Facebook Marketplace has become a go to place online for millions of buyers and sellers to purchase and list items, in addition to purchasing or buying property.
Recently, a Joplin woman was scammed out of thousands of dollars on Marketplace when she rented a house that wasn’t for rent at all. KRPS’s Fred Fletcher-Fierro has more.
Moving from one house or apartment locally is stressful enough, it’s even more so when you’re trying to relocate from Joplin to Indio, California, about three hours south of Los Angeles.
Joplin resident Shelia Dilley was making plans to move her family from southwest Missouri to the west coast this summer.
She had already driven out to Indio once to move some of her belongings and familiarize herself with the area.
She was so prepared that she also told her employer Joplin Schools that she would not be returning this fall.
Shelia thought she had found the perfect house in Indio and even had a friend who lives in the area drive-by and check it out for her.
She filled out the application, paid the fees, spoke through Facebook Messenger and texted the person she thought was renting the house.
“Then he said that I needed to send him a $1,000 for the security deposit, which I sent to him using Cash App. And then I paid the $1,000 the first month's rent, and everything looked set to go.
I signed all the lease paperwork; he emailed them to me. They all looked legal, they all looked legit.”
The only problem was that the house wasn’t for rent, and the person who Shelia was communicating with was now ghosting her and she was unable to get any of her money back.
She’s telling her story to warn people against renting or buying on Facebook Marketplace.
For 89 9 KRPS News, I’m Fred Fletcher-Fierro
