Consumer complaint received 2020-07-23
Company: Square Inc
State: AR
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Mobile or digital wallet
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
This is a XXXX rental scam. Ive actually been scammed twice ( pretty much at the same time and in two different cities ) and so will be filing two separate reports. ( Update, the scam I reported first was just communicated to me that its been closed, and declined. The complaint ID was XXXX. ) I am absolutely mortified that I could have been so naive as to fall for this twice, but the communications between the landlords seemed legit and the leases they provided also seemed very legitimate. I also feel that the situation was amplified by the weirdness around CV19 & not being able to meet up with people in person. I live in Arkansas, but am researching XXXX  XXXX  programs, and so Ive been searching out new potential cities to live. I found a reasonably priced apartment in XXXX, PA. This is the scam I am reporting in this claim. 

My initial contact with XXXX XXXX was made on XX/XX/XXXX where I responded to his XXXX ad about subleasing his 1b 1b apartment in XXXX, PA. XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX I was under the impression that XXXX was the person currently living in the apartment, so he would be the one subleasing out his place to me. He said that I could contact the landlord, " XXXX XXXX '' directly and gave me his email. 
XXXX After me and XXXX emailed back and forth for a few days, I ended up sending him a total of {$2600.00} via the Cash app on XX/XX/2020, under the impression that I was paying for 3 months rent from XXXX. I paid in two separate payments because the total was too large to send all at once. I was given the cash tag $ XXXX ( which XXXX said was his wife ) to send the payment to through the Cash app. So my bank statement shows I have one payment of {$2000.00}, and another payment of {$620.00}. Immediately after I paid, he stopped responding promptly and I knew I had been scammed. I just wanted to leave my current living situation so badly, that I convinced myself it was because of CV that I couldnt see the apartment, and that made sense. ( I had requested to see the apartment via XXXX but was told because he and his wife were so old and the risk of CV prevented them from leaving the house, that thats why they couldnt travel the long distance to show me the space virtually. ) Because I was under the impression that he was so old, was another justification I applied to any concerns I had. 

Upon realizing Id been scammed, which was pretty quickly after Id sent the money ; I tried finding an avenue of reaching out to the Cash app company, but there was literally NO way that I could. They dont have any human operators available and there are no courses of action I could find in order to open a claim or dispute charges. I have since notified my bank ( XXXX ) and disputed the charges, but I dont know anything yet about if I am capable to receive any sort of reparations. After being shuffled around between the XXXX police department, to my local police department ( XXXX, AR ) trying to file a cyber crime police report, I finally was told to file a police report in Arkansas, because thats technically where the crime occurred, even though it was purported to have occurred in XXXX. 

The police report was filed in XXXX XXXX, with the XXXX, AR police department, on XXXX, and the police report number is XXXX. 

Thank you so much, and please do let me know if theres any further information I can provide. 

( Also, I apologize that the files I provided were screenshots and not an actual pdf. file ; for some reason my computer couldn't access the link and was having trouble downloading the actual file. But I can try and locate the files as they are on a different computer should that be requested ).

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation