4 victims scammed for NYC apartment!
Unfortunately, I, along with three other people, were victims of a scam for a New York City apartment owned by WaveCrest Management.
We were all looking forward to renting a unit 6E at the address 2395 Frederick Douglass Blvd from a fake person named "Alana Brooke." We all initially met this person (Alana Brooke - not sure that's her name), "Landlord," on August 22nd and viewed the apartment.
After an in-person viewing, she told us to apply through a broker and had a broker "Nancy Witherfield" contact us to apply for the apartment. Nancy emailed me from a fake Realty website to check out: https://libertyrealtyinc.com and email address. After getting fake “approved,” she sent a lease; we all signed it and sent payment as requested. After we agreed on a day/time to meet and send the payment, she was in contact with all of us until that time and then stopped responding. Who knows how many people this has happened to.
I was connected to the first victim via a cable/internet provider because they noticed multiple people were trying to set up cable and internet at the same place and contacted me and connected me with one of the other victims. After getting in contact with the building manager and owners, they connected me with two other victims.
I got a bed, bedding, etc., delivered there under my name and the unit (haven't been able to retrieve all of my items that I delivered to the building. Since then, we all have contacted the police, filled out police reports etc). Since the reports were filed, the police have completely stopped giving us any information about the case and said they couldn't give the victims any updates, which is crazy since we are the ones who lost all our money and were almost homeless.
The building management team has also stopped responding to request for information since they got a lawyer, even about retrieving items I got delivered there. Hence, they still technically have some of my property. They also have video surveillance footage that we haven't been able to see to identify the culprits correctly.
We all have lost between $2,000-$5,000 each (varying amounts).
We also have bank account information, (fake) phone numbers, text messages, and lease photos (from the building) for the fake individual(s), and just want justice served and for the people not to be able to do this to anyone else.
Whatever funds we receive will be split amongst us all to help us find permanent housing (as we all are still rebounding from the loss) and used to see if we can find counsel to take on this case, so we don't have to use more money trying to take these people to court.
If you or anyone you know has any information on how we can prosecute them, that'd be greatly appreciated.