Consumer complaint received 2022-06-02
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service — Mobile or digital wallet
Issue: Fraud or scam — 
Company: PNC Bank N.A. (MA)

A case of fraudulent misrepresentation : I was looking for rental properties on XXXX XXXX and found a place I liked and reached out to a man named XXXX XXXX. He urged me to sign a rental contract, pay the security deposit or else he would rent it to someone else ( which is actually rather common in high-demand rental markets ). I asked if I could speak with the previous tenant, to which he replied that she had died a few days prior. I found this suspicious, but the small building did have several retirement age residents publicly listed residing there. I paid the security deposit. I realized after the fact that the names did not match : the XXXX transfer was to XXXX XXXX, not XXXX. Thereafter, I looked up both names with no meaningful hits in the area. Similarly, the company XXXX XXXX, which he manages the rentals through, had no presence whatsoever. The profile on XXXX that was used to create the rental listing was also taken down. He proceeded to contact me once more by text claiming that he was offering a 15 % discount to tenants that agree to stay at least 3-12mo, but would require an additional month 's rent to unlock the discount. I did not pay this, but instead pointed out that my original and signed rental agreement explicitly has me staying a full year. After this I asked if I could see the apartment ( he deferred this question priorly ), noting that I had the week off and would be able to fully accommodate his own schedule. He said that he just had XXXX and was on a boat in XXXX and would be unable to show it to me, but noted that his son was finishing his program and would be able to show it to me the following week. I did not find this acceptable and asked if he had friends around that he trusted that could show me the apartment in his place. He refused and just said that I would have to wait until his son had the time on the coming Thursday. I later followed up and asked when specifically and he said that someone broke into his sons house and he was shot in the leg. XXXX then wanted to send me a check before noting that they stole over {$50000.00} from his bank account and he closed his account. I asked how he planned to pay me with a check if his bank account is closed, he said that he would have a friend do it. I told him to just send it by bank transfer such as XXXX or wire transfer, XXXX refused and maintained that he could only do it by check ( which would likely bounce ). I asked if he could instead just mail me the keys to the apartment and move up the lease start date accordingly, to which he refused and said I would need to wait until my contractual move in ( despite no one living there right now ). I then asked how I would receive the keys and he did not respond. That was my final communication with him. 

XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, and the cell providers likely have enough information to ID this man and bring him to justice ( XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, and the deactivated account behind the rental listing I responded to on XXXX ). Speaking of the phone number, he called me several times for several minutes, it is likely the case that one could triangulate his location from that. Lastly, it is patently absurd to me that upon reporting this to both PNC and XXXX XXXX XXXX that they refuse to blacklist the receiving bank account for fraudulent and malicious activity.