Craigslist, Facebook Cheap Gas Offers Too Good To Be True, Authorities Say

TALLAHASSEE, FL — Gasoline offered at 99 cents a gallon is a steal for sure. So much so, in fact, that a Florida man now faces a long list of felony charges after authorities say he used stolen credit card information to purchase gasoline before turning around to peddle it online.

An investigation into the unusually low gas prices kicked off last October when a detective with the Clay County Sheriff’s Office came across a Craigslist ad. The person who placed the ad was offering gasoline at 99 cents a gallon, which signaled the possibility of gas theft to the detective. That law enforcement officer reached out to the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services’ law enforcement office for some assistance.

State law enforcement officers, an arrest warrant noted, began looking into the exceptionally low gas prices. Before too long, state officers were able to connect a name to the ad offering cheap gas and then discovered the same person was also using his personal Facebook page to advertise gas at a sizable discount, the warrant said.

Over the course of a several-month investigation, authorities learned the man selling the gas also used stolen financial information to buy it in the first place, the warrant said. The arrest of Jimmy Jason Mullis, 39, on 12 felony counts related to fraud was announced Tuesday, April 5.

Mullis is accused of purchasing gas with a credit card that was obtained through identity theft from a business that had been closed. The state says Mullis used that ill-gotten card on five separate occasions to purchase $824 in gasoline.

“Further investigation revealed that another business had its identity compromised - and that Mullis allegedly used the business’s financial information to purchase thousands of dollars of merchandise via the Internet,” a statement from the department of agriculture said.

In announcing the arrest, Commissioner of Agriculture Adam Putnam noted that “Floridians and visitors are all too often the victims of fraud and deception.”

Mullis was ultimately booked into the Clay County Jail and is being held in lieu of $360,036 bond, the state said. Charges against him include organized scheme to defraud, four counts of criminal use of personal identification, four counts of fraudulent use of credit cards, two counts of dealing in stolen property and one count of defrauding a financial institution by scheme. Several of the counts carry sentences of up to 30 years in prison.

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