and that I would pay the $3 some fee for it. She said that she could do it Fedex for free using a friends account.
I’ve since taken to using my photo booth to take pictures of the text messages, both sent and received. AND the confirmation that she got them.
SHE NEEDS TO BE TAKEN TO COURT!!! I say we flood Nancy Grace and court shows that are similar and tell our interactions with her. Judy Judy was a no. I wrote to them, they expressed interest, then was told they deal with assault and harassment cases.
I know that she’s NEVER made the attempts that she claims. She would have been adamant that she did them. Instead she just says she’ll cancel and resend, or similar tales.
She can’t keep track of her lies anymore. She told me her friend Carmi sent it via FedEx months back…(lie) I recalled she told someone on here her Uncle will send it out for her. So I asked about her Uncle trying to send to me via FedEx and that had failed. She didn’t even correct me…
Just sent a text to her saying that Carmi’s fedex had also failed. Let’s see her come up with a reply. Called out her “Uncle” and “friend”… who’s she going to use….her (ex) husbands, church, …
She honestly does not have a lot left to go to pay me off. How does she sleep at night?
Ummm…has everyone on here been “refunded” by Mia? She claims she’s paid everyone back.
Um…..NO! We have not received any money back from her. More lies. Did you get all of your money back finally?
Not yet. She told me her friend Robbie/Robby (gave me 2 different spellings) from back east will send it for her. Even gave me bogus FedEx tracking number. Gave her the benefit of the doubt AGAIN and checked again today. Nada. Even tried to google Robbie/Robby Productions. The only one that showed was some dude that’s in Australia.
Her latest FB page:
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/profile.php?id=100001463125275
I am currently anon for reasons that will become clear eventually. I have a story to tell about this woman. I can’t wait to tell it but I have to wait. I wish with all my heart that none of you peeps had crossed paths with her. She is the most pathologically jacked up person I know and I feel for you all.
Stand by for more. I don’t know when but hopefully it will be soon. I just have to try to recover some assets myself before I go completely public. In the meantime, I will do what I can to give everyone the means to keep up on her digital whereabouts. The best thing that all can do is to simply spread the word, as often and as loudly as possible.
Don’t let the bastards get you down peeps. Most folks are good people.
Here is an old clip of her husband pitching his last company.
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4432715
Yes, he is really her husband. Knowing them both fairly well, my gut instinct is that he has no idea how bad her pathology is. I find him to be a decent guy. Even if he found out though, he is dedicated like you wouldn’t believe to her two children and has really taken them on as his own. In a way, if he knew how messed up in the head she was, he probably would react very cautiously because he wouldn’t want to allow her to raise the kids on her own. The instinct would be stronger the more damaging he felt her influence to be. He is really going to be in a spot when he finds out what kind of monster he has dedicated his life to.
Mia Buster –
Thanks for joining in. I would love to hear your story as well, especially since you know both her AND her husband. How does he not know how screwed up she is? Doesn’t he know about any of this? My husband has mentioned contact Ben a few times. Even though we haven’t, I would think there have to be people out there who HAVE?
I hope he really does care for those children. I can’t imagine what kind of mother she is, considering she told us that her daughter died as one of her excuses. Anyone who would ever use an excuse like that is clearly extremely messed up.
Plesase keep us posted.
Hi Amy,
Yes that story about the undead child was what really put me over the top. I have been exposed to some crazy things coming out of her mouth, but that was way too much.
To your earlier points: I think he probably knows deep down that there are big problems with her. But, when you care about someone, and then you throw the kid angle on top of it, it is really easy to rationalize almost anything away. I am sure she is making lame excuses for everything that comes to his attention. He probably wants to believe her so bad in turn, that he switches off the part of his brain responsible for critical analysis.
Look at me. This is so much psycho-babble on my part. I may be completely wrong about him. I may be rationalizing myself; wanting my faith in his humanity to be justified. This I confidently predict however, we will all know more sometime in the near future. I think she is so far down the hole that she will have to run. He will either follow and go down in flames with her, or wise up and cut his losses (I love cliches).
I hope you recover your money Amy. The only thing that really sucks is that if you do, it is probably only because she has managed to con someone new out of even more money. She is really pushing the image of herself as a high end art dealer. It is possible that she gets someone to give her a 6 figure deposit one of these days. If that happens you better get your funds quickly (as I will be trying to do), because she will be headed for the slammer at that point. She has no idea when to quit. Just like Bernie only not as good at it.
In any case, I can basically agree to all details. Excellent post and many thanks for that.
Mia told me waaay back that she was no longer with Ben. I found some discrepancies with her story. Just a fews weeks (days???) prior to her saying that she posted a picture of her daughter in her new car that Ben had mostly paid for. I questioned that right away, and no surprise she had a reason for that to.
