Several women said they fell for the same trick while looking for a rental on Jacksonville beach.
Police have at least three reports all from people who said they tried to rent the same condo from someone who was not the real owner.
The same condo has been advertised on Craigslist multiple times and the listing for the Seaspray condo is still up on Craigslist.
Action News Jax reached out to the website to notify the site of the listing.
Taylor Stuart signed a lease agreement thinking she was going to be renting a condo on Jacksonville Beach for the month.
“Gave us a lease application told us it was reviewed and approved. Everything seemed so legitimate,” Stuart said.
We found at least 3 police reports related to fraud from the same listing for the condo. The women say they lost thousands of dollars @ActionNewsJax pic.twitter.com/s0qZipoZJ7
— Danielle Avitable (@Danielle_NBC4) September 5, 2018
She said she found the listing on Craigslist and sent close to $2,000 through PayPal to the person claiming to own the condo.
“We had a week to find a place to stay and he took advantage of that,” Stuart said.
When she wanted to cancel the leasing agreement she said he didn’t give their money back and he vanished.
“We were prepared to live without that money and it wasn’t a good feeling,” Stuart said.
After looking online, she said she found the actual listing for the property
“He literally just copied and pasted all the pictures the description of the unit and place,” Stuart said.
And she’s not the only person who claimed to have fallen victim, Action News Jax reached out to Jacksonville Beach police and found out there are two other fraud reports connected to the same condo.
“It looked legit,” Christie Terrell said.
Terrell said she was in Pennsylvania when she deposited close to $3,000 into a bank account she was told was tied to the listing.
The victims tell me this is the ad they saw on Craigslist & it’s still up! I emailed the website to let them know of the alleged scam @ActionNewsJax pic.twitter.com/4ainaDEPDc
— Danielle Avitable (@Danielle_NBC4) September 5, 2018
“They asked me to go put the money in Bank of America,” Terrell said.
She said she didn’t realize it wasn’t real until moving day.
“I had everything in my car and then they never showed up,” Terrell said.
Action News Jax went on the property appraiser site and found that the actual owner of the condo lives in Orlando.
Police said that since the victims sent money from different locations, those police departments will handle the investigation.
Cox Media Group
