Maressa Czajkowski of Lebanon, Missouri, arrived in Park Rapids on Jan. 18, with her daughter, three of her six dogs and all her worldly possessions. What she found at the address she had rented through an online listing was not what she expected.
Czajkowski said she was looking to move, so she asked her friend, Robin Howard of Park Rapids, what the housing market was like up here.
“She started sending me different ads,” said Czajkowski. “She sent me one: the price was right; it was the right size; everything seemed to line up with what I needed.”
She responded to the email in the ad and was told she had to pay an application fee. Then it was a first-and-last-months’ rent deposit. Then she was asked for an additional pet deposit.
“I kept asking, ‘When am I going to get the keys?’” said Czajkowski. “‘As soon as we get this amount of money, then we’ll send you the keys.’ It just kept snowballing. Finally, I told them, ‘Look, I’m leaving on this date. My movers are here. We’re loading up, and I will be here then.’
“She messaged me while I was en route and said, ‘What time will you be here? The person will meet you at the house.’” Czajkowski gave them her estimated time of arrival.
They demanded more money, to which she said, “I don’t have it. I’m tapped out. Everything’s tied up in this move.”
She stopped responding to their messages because she was driving. When she arrived in Park Rapids, Howard met her at the property.
“We got there and there were cars in the driveway,” said Czajkowski. “Robin said maybe they were visiting the people next door and just parked in the driveway. But I looked, and one vehicle was plugged into the garage with a block heater. I thought that was a little weird.”
When she looked through a window and saw signs that people lived there, Czajkowski said, “That’s when it hit me: I’d been scammed.”
Getting the police involved
As Czajkowski’s plans imploded, Howard took charge. To start, they put Czajkowski’s dogs in a kennel. Then they flagged down police officer Andrew McFarlane, who took Czajkowski’s report and advised them to file a report with Lebanon police. Howard also filed a complaint with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3).
According to McFarlane’s report, Czajkowski said she had paid approximately $4,000 for the rental. McFarlane reportedly contacted the property owner, Amy Strandell of rural Nevis, and verified she was not involved. Strandell told McFarlane she’d previously had fake ads posted about her property and reported them to Facebook.
McFarlane reported the phone number associated with the scam was traced to a woman from Memphis, Tenn., while the Walmart gift card transactions used to pay for the rental were traced to a man in Paducah, Ky. However, records showed that nobody by that man’s name actually lived there at the time.
Asked if she hopes to get her money back, Czajkowski said, “I know at least $1,000 of it’s just gone, because I was an idiot and used cash. But a vast majority of it I did on my debit card, so I contacted my bank and they’ve filed a dispute for fraudulent charges. Even though I initiated it, it turns out that services and products were fraudulent. So, fingers crossed, I’ll be able to get at least some of my money back.”
Meanwhile, she said, the Park Rapids community “has been phenomenal,” starting with Howard and her family and the kennel, Evermore Services for Pets.
“They have gone above and beyond,” Howard agreed, also singling out Steve Boyd with U-Haul, Calvary Lutheran Church and Park Rapids Assembly of God for providing help on short notice, such as paying for Czajkowski’s hotel stay. “Everybody here is wonderful.”
“I’ve been putting what we can’t get the money for on a credit card, to rent a new place for her,” said Howard, “because she’s got to have some place to go, and I feel so responsible for sending her the ads.
“All I would have had to do is look at the email address and do a quick Facebook search, and all these ads from all over the country pop up. It could have been like, ‘Never mind, it’s not real.’”
“But you don’t think about things like that when you’re looking on real estate sites for ads,” said Czajkowski.
“Overall, I think my daughter and I are going to be very happy here. It’s a new beginning for both of us. Clean slate, across the board. It’s had a rocky start, but it’s starting to smooth out.”
Czajkowski has already found a small place to rent, and she’s rehomed two of her dogs. “It’s very temporary,” she said, with Howard adding that most of her belongings are in storage while they’ve moved only the necessities into her new place.
Based on her experience, the message Czajkowski would share with others is, “Do your due diligence. Don’t take it at face value. Research it. Like Robin says, research the email address on Facebook, or do a Google search.”
“Contact a realtor that you know,” Howard added.
“And if you’re going across state lines, go with a realtor,” said Czajkowski. “Don’t do Facebook. Don’t do Craigslist. Go with a reputable realtor. They can get misinformation, too. But you’re more apt to have a better line of recourse if you go with a reputable realtor in the area.”
As the owner of a couple of rental properties, Strandell said that she has previously seen pictures of her homes being used in someone else’s ad on Facebook Marketplace, or had someone reach out to her about a similar ad, and reported those scams to Facebook.
“That does happen,” she said. “I’m trying to always be on the lookout for that, so I can report those people, but there’s really nothing else you can do to prevent it.”
Strandell advised that if anyone asks you send to them money through a method that’s not traceable to them, “do not do it. If you have questions, or you’re not sure, go to the police and they can help you. Never send money without it being verified.”
Howard noted that rental scams come in a variety of forms, and with the current housing market, “it’s not good.”
“Scammers are taking advantage of that,” Czajkowski agreed. “They know people are desperate for homes. They see it’s lucrative to them.”
Asked what she’d like to say to the scammers, she said, “You’ll get yours in the end.”
