Oakleaf family homeless after man claimed to be homeowner, takes rental deposit

Members of a local family say they gave a man thousands of dollars to rent a home, only to find out he didn't own it.
Sherman Cooper and his family thought they got a great deal on a rental home.

“This is a beautiful house,” he said.

Cooper and his wife found the Oakleaf Plantation home on Craigslist, and quickly showed interest to the man claiming to be the owner.

“He texted us the address, how many bedrooms it was, he knew everything about this house,” said Wendy Naples, Cooper’s wife.

Several receipts show they gave him nearly $3,000.

“I was sending the money through MoneyGram, and Walmart to Walmart,” Naples said.

Cooper, his wife and kids packed their bags and moved to their new home.

When they got there, they say the key was in the lock box, and for several days they were enjoying their new home until they got a knock on the door from the real property manager, saying they needed to get out.

Action News Jax told you in June about the nationwide rental scam; con artists lift pictures and descriptions from actual listings, then create fake Craigslist ads.

Action News Jax reached out to Progress to see how someone could get the code to the lock box and was told they’re still looking into that.

As for Cooper and his family, they can’t afford to pay $1,700 a month to continue living there – that’s $700 more than they thought they would be paying.

The family isn’t sure where it will go next.

“Now we have to tell our kids we are homeless,” Cooper said.

Full statement from Progress:

“We share the frustration of the impacted family and have invited them to submit an application to see if they qualify to continue living in the home. We take fraud very seriously and have put numerous measures in place to address it. We post signs throughout our vacant homes that educate prospects on how to avoid fraud, employ a fraud department that scours listing sites to remove fraudulent ads and offer a fraud reporting hotline for prospects to call. It is our hope that this kind of increased awareness of fraudulent behavior will help prospects avoid becoming victims of this illicit activity." 

Cox Media Group