I mean c’mon, who really buys their exes kid a new car?
She stated that the vehicle was purchased a few months back but gave it to her for her birthday. then went on and on with more and more lies and hot air.
I had contacted Ben in the past who then sent the email to Mia. Mia had always replied that she was no longer with him and not to bother him with her affairs.
He must know about her by now. I understand that he wants to look out for her kids but there is a way to do that without being involved with her. He’s tarnishing his name and his image by remaining to stay married to her.
Hell, BEFORE I knew all of this I had her connect/network with a HUGE PR guy in Chicago. As soon as I found out and got confirmation of her ways I contacted him ASAP and apologized to him and suggested that he sever any ties to her.
Oh yeah….with everything else going on…I FINALLY, FINALLY got my money back!!! Granted I did not the the “bonus” $55 for my troubles etc… like she promised, but no shocker there.
A wonderful person gave me a brilliant idea that I had not considered…the FBI. I happen to have a family friend who works in the LA office and mentioned that to MIa. That certainly lit a hot fire under her ass. She ACTUALLY CALLED ME!!!! AND…AND…she took pictures of the deposit slip to show that the transaction was in fact real!!
I’m still holding onto the text messages from her, I know that one day she will be in court and this will be further evidence of her deceitful ways. I can be reached at ShortAsianGirl07@yahoo.com. Please put something like “Mia” in the subject line so I know it not spam.
Hi Diane,
Same daughter that she told us was DEAD?! She is so wacko. We still do not have our money back. Last week(or was it the week before?) she claimed to have gotten into a car accident. Then, she actually texted my husband a picture of herself on a backboard & took pictures of the vials of blood they took from her with the date on it. She is like the little boy who cried wolf. If something really bad does happen to her someday, nobody is going to believe her.
I will email you.
Thanks,
amy
Hi everyone….
Just wanted to let you know that we FINALLY got our $300 back yesterday. Maria claims she is moving to Hong Kong for a new job. Who knows what the truth is. Can’t believe we went to get our moneygram and it was actually there! I am just happy to finally have our money & be done with this nonsense after SEVEN months!
She apologized to my husband for having to “hurt” him & she also asked him to apologize to me. Still not sure what the real story is. I’m sure we will never know. Best of luck to anyone else who is still trying to get their money back.
Hello everyone! Yes I was one of her victims who fortunately got the money back,but mind u it’s not easy!!! Was given a bogus confirmation number for a wire transfer she allegedly sent. It was hard to send money coz she’s in Idaho for her Dads funeral,etc,etc. Now a friend of mine was told that her son is in the hospital, I hope none of you will hear that her son died!!! Who in her right mind use her kids to this evil doings!!! And yes,she will try accuse you of harassing her or saying libelous statement against her in an effort to get u off her tail. Count me in in any future litigation .
I’ve read all the comments about Mia and I’m literally sick to my stomach. Like ‘Anon Mia Buster,’ I need to be careful about what I say, so as to still have a slight chance of recovering my money. Like most of her victims, she used the ‘designer handbag’ card on me – same story, she says the bags are from her EX. Not once did I ever think that she would dupe me. We’ve known each other for years, I know her ex-husband (Derek Bautista, father of her two kids), her cousins etc. I’m just totally mortified that I was stupid enough to believe her BS. When something seems too good to be true,it usually is.
So anyway, getting my money back just isn’t enough anymore. She will continue to scam other people, pay back debts, then steal again. All, most likely, to avoid jail time. It’s about time she’s prosecuted and her scamming is put to a stop.
I can’t help but wonder how long she’s been baiting me. For real, she even interviewed me for her ‘effin bogus blog one time, claiming that she has over 5,000 followers, yada yada. Then I come here and find out that not only is she stealing money from other people, she’s also stealing their words. Can a person get any lower than that? Apparently yes, if she has the audacity to fake her daughter’s death. What a friggin piece of work she is.
I think all of her victims need to unite and do what it takes to bring her to justice. It won’t be easy, but it seems collectively, we have a lot of evidence against her. I’m currently in contact with a former FBI agent (family friend) and he’s looking into her REAL whereabouts.
If there are more people out there who have been duped by this master manipulator, pipe in. We need you! Message if you want my email.
Are you in contact with Stacey and Amy? They both have my contact info. I got my money back, but I can back up all her lies and BS with all the texts I got from her.
Hi Diane … I have been in contact with Stacey and I emailed you, as well a couple of weeks ago.
