Gwinnett County woman loses thousands in rental house scam

Matt Johnson
·2 min read

A woman and her boyfriend are out $2,000 after falling for a rental scheme and they’re warning others who are looking for rental homes while police investigate.

Ashley Reese said she and her boyfriend gave everything they had with the hopes of living in a Lawrenceville house they saw posted for rent in an online listing.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

“I always had my doubts and I tried to be vigilant,” Reese said.

She lost thousands of dollars when she found out the person she paid wasn’t the homeowner.

“We were trying to move out of my family’s [home] and get our own place,” she said, “and he literally took all our money.”

She saw the listing for $900 a month on an online rental home site.

TRENDING STORIES:

She called the number on the listing and she said the person who answered gave her the code for a lockbox on the front door.

“Because how can I get into the house if it wasn’t his?” she asked herself at the time.

The person she spoke to gave her a lease to sign that appeared to be real to her.

She paid the $2,000 that the person wanted before handing her the keys.

[SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]

“I kept saying, ‘Is this a scam?’ and he was like, ‘It’s my house,’” she said.

But the man never showed up to deliver the keys and Reese found out it was owned by a rental company.

“Be adamant to make sure that they’re telling the truth,” she said, “and possibly try to get them to meet you in person.”

She filed a police report with Gwinnett County Police and gave them all the bank information, texts and emails with the hopes of catching the person she spoke to.

There’s now an alert that says “Fraud Alert” on the front door of the house.

IN OTHER NEWS: