I have an eviction notice?

Question

In May I responded to an ad on craigslist about a house that I could buy on rent to own. The seller was on a job assignment in nigeria and he gave me the address if the home and said if I was intrested to send him $5500 as a down payment and the first months payment of $550 and he would send me the keys. He sent some keys but they didnt fit and had to call a locksmith to make some new ones. On friday I came home and there was a eviction notice on the front door. The person I have been sending the payments to does not answer his phone or emails. What do I do ?

Answer 1

WOW! That is a lot of money to lose. Sorry that you got scammed! Didn't you think $5500.00 was a lot of money for a down payment? Find out whose house it is by checking with the city records. Start packing, my friend.

Answer 2

Has your head been in the sand???

Sounds like a NIgerian scammer took you BIG TIME. . . .

You're in trouble. . .don't you read the Craigslist warnings about specifically this situation?????

Answer 3

First of all, the money is gone. Secondly, who sends that amount of money to anyone without meeting this person or property first. Did you even schedule for someone to meet you to look at the place good.

I have a bridge for sale. You want to buy it?            

Answer 4

First you need to start looking for a new place to rent, Because yes you fell for one of the oldest tricks in the book, next I would contact who ever name is on the eviction to see if you can work something out so an eviction will not show up on a background check

But kiss that money good bye

Answer 5

Wow. That's a new variation on the Nigerian scam. (I do lease-options in the DC Metro area, and have a difficult enough time finding tenant-buyers legtimately!)

You're out of the money. Find a new place to live.

Also, report it to your local police. That probably won't help, but it's something else you could do. And report it to CraigsList, both directly and on their comment board. It's virtually certain your scammer is placing the same ads repeatedly in your location as well as other CraigsList sites around the country.

Answer 6

First warning was Nigeria .you have been screwed big time and fat chance you will get your money back .If I was you take this as a bad lesson learned and call the person who left the eviction notice

Answer 7

OMG.  You actually fell for this ruse ?  If you actually sent this person $6,050, you are out $6050 plus the amount of money it cost you to have the locks rekeyed.

Sad to say, you are simply out the money.  It doesn't even pay to get an attorney involved, since Nigeria is not at all cooperative in legal activity with such crooks.

What happened to you is that a Nigerian crook found the address of a vacant property he did not own, and conned you into 'rent to purchase'.  He just sent a set of keys to keep you quiet for a bit longer.  The house probably belongs to someone else, and you can check that by checking ownership records at the land office/register of deeds in the county in which the property is located.

So sorry that this happened to you.

Answer 8

Nigeria, huh.

Sorry to say it but you, my friend, have been scammed.

I'm betting if you check the tax assessor's office, you'll find the owner's name is not the person you've been dealing with.  If you're lucky, you can get your stuff out before the real owner shows up and files charges.