[Resolved]  Sulekha.com — fraud listing on sulekha.com

I came across ad for a renting a furnished bedroom with private bathroom in a 2 bed /2 bath apartment in sunnyvale ca. On contacting the person via sulekha, i was contacted by a person called nipun patel with the email address [protected]@gmail.com. Phone number:[protected]

They apparently sent pictures of their home and quoted the rent to be $900 inclusive of all utilities with a secuirty deposit of $800. I viewed the email on my mobile device, and there seem to be nothing amiss there.

When i tried to do a video tour of the apartment, alleged nipun patel said that he was not in town and taking care of his sick father in sacramento. He said that i should proceed with the process otherwise the apartment will be gone.

I insisted on signing a lease, so he sent a "supposed" lease, which looked legitimate at the time. He aslo sen the bank account details of a supposed shaida alabi who was their "leasing agent". They then asked me to transfer the security amount of $800.

The account details are as follow,
Bank of america
Acc name:shaida alabi
Acct num:[protected]
Routing:[protected]
Zip code:94086
Checking
Email for zelle: [protected]@yahoo.com

I sent $800 over two transcations of $500 and $300 to this shaida alabi, and got confirmation from the so-called nipun patel that money was received, and a receipt would be processed. Next day, i got an email from nipun patel saying that due to some incidents in the neighbourhood, the leasing agent required the first month rent to be sent over as well. Which was $900

This got me suspicious, and i re-checked the apartment photos with google image search and they turned out to be some hotel's. Then i looked up nipun patel's phone number and did not get a match on truecaller and similar websites. The most i could get was that the number was voip. I could not find any whitepages details for any nipun patel or any shaida alabi.

On the context finding alternate arrangements, i asked mr nipun patel to cancel the lease and reutrn my money, because there was apparently a clause saying that money will be returned if tenant does not move-in on time. They never returned my money, not returning texts or emails now, and delayed it for 5 days.

Of course it is apparent now that nipun patel and shaida alabi do not exist, and this person has been committing fraud on sulekha for a long time. It seems that the website is not very interested in catching repeat fraudsters or scammers, and they do not verify indentity of people posting on their platform. I expect a full refund.