Rental scam
 

In September 2011 I reached an agreed rental with a lady from the villages at an agreed price and sent a check for $700.00 as security for the rental of the months of February/March 2012. My only contact was a cell phone number which after about a month I started calling with no answer. In late November I sent a letter saying we need to work out the details for the rental. Her cell phone was no longer available after 5 days. I then sent a registered letter return receipt requested which she did not pick up. When she cashed my check the sheriffs department became involved. When I left late march the attorney generals office came into the picture. Just am wondering how many others have been scammed by this women. Send me a PM and I will return her name.

I am back in the villages for 2 months again. During the past year I received a letter from seniors vs crime saying they could do nothing and were turning the case over to the sheriff. Later last year I recieved a letter from the sheriff detective saying that my case was now changed from active to inactive because they did not know who cashed the check. I do not know any financial (bank or other) institution that would cash an out of state check without proper ID.
Because of this now any county in the state where this women may get picked up will not know about my case in lake county. The info is only known in lake county.

Great isn't it.
nhgolfer

rental scam
 

why not post the name for everyone to see?

I agree. Post her name so that no one else gets scammed.

check ownership before renting
 

Good idea to check online (County Tax assessor websites) to confirm that the owner's name matches the one you are sending the check to, although I might not have thought of that, either, until I got scammed.

Did you send the check to a post office box? That would be another red flag.

Tenants in the Villages are, on the whole, much better than tenants in the outside world - they are usually retired and gentle on your home. Hadn't occurred to me that you had to watch out for landlords, since I was on the other end (renting out my villa) for 4 years.

Also, try to get something in the lease about what your (tenant's) rights (return of deposit and/or advanced rent) are if the owner ends up canceling for any reason (e.g., sells the property or decides to use it themselves) Sometimes people end up retiring and moving down sooner than they thought, or have to sell for various reasons. That happens also. Friends of mine didn't lose money, but had to scramble at the last minute for an available rental when their potential landlord sold out. They could have had some type of compensation if this had been addressed in the lease.

In your case, with a crook that is hard to find, it probably turns out not to be worth the expense of pursuing them legally, but, boy, what a tough break.

On the landlord side, I think I was contacted by a potential scammer, who wanted my bank account # and routing number for a direct deposit from overseas. I asked for a postal money order instead, and never heard from the prospective tenant again.

I had an older couple contact me and he wanted my ss# before he would rent from us so he could check on my mortgage and see if my taxes were up to date. He had the same problem with someone who was trying to rent to him but when he went to the address there was no house. I did understand but told him the only thing that i could assure him there was a house was have my homewatch person meet him and show him the house. He backed down and never returned my calls, wondering why he thought i would give him a SS#

Rent scam
 

How do you know she lives in The Villages? How did you find out about the rental? We will all have to be careful.:grumpy:

You mentioned that you left in late March. Did you actually stay at the home?

I'm sorry you were scammed. Why not mention the woman's name and the address of the negotiated rental property? Someone reading this thread may be able to shed some light on the situation.

Please post her name and the address of the property she was using ,why protect her identity,she is a con artist

Please also tell us about how you made the initial contact with the scammer. Was it a rental website? It's important for folks to know if a website is harboring a scammer.

There are popular websites like thevillages4rentbyowner which could possibly be the source. I've found a few examples of owners who advertise their homes here who do not have all of the amenities they claim. I don't think renters have much recourse with these owners unless they have a written agreement in place when a deposit is made.

Let the renter beware!

Could end up like Zimmerman and the movie director who twittered the wrong Zimmerman to his fans. There are even a bunch of Zimmerman's in the Villages.

She could have a really common name. And with 80,000 people in the Villages there are going to be a lot of Smiths, Johnsons, Jones, Adams, etc.

It is better handled with the private message, I would think.

nhgolfer1, I sent you a PM regarding this. Thank you.

It has been over three months since I returned to NH from two months in the villages. On May21 I received a letter from the sherifs department saying they were sorry that I was a victem of grand theft and that they were sending a subpoena to TDbank to get the records of Denise Allen who has my $700 but because of incorrect information on the subpoena they were issuing another subpoena. As soon as they receive the information back they were going to be intouch with me. How ever in the mean time my case went from active to inactive. Does the left hand know what the right hand is doing and is it not about time after three and one half months for something to be happening.
NH golfer looking forward to next Feb/Mar.

nhgolfer -- I am sorry you had this bad experience. After reading about your experience, I now check through the county tax records to be sure the landlord I am renting from actually owns the property being rented. I think 99% of the landlords in TV are on the up and up. Too bad there are a few bad apples out there.

I rented anolther home for Feb/Mar and the home she was ging to rent to me it seems the owner of a land contract foreclosed on her on Feb 1.