SPRING HILL, Fla. — A Hernando County woman says she's out thousands of dollars after she was targeted by a rental scam. Now, she's sharing her story with 10 Tampa Bay in hopes others don't go through what she did.
Earlier this month, Luzely Perez-Rivera said she saw a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom home in Spring Hill being advertised on Facebook. It was exactly the type of place she hoped to move into with her daughter, boyfriend and dog. She reached out to the number provided, who she believed to be the property manager.
"I actually went and saw it physically like the next day," Perez-Rivera said, explaining that she was prompted to take a self-guided home tour. The "property manager" provided her with a code to get inside the home.
"So I physically walked in the house and toured it myself with him on the phone," she explained.
After "passing a background check," the man she had been speaking with told her she was approved and to send him a deposit. She sent him an Apple Pay deposit of $2,700 and then made plans with him to meet up to get the keys.
"We were excited to be in like a bigger area. And for everybody to have more space," Perez-Rivera said. "I'm like, it's literally perfect. It's exactly what I'm looking for."
It turned out, it was too good to be true. He vanished with her money.
"Once we paid the rent, he never sent the lease, never met us at the house to give us the keys," Perez-Rivera said.
The Hernando County Sheriff's Office said rental scams are not only on the rise here but nationwide.
Detective Jesse Fletcher explained, "Oftentimes, scammers have the ability to access certain databases and things that are available to agents."
As self-guided tours increased in popularity during the pandemic, more savvy scammers found ways to access home codes.
"Just because they have that [code] doesn't actually mean that it is legitimate. So don't take that as this is a surefire deal," Fletcher said. "It's very, very important to have that face-to-face component."
Now, out of her deposit, Perez-Rivera is out of a home and moving in with family while she saves up once again.
Perez-Rivera said, "I kind of just really want to raise awareness and just to tell people to be more careful. and even though it looks legit, always be a little skeptical."
If you believe you've been the target of a rental scam, you're urged to report it to a local law enforcement agency or IC3.gov, the FBI database.