TEMPLE, Texas — A Temple woman said she is out $50 after she paid an "application fee" to a person who was allegedly renting a local home. She later found out he didn't even own the home and that she had been scammed.
The woman asked to remain anonymous to the public but said she wanted to warn others before they fell for the same thing.
"I was super embarrassed actually," she said. "I didn't want to tell anybody. When I saw him put up and ad again I decided something had to be done about this."
The woman said she responded to the advertisement over the weekend to rent a Temple house. The supposed landlord, who identifies himself as Mr. Thomas, initially communicated only through text message.
He told the woman she could see the house by downloading a "Rently" app that she could access the lockbox with. The app did work on Saturday, which led the woman to believe the landlord was legitimate.
"We were super interested. We wanted it, but something was a little off," the woman said.
Then, the supposed landlord sent her an application through google docs, which has also odd to her.
The woman eventually looked up the property on the Bell County CAD website and discovered the property was actually owned by a limited liability company. Eventually, she was able to contact the company and Kairos Living sent the woman back an email.
"Thank you for alerting us to this issue. Kairos Living does not list our properties on craigslist so this was not a legitimate ad. I've included the link to the real application below," Taylor of Kairos Living said in the email.
Unfortunately, the woman said she had already turned in the application and paid the scammer a $50 application fee. The woman did not want to reach out to the news initially, but then she found another Craiglist ad that was still live as of Thursday.
The advertisement showed another house in Temple with pictures watermarked as Kairos Living. 6 News looked up the home on the Bell County CAD and it was owned by the same LLC company as the previous Kairos Living home.
When 6 News called the number on the advertisement, there was no answer, but we received a text message later in the day stating that the home is still available an ready for move-in.
When 6 News asked the person via text what rental property company they worked for, the person claimed to own the property.
Anyone who wants to look up who owns a local property can do so with their county CAD website. Links for several local counties are listed below.
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