Description

I found an apartment on an apartment listing website. Rafael messages me via email with an application. I filled out the application and he said I was approved. A lease was sent to me and signed by him and I. In that lease it said move in cost is $3400 that was first months rent and security deposit, and it could be completely refunded if I didn’t end up moving in. After I made the payment of $3400 I received a document that was an approval of new tenant for the apartment. After that Rafael emailed me saying he made a mistake with how much I needed to pay and was asking for another $3400, I disagreed and told him that was not in the lease we both signed. So he said we could stay with our original agreement. We then set a day to meet and for me to get the keys. However when we got closer to that day he told me I needed to pay another $950 just to meet with him otherwise the meeting might not hold. At this point I didn’t feel comfortable or right about this situation and told him I did not want to proceed or have him as my landlord and that I wanted a full refund. He then said the refund would take 7 days and proceeded to still tell me that it would be $950 to meet with him. More than 7 days go by and I reached out asking where my refund was, and he told me I needed to give him the last 4 digits of my social security in order to get the refund. I told him I was not comfortable with that nor did I trust him to give him that information. Rafael then told me he could not refund me because I wasn’t ready for the process. I told him that he said in the beginning that a full refund could be made and he told me I needed to provide the last four digits of my SSN and send him $600 so that the refund could be made by the next morning. And that the refund would be $3400 plus the $600. Of course I did not believe this and did not send anymore money or the last 4 digits. I saw he also had another add for another apartment, I believe he’s done and is continuing to do this to more people.