Victim Location 60465
Total money lost $1,500
Type of a scam Moving
After showing interest in a rental listing on the Trulia app was contacted by the man listed above. He claimed to be the home owner and that he had to move to Texas due to his cancer ridden spouse for the best treatment for her. He stated he wanted trustworthy tenants who would take great care of this new renovated home. We expressed our interest and eventually this man obtained all information, including social security numbers and eventually accepted our rental application.
While pending approval our main contact information was mainly email, text, and 1 phonecall. The man who claimed to be Andrzej asked for a letter essentially stating our willingness to take great care of the rental home, which we had read was normal for landlords to request.
Once accepted he stated our application he stated that he couldn’t accept the security deposit into his own bank account due to a large amount of pending money deposited into his account. He asked if we could deposit it to his assistants account, and then changed his mind and asked it to be deposited in cash to his managers account who he would then receive the money from. This did red flag in our minds but he assured us he could be trusted and we believed him.
Money was deposited and we were scheduled to move in until we passed by this home and some other family was moving in. We spoke with them and were informed they had bought the home a few weeks prior. Once we contacted “Andrzej” he said not to worry that it was family staying in the home prior to our move in date. After making several more phone calls we realized this was a suspicious situation so called him, told him what we knew, and were immediately hung up on/blocked from all forms of contact.
We have had no luck with the bank in receiving back our money or figuring out who this person was. We have also spent money on locking our identity since he has all personal information.
Of note, we have googled this number and see that it is connected with other people claiming they’ve been scammed by the telephone number.
Any help would be appreciated!