Victim Location 94612
Total money lost $2,650
Type of a scam Rental
I was looking for a room in Sunnyvale, CA using an online website (sulekha.com), I enquired dozens of rooms, and I got an email from this guy named Nipun Patel (email: [email protected]) on May 1, 2018, his address: 250 Santa Fe Ter, Sunnyvale CA 94085. He said that he currently lives in Pennsylvania to take care of his sick father, and is looking for someone to take care his house by renting one of his room. He asked for $*** rent + $*** deposit which I agreed and he said he accepts only money deposited directly into his Bank of America account (name: Myk Venture LLC), he wants to see the deposit receipt only then he will send the house keys. But then he later said that there was some problem with the leasing office, who changed the deposit to $***, so I was told to deposit the remaining $*** which I did on May 7, 2018. But on the day that I was supposed to move in, he said leasing office is asking for last month rent $***, then it I realised he was fraud, he says that he cannot send the key without the last month rent, in the last minute I had nowhere to go, so I told him, let me get the house first, then I will pay, he did not agree and he said he will refund all the money I paid $*** ($*** + $***) but he never refunded back, he kept texting me saying he will but till now he has not deposited back to my account. I notified my bank about this problem that I had, they said my account is safe and was advised to open a new account and transfer funds to that account. According to the bank, they cannot return the fund back to me because it cashiers check deposit, (they can only return if it was electronic transfer fraud and the recipient is company account ) otherwise they can return the money only on direction from law enforcement. I have reminded the person to return but he hasn’t done so until today.