Imagine coming home from a 10-day trip to find another family living in your home. A woman in Beaufort, South Carolina experienced that on Sunday.
According to the Beaufort Gazette, Katherine Lang returned home on Sunday and discovered two women chatting inside her home. One of the women, along with her husband and two young children, were moving in to the home. The family was moving to South Carolina from Kentucky.
It turns out the new family moving in were victims of a scam.
According to the Beaufort Gazette, Tyggra Shepherd found an ad on Facebook to rent the home for $850 a month.
Beaufort County woman returns from trip to find another family living in her home http://t.co/XdjfXYlPUupic.twitter.com/n1B5nqdki5
— beaufortgazette (@beaufortgazette) January 10, 2018
Shepherd had wired $1,150 to the scammers in exchange for a fake lease agreement. Shepherd was then told a delivery driver, who had the keys, had been arrested, but that the back door was open and she could move in.
Lang was under the impression that her home was being watched as it was being renovated, the Gazette reported.
Police were called to the home, and the women came to an agreement that allowed Shepherd time to move out.
As of Thursday evening, no one has been arrested in connection to last week's incident.
The Federal Trade Commission has published tips to avoid being scammed. Among the tips, the FTC recommends not wiring money, and to meet the landlord in person before any transactions.
