Check out this article about the woman who tried to fleece Eldest Son last summer (I referred to her on this blog as Evil Landlady). He got his deposit backâonly after we tracked her down at her house in September. Sounds like he was one of the lucky ones. He also helped another student get that student’s deposit back.
He was told a different story than the one cited in the article. He’d arranged to rent a room on her main floor, not the 2-bedroom suite in the lower level. She asked for half a month’s deposit, which was provided, then later told him the room had been ruined in a fire while she was out of town. Events similar to those cited in the story ensued, down to the “friend” contacting E.S. to say E.L. was traumatized by the fire, lost her cell phone, and the latest we heard before my husband and E.S. showed up on her doorstep was that she’d moved to a different town. Not!
Ah, karma.
Good for you for getting your son’s deposit back. I’m glad she was arrested and hope she does jail time. And that the other students get their deposit back.
Wow. Good for y’all for chasing her down!
Hubby uses Craig’s List and I wish he wouldn’t. That place seems like it’s just full of people trying to rip others off (or worse)…
Edie, my son had it easy compared to the students who were getting fleeced for $800 or $900! A fleecing of $225 (my son’s deposit for the bedroom on the main floor), some people would let pass. However, for me, it was the principle of the thing. I began to get heebie-jeebies about her when she didn’t respond to him sending her the tenancy agreement through email. As soon as she had the deposit, it was VERY hard to get hold of her. We tried to give her the benefit of the doubt, but as time passed it became apparent it was a scam. She was definitely surprised when we showed up and asked for the deposit back (even though my son told her we WOULD show up and ask for it back!). It took some talking to get it back from her, too! Sheesh.
Avery, you’re right, you have to be very careful with sites like Craigslist. That said, she fleeced students who were able to view the suite. My son “viewed” his “room” over email photos. Sigh.
For someone to continue doing this even after some scammees go to the effort of tracking her down, and several others complain to the police, it makes me wonder if more is at play here than just trying to rip people off. If more IS at play, I hope she eventually gets some help.
I wondered if that was the woman you blogged about when I saw the story on the news last night! Glad she finally got caught officially!!!
Yep, Teresa, it was her. So it’s on TV, too. Interesting. You reap what you sow, as a friend told me.