Consumer complaint received 2022-08-22
Company: Early Warning Services, LLC
State: AE
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Domestic (US) money transfer
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
My husband is military and we are currently stationed XXXX  in XXXX. My kids and myself are leaving a few months early ( 3weeks ) back to the states to get them into school and get settled before my husband comes home. We were looking for houses and we found a house at XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX  XXXX, CO XXXX for {$1500.00} a month. It was in our price range So we decided to inquire about it. XXXX sent me an email saying that the owner of the ad will get back to me. That's where XXXX comes in. We spoke back and forth for over 3 weeks. Our application was approved ( no application fee ) and we were able to continue the process of reserving the house. On that application is my husbands SSN and mine as well. We sent over a copy of or DL and he has our DOB and kids names and our banking account numbers. He asked us to put down our deposit that was {$1400.00} to reserve the house and that we weren't due to pay the 1st month 's rent until we moved in. So we did ON XX/XX/2022. He had us Zelle the money to his wife whose name is XXXX XXXX and email is XXXX. He sent over the lease agreement that we signed and sent back. A few days later he says that he took everything to his lawyer and everything was fine but the only thing was his lawyer found tenants who were willing to pay 4 months of rent plus the deposit. I immediately let him know that we were not going to be able to put that much down and how {$1400.00} was a struggle for us to get. He waits a few hours to tell us that as long as we can put down the first months rent he'll hold it for us since we already put a deposit down. We agreed and instead of paying 1 month in rent we decided to pay two since we weren't sure when our BAH would kick in and we did not want to be struggling to pay rent since PCSing is enough to begin with. So we went into my husband 's TSP and withdrew the money. We paid him rent for the month of XXXX ( XX/XX/2022 ) and told him I'd be more comfortable to pay the other half when our sponsor could see the house. Our sponsor goes to see the house but since he supposedly lives in XXXX XXXX ( XXXX XXXX XXXX ) he wouldn't be able to make it that day. We scheduled a meet for Saturday the XXXX and he was due to fax over the HOA docs and hand over the keys. Two days leading up to said that he needed to pay the guy for the lawn work that needed to be done and if I could send over {$500.00} ( XX/XX/2022 ). I did because when our sponsor stopped by the lawn was extremely overgrown and sent pictures of it. He asked for another {$500.00} ( XX/XX/2022 ) for the washer and dryers he was installing in the home and then for us to pay the last {$500.00} once our sponsor and him met for the keys and HOA agreement. We were going to be busy at the time of our Sponsor picking the keys so we sent over the last {$500.00} ( XX/XX/2022 ) so that everything was taken care of. Come XXXX. our Sponsor and his wife calls us in a confused panic because there are people living in the home. I then started to contact him multiple times and he has not responded and has not been active since that day. The more digging I did the house owners passed a few years ago. We are waiting for our bank to open because there is a time difference but if they are not able to do anything we aren't sure what we are going to do. The kids and I leave in 3 weeks and we have no home, no savings, and no money to figure this out. We are at a complete loss. The only thing we found is his IP address [ XXXX ] which has many reports. I still can not fathom that we are out of {$4400.00} with no place to live. We have made multiple reports including with Zelle however unlike everyone else Zelle was absolutely no help and refused to even attempt to find out a way to help. It was almost as if I was another customer of theirs who got caught up in the unfortunate world of fraud. It was as though they had no empathy. It sucks that some people in the world are so nonchalant about others mistakes and heartache.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation