She's an actress, DJ, podcast host, and most importantly a scammer that runs fake rental scams out of southern California in Long Beach, Bluff Heights, Signal Hill, and surrounding areas.
The purpose of this website is to publicize her actions and link them to her identity, hopefully making them appear on search results to make future victims aware. While she has been reported to the police, they have failed to protect victims (see for details on why this might be the case).
Table of Contents
If you've been scammed by her, have corrections/additions to the info here, or have further information around the scams that she runs, please do any of the following:
The way the scam seems to work is that she'll post a rental listing to Facebook marketplace, Craigslist, Zillow rentals, or similar. When people contact her, she'll Facetime/video call them and do a virtual walkthrough of the property. The property will often look like the listing (e.g. a yellow house), but it's one she's a tenant of herself. She'll collect a rental deposit, and then disappear.
One of the ways she seems to be getting away with it is that she'll sometimes trickle money back to those she's stolen from if they pursue her. When this happens, the police conclude "nothing illegal occurred", and will drop the matter.
She's also been known to run scams related to animal shelters, seeking cancer treatment, being stranded out of the country, and likely more (all confirmed first-hand accounts from people who were impacted).
Some of the aliases that she's used while running the scam include:
Some of the addresses/descriptions she has used as part of the scam include:
Below is a collection of the some of her websites. Most include "archive" links, as she seems to take the originals down when she's discovered:
Interestingly, she has a pet pig! There's an article about it on the Long Beach Post (also via their Instagram page! This is why the police know her as "the pig lady".
She runs/ran a podcast called Off With Her Head (also on Apple Podcasts), a Soundcloud with some of her work and hosts a radio show named Umami Radio Show with Anne Bergstedt. Unfortunately, these were taken down after this site was put up, and before they could be archived š.
A collection of her victims have found each other on Reddit, and you can see some of the fallout she's caused:
Some first-hand experiences from people who have reached out via this site, used with permission but names removed to protect privacy:
I was scammed by her around a year ago. I saw the yellow house posted online, went and visited her, got along, signed a lease, and waited to move in. I had to postpone the move-in date at first. Then she told me she got diagnosed with cancer. Throughout this time she would text me at least once a week giving me updates about her animals, the house, and her health. She then claimed that her health took a turn for the worse, and claimed to have been in the hospital. She also pretends to have a twin sister named Emilia, and would contact me from a different phone number pretending to be Emilia to give me updates on Anne's health. She then called me pretending to be "Emilia" to tell me that Anne died of cancer and couldn't give me my money back (crazy, I know). I recorded the phone call because at that point I knew she was lying to me and the call is literally 45 minutes long of her crying because Anne died (CRAZY). I went to Pike's Bar that night and saw Anne, confronted her, and she told me that "Emilia" is her crazy evil twin that was house-sitting while Anne was gone and that Emilia was the one that scammed me, not her. She has a huge tattoo of her dog on her arm and when I asked her why her and her evil twin had the same tattoos and piercings she said that they got them matching lol. She also admitted she was never sick in the first place. She paid me back on behalf of "Emillia'. "Emilia" is also listed on her Imdb. So maybe add Emilia to her list of alias since she pretended to be her for weeks. I think we need to start a support group for everyone who has had to deal with her.
Hey there I came across your website and fml lmao. She scammed me 4000 and now I'm basically homeless.
I was burned by Anne for a 2k deposit. She showed me the place in person in August, and she made a document for me to sign to make it seem legit. My move in date was December, I stopped by the place today after not receiving any responses from her to find the notices on her door. I also spoke to her neighbor who told me all about what was going on and shared the website. I am just getting on my feet, and those 2k took a lot of work to get.
On September 30th I handed Annie $3600 (ed: this person luckily took photos of the transaction, showing Anne was involved). She showed and rented to me 415 Alamitos in Long Beach. My supposed move in date was November 1st 2024. Midnight befor move in she texted me that there was a water main break flooding the loft, and it had so much damage I had to wait til Nov 13th. Mind you, I had already ordered a fridge, gave my notice to landlord, making plans with movers, everyone from friends and family were happy and knew of my move. I mean, it was a great feeling that the place looks so amazing and for the price and she actually knew how vulnerable I was at the moment.
Well itās November 15th and I find myself homeless and out of money because of her. I told her how I needed a place to rest and that space. I told her how I work for LBUSD with disabled children. She acted very kind and caring. Saying she adored my partner and I. Then she was all suicidal texting weird and aggressive essay like rants... it was so awful but I needed and liked the place she supposedly rented to me.
I gave her a credit union bank check. She was begging for me to send it through Zelle. I should have known better. But I was at such a vulnerable state and she took advantage. If thereās anything you need from me so we can catch with pig lady, please let me know.
First, thank you so much for the time youāve dedicated to making the website. This woman is insane and a monster and I canāt believe she is still going.
We were scammed in June, we had both just gotten laid off and made the decision to move back to CA from Texas for the first week of August. āAnneā was a former client and acquaintance of my Aunt which is how we were referred to her Facebook Marketplace listing.
After messaging back and forth we eventually had a FaceTime meeting with her that lasted probably over 2 hours. During this time she set the stage for her struggle with being diagnosed with ācancerā and that she was to go on a once in a lifetime trip out of the country now that her health was better. We sent her $4k through Zelle and continued texting with her even as she was on this ātripā. 2 weeks before we were supposed to leave she went completely silent. I tried everything to get in contact with her but heard nothing back. With some reassurance from my Aunt that everything was fine, we continued packing, selling our things and saying our goodbyes.
30 minutes before we were supposed to start driving I finally received a text from an unknown number claiming to be Anneās sister saying that Anne got deathly ill from her cancer had to undergo an emergency surgery and was incapacitated and that we could not move in. Miraculously, she sent our money back in two 2k installments.
My sister had leukemia most of her childhood and the emergency procedure she claimed to have, the same aunt who referred us has had 3 times. Not one of those times was my aunt so incapacitated that she couldnāt communicate. Iām assuming she pulled this info from my personal life to use against me seeing as she literally does not have cancer and was getting a tattoo as she was āincapacitatedā.
I had a move-in date of January 10th. I sent her $3500 security deposit + first months rent via Zelle. I did an in-person tour of 415 Alamitos in early September. She gave us the tour, and the place seemed great; she eventually did give us a sob story about her dad passing suddenly. My mom and I empathized as my father had passed recently, but I know see that she used that to play me. I mentioned it in my opening email because I wanted to show I was ready for the next stage of my life after tragedy.
She sent me a rental agreement via DocuSign. She used the company āLB Rentalsā, and I should have known that was a red flag. Zelle was a red flag to me, too, but I was so caught up in the deal and excitement (and it was my birthday), that I just went along with it. So many flags in hindsight.
She sent me texts about how happy she was for me that I got the place and we talked about getting coffee once I move in.
I followed up with her in October about a floor plan so I could plan for my furniture. She didnāt reply, but I was giving her grace as she told me she was planning her dadās funeral in the UK.
I found out today (November 30) because I was in the area and saw the eviction / criminal notices on the door. Iām heartbroken and feel like an idiot. I should have done much better research. I already bought furniture. Luckily, I have a place to stay, but I am so sorry for everyone else who came from out of state / didnāt know until day of.
I am filing a police report and just want to get my money back. Iāll follow up with any updates. Thank you to all of you who have compiled your info and shared your story.
This is a living website, with updates noted here:
