SUMMERVILLE, S.C. (WCBD)- The Dorchester County Sheriff’s Office (DCSO) is investigating a home rental scam similar to the ones that happened in Goose Creek in March.
“They were gone baby. They’ve taken the money and ran,” said Lt. Rick Carson, the Public Information Officer for DCSO.
The scams are imposters imitating American Homes 4 Rent listings on websites like Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace.
“They’re really absolute duplicates of what you normally see. It’s so easy. The last two that we’ve had, they copied American Homes 4 Rent with the way they advertise,” said Lt. Carson.
Scammers make identical listings for actual properties from American Homes 4 Rent, but steal money from prospective renters once they view the property.
“They’re charging folks a fee to do an application. Then they call you back and they accept you as a renter,” said Lt. Carson
The DCSO says that one woman had this happen to her on March 15 with a home in Ladson. She viewed the home without an American Homes 4 Rent employee present with a key she had from the home’s lock box.
“They deal with the lock boxes and they actually provide the codes to the prospective renters. You as the scam artist can actually get a code,” said Lt. Carson.
According to the DCSO, the woman paid over a thousand dollars for the application and deposit fees before she realized it was a scam.
Per law enforcement, the perpetrators are hard to track because they can disappear without a trace.
DCSO is investigating an identical scam that happened in February of 2022.
“It’s very seldom that we see the same people doing it. It’s not only in the United States a lot of these things are perpetrated from overseas,” said Lt. Carson. “But as far as tracking them down it’s really hard sometimes to do that. A lot of time when they’re using these cell phones to do these scams the phone may only be in service for three or four hours.”
