David Porter

Jason –

Victim Location 59349

Type of a scam Rental

Hi! I found an incredible ‘deal’ on a rental property in Woodland Park, CO on Trulia Friday night (2/26). It was listed as a single family home, 3bd, 2ba 2,412 sqft for $ 900 Rent-to-Own or $ 87.000 to buy (in 1365 Kings Crown Road, Woodland Park, Co 80863). Which is absolutely too good to be true for this area. In fact the next morning when I checked Trulia it was gone already. But since I had taken a scene shot the night before we thought we would contact the ‘owner’ anyhow via email ([email protected]) and see. He responded that the property was still available and told a story of his son being sick & thats why they had to move to Kentucky and so on. We had no reason not to believe his story, so we filled out his "rental application" & he said we were ‘pre-approved’… so then after emailing back and forth and asking more questions, he wanted us to monogram the security deposit… and started to get a bit "pushy" about it (not answering our questions properly, repeatedly asking how soon we could get the "property secured" by sending the money… At first I believed everything he said (I am a trusting person!) & since he acted like him and his family were Christians as well, I guess I believed him, even though it all sounded too good to be true… Anyhow… we emailed back and forth. He said he was ready to send the papers and keys as soon as we send the money… but never gave us the information how to… but kept asking if we are ‘ready’ to make the payment… thats when I started to wonder if things are maybe a bit fishy. And since I had just received an email from my real estate agent in the area (who had listed the exact same property for $ 2.000/ month rent / which is more appropriate for that region!), I called her and told her the story. I proceeded to ask her if the name of the owners was "David Porter" from Kentucky like he had claimed in his emails (even though his accent on the phone and his grammar in the emails indicated a non American background – but one doesn’t want to be prejudiced, so I didn’t think much about it at first) . And she was horrified when she heard what had happened, but so glad I called, because the owners names were totally different and they are from Virginia! So thats when it dawned me that I was about to make a huge mistake (I was really close to going to Walmart to moneygram the security deposit), and had almost fallen for a scam. I guess the more he pushed to hurry the payment, the more hesitant I became, esp. since it seemed odd that he would not give me the information I needed to wire the money, until I was ‘ready’… so I just had a bad feeling about all of the sudden. Anyhow… after talking to my real estate agent, I texted him back (because he was putting the pressure on…) that my son was sick (which is true) & that I could not go to Walmart today… so he still thinks we are "on". He had also talked to my husband on the phone before… and used Scriptures and stuff to relate with us on a "Christian level". The odd thing was though, that when my husband called him, it went to answering machine of sorts and when he called a second time (to ask him if he had a contract with a real estate agent), he answered without saying who he was though (and ‘assured’ my husband that the contract was over and everything was ‘under control’…as good as my husband could understand…due to heavy accent and bad grammar). Anyhow… we are pretty sure that this is a scam & wanted to report it. If you respond quickly, before he catches on that we are on to him, you might be able to get him. I told him I won’t make it to Walmart today because of my son…but he keeps pushing for me to do it quickly… (via text)… so thank you for your help! 🙂

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Scroll to Top