I’m in the process of gathering evidence against her. I’ve asked all her victims who are willing to give me a statement, to email me at:
mias.victims.unite@gmail.com
If I can get everyone’s statements together, I feel we’ll have more than enough to have her investigated. Several people who I’ve been in contact with, have never been paid … so this could be our chance. Please email me if you’re willing to help!
UPDATE:
I am really hoping you all band together and something comes of this. As for me? I’ve written about it one more time. It’s really all I can do since she only stole my words.
http://loraleeslooneytunes.com/2011/01/24/mia-szabo-bautista-bergma/
Feel free to say whatever.
I truly hope you all get the justice you deserve, here. xoxoxoxoxo
she owes me at least $37k. and this was like 5 years ago. “harrassed” her about it everyday for a year til she totally disappeared and blocked me from all her sites. i only wish i could get the money back.
Don’t worry! We’ll get her!
I wish I could help you recover your money but I guess we’ll just have to see what happens. If everyone can back me up with claims, she’ll have no where to run.
I went to high school with Maria Szabo (she is now Maria Szabo Bergman) in Wheeling, IL. When we were both living in Vegas (last year,) she not only scammed me out of $1800, only some of which I got back after MANY threats and emails and phone calls and people involved, she also tried to get money out of many of my friends. Her husband Ben Bergman has a bogus “non profit” that they both use as a front to get $ from unsuspecting victims. From what I understand, she owes many people money and has lied to hundreds of people…yet is lviing the high life with her kids and husband in either NY or PA now. The blog she plagerized from you is one of maybe 100 I have heard she has plagerized. I am sorry it happened to you, and hope it does not conid to you!
Hey Heather …. please email me at mias.victims.unite@gmail.com
I was shocked to read your story, I cannot believe it! This chick needs to go to jail.
I’m asking everyone who’s willing, to email me, simply just describing the incident that happened. The more people, the stronger the case! Hope to hear from you!
Amazing details. I have bookmarked this web site.
well unfortunately like the rest , I came across the blog site after I lost the money, so saw your response in there and figured I’d write you my story as well.
I’ve known Mia online only starting with Myspace, then Facebook for 6 years, actually was going to meet up with her in Las Vegas 5 years ago.
She was always nice with me through the years, I had heard a few stories about her, they seemed small ($100 for hand bag etc…) didn’t know if they were true or not, and I didn’t take notice, because she had never done anything to me.
So anyways I had a girlfriend in the Philippines that got denied a k1 visa simply for admitting to using drugs 2 times 8 years ago. In the Philippines that’s a lifetime ban from ever entering the US. I reached out to any of my Filipino friends that might know of anyone , or a good lawyer to talk to. 3 months later Maria called me and told me her ex-father in-law, has been able to help many of her family friends and relatives come over here, and she put me in contact with him.
She pretended to have nothing to do with him, and she deserves an Oscar for her acting, seriously. He was intelligent, articulate, and had all the right things to say . He knew all about immigration, and the different options we had. He said he had friends in the consulate, that could expunge her denial. He was my best friend and would answer every call. His terms were 4000 up front, and 4000 when she arrived. I knew there were a lot of red-flags, and it was a risk-reward proposition. I knew there’s a good chance hes a scammer, but I had no other options to bring her here. So My risk was 4000, but my reward was the girl I loved being with me, so I went ahead and wired him the money. By the way his name is Robert Polloreno,
and he had me wire the money into someone Else’s account named van bich pho bank of America confirmation number: 026009593 381019350826
Once the money was sent , he never returned my calls, same excuses that I’ve read maria uses, his dad was dying, hes driving, he needed more info etc… delaying until March, and when march came he completely disappeared. However, I kept bugging Mia, and she always would respond right away, acting like she will help me get him, said she has his ssn in storage, and she will find it for me, and that she had referred some of her friends from the Philippines to him, and he has ripped them off as well.
She continues to text me as if shes going to help me up to even last night. So it looks like she has expanded her scamming efforts, by using others within her scam. Im sure they just split the money. You can tell shes always in trouble, her Facebook page is constantly going from hiding her wall, for weeks at a time.
This type of scam has really insulated her from any consequences to be tied back to her, since all she did was introduce me to him, but sounds like she just has a little business of performing all kinds of scams. I would think one of the best ways to implicate her and him, would be to notify the IRS of monies sent to them, as you know they are not claiming this on the their taxes, For all the things Al Capone did, he was brought down for Tax evasion.
Anyways , that’s my story, if anyone decides to do some type of class action suit against her/ or him , I would be very willing to co-operate in anyways that will help.
Thanks
Scott Moore
So everyone here knows and it doesn’t happen again. Her father-in-law died before she even married her ex-husband (that’s the Bautista in her long string of names).