ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – University of Central Florida police on Wednesday announced the arrest of a “serial scammer” accused of bilking people on campus by pretending to be a student-athlete short on rent.
Xavier Eugene Dorcely, 22, was arrested Tuesday to face charges including a scheme to defraud, police said in a news release.
Dorcely approached several victims on campus between October 2023 and June 2024, the release states. Claiming he was a football player, Dorcely would ask the victims for help paying his rent or bills and would promise to pay them back the next day, which he never did, according to the release.
“We found out that this guy was coming on campus, walking up to students saying he was a football player and he needed help with rent,” said UCF Detective Melissa Guadagnino. “He would ask them to send him money directly to the rent company using Apple Pay because his cash app was down, and students would send him hundreds of dollars to pay his rent for him and then he would show them a screenshot of a pending transaction that they were going to get the money back from their cash app, and he ended up not giving their money back.”
Surveillance footage and license plate readers played a part as detectives identified and built a case against Dorcely, which the police department said has taken several months.
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“Every time we saw him on camera, he was with somebody else. So, he’s been around campus,” Guadagnino said.
Police say he used different cars to come on campus, as well as different names, so it took a bit longer to find out who he was.
Dorcely was booked in Seminole County, records show.
Police said additional charges against Dorcely are pending as detectives believe there may be more victims. They know of four victims so far, and police think he’s probably stolen thousands of dollars.
Anyone who may have been scammed by Dorcely — also known as Deandre or Dre — is urged to call the police department’s non-emergency line at 407-823-5555 and ask to speak to Detective Melissa Guadagnino.
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