Although this website is designed to offer free information about foreclosures, I must post a warning for those who are forced to leave their home. Here in the Georgia and Florida area we have wolf in sheep's clothing taking advantage of people with bad credit and no good place to live.
I want to warn you about the possibility of you being taken if you come across this business. If you have an doubts about this business, you may check the Better Business Bureau Report link and read it for yourself. I fell pray to this business and as well as. You will probably see an ad offering a "3 bedroom 2 bath home for $650.00 per month, no credit check, will work with you on the deposit". This seems like a normal ad. If this ad suits your needs you will probably call the number. When you call the number, a recorded message will come up telling you about EZ Rentals program. It goes on to say you can get a home, duplex, or any other dwelling with no rental history or credit check. Just have a paystub to verify your income. The fee is $149.00 and it is refundable. You are being offered a list of landlords that have signed up with EZ Rental and agree to rent to you regardless of your financial issues. I know, yeah right, comes to mind.
Apparently, I believed it. When you are ready to pay, press 1. This transfers to you a Florida local that answers the telephone and is ready to take your credit card information. After signing up, you will receive an email giving you access to a website. You receive a login and password. It sounds good so far, right. In the body of the letter it says you have to call the landlords listed 75 consecutive days of a 90 day period before you can request a refund. And it tries to sound official. It gives you an address and phone number to request this refund. I started calling the landlords listed and quickly found out that most of the landlords listed did not know about the service I was asking about. Or, I later found out, these were listed on craigslist! Some were real estate management companies who did credit and background checks. Well, I knew I had been had! So I waited the allotted time for my refund. A couple of months later I sent my refund letter to request my money back. I made follow up attempts and was given the run around. At this point I was extremely frustrated and realized I would not receive my money back. Of course, as human being, when we have been wronged we want to make sure others don't follow the same road. So I went to work to make sure they did not do anymore business in Georgia. I did not recall any news reports about a scam in Georgia. So I emailed all of the newstations and the newspapers. I went back to the place of where the classified ad was placed. It was still listed three times! I called the number and it was still active. Catching unsuspecting people.
So I contacted the paper it was listed in. I received a call the next day! I really have to give it to American Classifieds. They really stepped up to the plate on this. I spoke with a very nice lady, Kathy. She listened to my story and I told her they had a customer advertising false information and scamming her readers. I told her I had a BBB report in front of me. She wanted a copy of this report. She did say she had a call into the person that put in the ad. And she was giving them an opportunity to address my concerns. She was very apologetic about a situation that was not their fault. They would have no way of knowing about this scam unless a reader complained. I faxed her the information and waited to hear back from her. She called me back with in a couple of hours. She spoke with the owner Laurie Gallagher and the issue was not resolved in that conversation. American Classifieds removed all of her ads she had listed and sent out an email to all 50 states to let them know about her scam in case she tried it in other states.
I was very impressed they swiftly responded to this scam. Please do what I didn't, check the BBB when you are spending any amount of $50 on the Internet. More than likely someone else has been hurt before you. I filed my complaint with the BBB and added it to the other 30 complaints received. I am listing all of her business names so you can recognize them if you see them. The most current one is Tenant Marketplace. I won't give them free advertising with the website link. Please look at the report, it is just sad. I have learned a valuable lesson. Now I want to get the word out for your protection. Ultimately, I have sent a letter to Laurie letting her know I will be watching in all advertising to make sure she doesn't advertise her trash in Georgia. People should not be so damn shady!
She really gets around. Look at all of these business names. Florida look out!
EZ Rental
Tenant Marketplace
All Metro Rentals
I-Net
All Metro Reality
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http://www.freewebs.com/tenantmarketplaceorgisfraud/
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