A bitter love rivalry between a Bay Area real estate agent and his former girlfriend’s ex-husband has boiled over into a bizarre smear campaign appearing on car windshields all over San Francisco.
Realtor Max Lo is suing Charles Mei for defamation after flyers bearing Lo’s company name and contact details began popping up on random windshields more than a year ago. On the flyer is a selfie of Lo with Mei’s ex-wife Vanessa Lo (no relation), making an obscene gesture.
Max claims Mei is using the obscene flyers to damage his and his father’s realty business, Green Banker. His father, Stanley Lo, is a San Mateo property broker who has been described as “Silicon Valley’s eccentric real estate king.” Contact details and business information for both father and son appear on the flyers, which were spotted as recently as Monday on windshields near Alamo Square.
Max on Tuesday shared with The Standard at least three dozen images and text screenshots documenting chat and email exchanges with strangers, friends, and industry workers who found the flyers slipped under cars’ windshield wipers. He also shared video footage that appears to capture a person wearing a white jacket and baseball cap slipping flyers beneath wipers Jan. 29 in a parking lot.
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“This has been going on for two years,” Max said Tuesday. “He’s making up fake emails and sending them to all our colleagues, mortgage and escrow people. We’ve had to send out tens of thousands of letters in three or four campaigns just to address the smearing of our business.”
The alleged harassment began with flyers distributed in downtown Burlingame, near Max’s office, according to a lawsuit filed in February in San Mateo County. Witnesses and security-camera footage identified Mei as the person leafleting the area, the lawsuit states. Max took out a restraining order against Mei on June 12 in San Mateo County following incidents in Burlingame and Hillsborough.
Mei also wrote “false and defamatory” comments about Max and Green Banker on Zillow, Yelp, and Redfin, the suit claims. The smear campaign started “within the past year,” the suit says.
Vanessa Lo said the harassment began after she left what she described as an abusive relationship with Mei in October 2020 and later began dating Max.
“He’s been doing it for years,” she said of Mei. “It wasn’t as often at first, but now he just went nuts.”
Though Max and Vanessa separated three months ago, the harassment continues, both say.
In one especially strange incident, a couple who purchased a new Kia at a dealership in Colma found one of the flyers in the glove compartment, Max claims.
“How did it get there?” he said. “It was in a brand-new car’s glove box.”
A woman who lives in Half Moon Bay and requested that her name be withheld said she purchased a Kia Niro about three weeks ago from the Serramonte Kia dealership in Colma.
“I thought it was just the receipt, but it was that plus a piece of paper,” the woman said. “When I opened it, I saw a couple giving me the finger.” She called Max, who told her it was part of a harassment campaign.
She also called the dealership, where an employee told her “they leave doors open sometimes on the lot” and “if everyone was busy and didn’t see someone come onto the lot,” a flyer could be left in a vehicle, she recounted. A dealership representative confirmed the incident and said it was isolated.
Max said he spends about two hours weekly dealing with the harassment’s fallout and has received calls from residents in Chinatown, the Richmond, and the Western Addition who have found the flyers.
The flyers feature a photograph that Max texted Mei in March 2022. He sent the photo after Mei told Vanessa not to bring their children for a scheduled visit because he had learned that Vanessa and Max were going on a date.
“We decided to give him a middle finger through text,” Vanessa said. “We sent that to him, saying that we made it to our dinner anyway. We didn’t know he’s gonna use this picture against us.”
Vanessa described her 13-year relationship with Mei as “controlling” and “manipulative.”
“He didn’t want me to work. He wanted to control me, so I finally broke free from this abusive relationship,” she said.
But in court filings responding to Max’s lawsuit, Mei tells a different story. According to the filings, Max has tormented Mei for years and threatened to kill Mei’s mother. A document filed in March includes violent text messages that Mei said he received from Max and another unknown person claiming to be the broker’s friend.
“Enjoy eating shit food with your moms while I enjoy a night out with your ex,” one text from Max’s number said, court filings show. “You started this, bitch boy, let’s fucking go,” said another from an unnamed person claiming to be a friend of Max.
Mei did not respond to The Standard’s calls and text messages.
Max said he has hired a private investigator to help document the harassment.
“Even his kids have gone there and asked him to stop,” Max said of Mei.