Cheated by Somebody Pretending to Have a Home for Rent

[Rune05]

My question involves a consumer law issue in the State of: Colorado

My husband and I are trying to find a new place to live and we wanted to rent from a person versus a company. We found a property online and contacted the supposed "owner" who apparently just moved to California for Christian missionary work. We sent $1400 that was the agreed amount to receive the keys and lease agreement. He was trying to get us to send it via Walmart but we told him we would do a bank transfer only (because a money order would not be trackable). He gave us what is apparently his wife's name, banking account number and routing number and we did a direct deposit. A couple days later the guy says he talked to his lawyer and he will need an additional security deposit. We started to feel insecure and told the guy we wanted our $1400 back. He tried to convince us otherwise but eventually agreed that he would send us our money back. That was yesterday. Today, we got a hold of him and he said he was unable to send the money back because our account was unable to receive the funds and we would have to upgrade our account, or something to that effect. So we told him we just want our money back and give it to us via a Walmart to Walmart transfer. Guy said he would do that in the morning, apparently. I doubt that it's going to work out that way.

I believe my husband and I fell into a scam and we want to know how to report this so we can hopefully get our money back and press charges on this guy. He is apparently from Fresno, California. We also have the name of his wife's bank and her account and routing number. We have the two phone numbers this guy contacted us from. I am not sure how to report this because he is in Fresno, California and my husband and I currently live in Grand Junction, Colorado. Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated.

[adjusterjack]

Contact the CA Attorney General's office but I doubt that you'll ever see your money again.

I'll bet the names are fake, the phone numbers are burners, and the bank account's closed.

[Mr. Knowitall]

Normally, even with an out-of-state bad actor, you make your initial report to the local police. They are unlikely to be able to do much for you, given that they're in Colorado and (from a criminal law standpoint, which doesn't mean it's not a lot of money to you) not much money is involved.

Some rental sites offer a level of consumer protection; others (like craigslist) are used entirely at your own risk. You can explore the site you used to see if they offer any sort of protection, or at least to try to get them to try to block this person from cheating additional people.

[RandallCS]

Walmart to Walmart transfer.

I had to look this up. Seems like its Walmart's version of Western Union. They take somewhere between 0.6 and 16% ($8 on a $50.01 transfer)!! On the $1400 transaction in question, Walmart made 1.1%.