This is like a story about Goldilocks and her search for the perfect bed. Only, as we all know, she was in someone else’s house. A South Carolina woman can relate to this story very well. Actually, two women are involved in another woman’s scam.
Katherine Lang bought her home in Beaufort, South Carolina. She didn’t move in right away, but was renovating in anticipation of moving in as soon as the house was finished. Meanwhile, she decided to take a trip to California to visit family.
When she returned from California to move into her new home – she received quite the shock. She found in her home, someone else’s clothes in the closet, and her dishes had been washed and put away. She then heard two voices coming from inside her home.
Another family was moving in! Lang says she walked right in and said, “What are you doing in my house?”
The “new tenants” had been scammed. They were a young couple with two small children, and the wife had found the home in an ad on Facebook.
Tyggra Sheperd says the newly renovated, 3-bedroom home for $850 a month seemed ideal for her young family. The “landlord” on Facebook advertised the home as furnished, describing the items Lang had already moved into the home, including kitchen tools and stools.
Tyggra says she wired the scammers $1150 for first month’s rent and deposit. She was told that the keys to the home would be mailed to her. The alleged scammer then told the victim that the delivery driver had been arrested and his truck impounded.
The scammer also told her that the back door was open and that she could begin to move in her things. “She made it very believable,” Sheperd says.
Luckily, Lang and Sheperd were able to work out an agreement and a time when the Sheperds would move out. Lang tried to communicate with the scammer on her Facebook page, but she was blocked. She tried calling the woman, but was blocked there too.
The moral of this story is, according to the FBI, do not send money to someone on Facebook or Craigslist or any other online venture asking you for money when you haven’t even received a key to a home.
If you have legal questions, please consult our Online Legal Directory to find an attorney in your area.