Would-Be Tenant/Couple Stung For $2300 In Rent Scam; Cops: Matter Being Treated As A Crime

In Contra Costa County, California, the Martinez News-Gazette reports:

• This week Rachael and Ray Gray are wishing they would have asked many more questions before handing over $2300 in first, last and security deposit on a two-bedroom Pacheco Blvd. rental house, they said.



• The couple – desperate to avoid homelessness and wholly trusting that nothing was amiss – paid the advance rent and deposit via money order to a woman who represented herself as the agent for the property owner.



• A couple of weeks later, the Grays came home to find the locks changed and a warning, from the real owner, that they would be arrested by the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office for trespassing and squatting at the home, [...].



• The “agent” was apparently an impostor, and the Grays haven’t seen nor heard from her since. She’s long gone, say the Grays, along with the family’s entire savings and fake lease.



• “We are looking into this case,” said CCCSO spokesperson Jimmy Lee on Wednesday. “It is being treated as a crime.”

For more, see Rental scam hits home in Martinez (Impostor landlords fleece tenants).