STANSBURY PARK, Utah — Imagine finding a place to live, touring it with your family, paying a deposit, only to learn it was all a scam. It happened to a Tooele family, who decided it was time to Get Gephardt to investigate.
It’s going to be a lean Christmas for Amber Cheesman and her family after they were ripped off trying to find a place to live.
“We were defrauded out of $2,300,” she said. “It’s a very lot of money.”
Cheesman said it started when she saw a Stansbury Park home listed for rent online. She thought it might have been a fraud because of how affordable the place was.
“He told us the rent was $1,500 a month,” she said.
The man assured Cheesman it wasn’t a scam. He texted her pictures from inside the home. He sent a rental application. He even sent the code to a lockbox out front that allowed her to go in and tour the place.
“We put the code in, we walked in, looked around,” she said. “We were like, yeah, we like it.”
Convinced, Cheesman sent the deposit. Then, things got weird.
“We went to go get the keys from him, after we paid all this money, and he’s like, ‘Oh, well, you have to call a locksmith,’” Cheesman said.
It was in that moment that Cheesman realized she’d been scammed.
“I want my money back,” she said.
Unfortunately, that’s probably never going to happen. The way this scam works is someone, usually overseas, finds a real rental listing. They copy everything for a new listing,…
