Once upon a time, a happy father celebrating his 25th wedding anniversary bought a deluxe vacation to Walt Disney World for his whole family.

The magic ended there.

The $1,200 deal -- which included airfare, seven nights at Disney's Polynesian Resort, park entrances, free meals and a rental car for a family of four -- was pure fantasy. So was the offer for a limo ride to a romantic restaurant and spa treatment for his wife.

''Since we lost that money, we couldn't go anywhere,'' said Darrell Casto, 50, of Baytown, Texas. ``That money came from our tax return.''

The villain, detectives say, is a Miami-Dade con artist named Nancy Alvarez, 20, who ran a sham online company, A Fairy Tale Event, that hawked fake vacation deals.

She posted bond and left jail Thursday after her arrest on grand theft charges this week.

''JUST GOT OUT AT 5AM......BAK ON THE STREET B------!!!!'' she wrote on her Myspace.com page upon her release Thursday.

Her defense attorney, Carlos Fleites, declined to comment until his firm can investigate.

In all, Alvarez allegedly scammed more than $25,000 from a dozen victims out of state, including a retired New York cop living in Canada, detectives said. She faces 42 felony counts.

Among the alleged victims is Casto, a chemical plant worker, who met his wife, Karen, at church in their town near Houston. They have two children: Autumn 14, and Cherith, 18, who is autistic and mentally retarded.

TEMPTING OFFER

In June, Casto was browsing Craigslist.com when he found Alvarez's ad. ''HURRY! OFFER ENDS ON THURSDAY!'' it read.

He called the Miami-Dade number and left a voice mail. Alvarez called back quickly.

Casto agreed to overnight a money order to Alvarez. She would send the itinerary and paperwork. She even e-mailed a computer-generated invoice, Casto said, which read: ``Customer is 100% satisfied with purchase or full money back no questions asked!''

The deal was so good that Casto recommended Alvarez to his sister in Louisiana, who had been planning a Disney trip as well.

Soon, 10 more family members agreed to go.

''This was going to be a grand occasion for my family, for both of my sisters, my mom and dad to be all together in one place,'' Casto said. ``This was going to be a family reunion. This was going to be great.''

Said his sister, Retha Warren: ``She was very professional. Very sweet. She had a knack for relating to you personally.''

Casto also called Alvarez to ask about a floral arrangement for his wife. Alvarez called him back to offer him the $199 limo-restaurant-spa package.

But by then, the family had grown suspicious.

No paperwork had arrived. Alvarez couldn't be reached. ''Please allow until this evening for contact. I am having a very stressful morning,'' Alvarez wrote in one e-mail.

She phoned to say a family member had died.

During the following weeks, Warren and her brother began researching Alvarez. Her phone number was an answering service. She had placed Craigslist ads in Denver, Philadelphia and Minneapolis.

They found, via the Internet, other families who claimed to have been duped. They began posting online warnings.

Martin Oeschler, 46, an oil services worker in Cypress, Texas, says Alvarez scammed his family out of $1,850 for a bogus package to the Polynesian resort in Orlando. His daughters, Aimee, 10, and Elissa, 7, had never been to Disney.

''We had to sit down with the girls and explain to them this wasn't going to happen,'' Oeschler said. ``Both of them broke down and cried. It was gut-wrenching. It really was.''

Join the discussion

Note: If this is your first time using our NEW commenting system, you will have to LOG OUT and then LOG BACK IN.

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. In order to post comments, you must be a registered user of MiamiHerald.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

     Showing: Oldest first Newest first Most-recommended first Least-recommended first

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.CommentBody@

@Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@