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Atlanta-area police search for pair that posed as real estate agents, scammed renters

Allegedly took information from rental property ads, created fake ads, stole money

Police in the Atlanta area are searching for two people who allegedly posed as real estate agents and rented out homes they didn’t own and had no right to rent out.

The Gwinnett Daily Post has the details, along with a truly spectacular word choice in the description of the alleged perpetrators.

From the Gwinnett Daily Post:

The flimflammers are believed to be 30-year-old Decatur man Julius Ball and a woman who goes by various names, including Camilla Jones, Melissa Hyatt and, simply, Star, police said Tuesday. In the scam, the suspects are accused of taking information from ads for rental properties off the Internet and creating their own bogus ads for the same homes, then taking people’s money.

According to the report, local authorities believe Ball and the woman occasionally known as “Star” may have other victims that have not yet come forward, and police are seeking the public’s help to find the suspects.

The report references three cases that took place in the month of December where victims agreed to rent a home, paid cash to an agent, only to find that the agent they paid had no right to rent out the home.

Again from the Gwinnett Daily Post:

In the first, a couple paid $2,200 cash to rent a house at 311 Moorland Court. Authorities didn’t reveal how the suspects were able to get into the home to show it to the victim, but a few days later, a real estate agent who actually had the right to rent the property showed up with a prospective tenant.

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