Dear Sir/Madam,
I would like to report a scam on a rental property in California, USA. I was scammed for $800 on a rental accomodation (room number 12, 953 Helen Avenue Sunnyvale, CA 94086) which was posted on Sulekha by a person named Arjun Joseph. I had booked it on Dec 17 2020, before coming to US. The payment of $ 800 was made to his account ( Zelle id:Saskia.[protected]@yahoo.com Phone number: [protected] )
When I reached the address on the morning of 6th of January, 2021 the room was already occupied. The tenants had been living there for past seven years .The contact person (Arjun) was not replying to any of my emails or receiving phone calls. This was my first visit to US and I was traveling alone with enough funds, but the expenses became unexpectedly high because of this loss. With no close contacts, and COVID restrictions, I struggled to search a suitable accommodation, for which I had to pay a heavy rent.
When I looked up to find the person on the internet, I came across reports of similar scams that have been linked to the same address in the past but it seems that the advertisement is being put on the website without verification by the company repeatedly (links given at the end of the text). It is quite possible that there could be many more such frauds already happening on other addresses as well.
I already contacted the company (sulekha at us.[protected]@sulekha.net) about the scam on January 18th 2021 but they refused to take responsibility (email reply attached) and have not responded to my last email where I had requested for refund.
I would want you to take necessary action against the company for negligence so that such incidents do not happen again and the company to refund my money.
Similar scam reported in 2018
https://www.consumercomplaints.in/nipun-patel-rental-scam-c1972203
in 2019
https://www.consumercomplaints.in/sulekha-com-nipun-patel-a-scam-took-2500-from-...⇄
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Sulekha.com customer support has been notified about the posted complaint.
Greeting from Sulekha.com!
Thank you for giving us the opportunity to serve you. We request you to share your registered mobile number at [protected]@sulekha.com! So we can remove it from our portal.
Warm regards,
Team Sulekha.