The Faux Real-Estate Agent With a Dozen Names

The Faux Real-Estate Agent With a Dozen Names Photo: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg/Getty Images You’ve finally found an apartment in your budget. You hand over the first month’s rent and a security deposit, fill up the moving truck, and arrive at your new apartment. Then, you find out, the key doesn’t work and the “broker” has gone missing. According to a criminal indictment secured by the Queens district attorney’s office, more than a dozen people were allegedly duped by a Long Island man named Rajat Verma in much the same way in a scheme that lasted more than a year. “This defendant took advantage of those seeking housing by purporting to be a real estate agent and renting out properties that did not belong to him,” Melinda Katz, the Queens district attorney, said. “The unsuspecting tenants gave him payments and signed phony leases that left them without their money and housing.” Verma’s playbook was a twisty one, according to the district attorney’s office. The 35-year-old from Franklin Square allegedly applied to different apartments in Queens and Brooklyn and gave fraudulent checks to their landlords in exchange for the keys. In the time that it took landlords to cash the checks and discover they had been conned, Verma allegedly pretended to be a broker and advertised the apartments online under roughly a dozen different aliases, among them “Bobby Gupta,” “Dave Mair,” and “Samir.” At least 15 people interested in the eight apartments stretching from Maspeth and College Point to Bay Ridge paid Verma and received the keys to what they believed to be their new homes. Apparently, he wasn’t too concerned about them figuring out pretty quickly they had been duped: Some of the keys didn’t work, and in one case, a tenant showed up at the apartment they had paid for, only to discover that a different family Verma had allegedly conned was already living there, according to the district attorney’s office. In total, Verma allegedly defrauded would-be tenants out of $61,625 in security deposits and other rental fees between September 2022 and November 2023. He’s facing up to seven years in prison if he’s convicted on charges that include fraud, identity theft, and grand larceny. Joseph Grasso, an attorney for Verma denied the allegations, and noted that his client is a “devoted husband, father, and family man who resides with and helps care for his elderly parents.” Verma’s alleged scheme might be among the more involved rental cons in recent memory, but it’s far from a rarity. With a citywide vacancy rate at a historic low and market-rate rents consistently hitting record highs, it’s basically open season for housing scammers. Last year, a man named Nicholas Fuelling scammed 17 people out of roughly $50,000 by advertising a $3,200-a-month sublease in one of the two bedrooms of a Hell’s Kitchen apartment he had been renting. None, however, ended up being able to move in, and some reportedly were left more or less homeless by the con. (Fuelling pleaded guilty earlier this month to grand larceny and fraud.) Another man, Juan Valoy, also pleaded guilty this summer to a scheme that involved pretending to be a real estate broker and stealing over $100,000 in security deposits and other fees from nearly two dozen people in Manhattan and the Bronx. “The real estate market is tight, and opportunity breeds fertile ground for fraud,” Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, warned last year in an interview with Crain’s New York. “We see people who are quite good at fraud and exploiting a moment.” That said, there are ways to at least try to protect yourself from getting got. The New York Department of State has an online database for all the licensed brokers in New York. If nothing else, it’s worth doing a quick Google search to see what you can find out about who you’re giving your cash. “ With a lot of these scam artists, you probably would figure out or find out about them once you looked, so verifying who you’re dealing with is super important,” one real estate lawyer told Gothamist. “ If something seems sketchy, go with your gut.” If you have more information about this case, send an email to tips@curbed.com. The Faux Real Estate Agent With a Dozen Names Your product is saved! You’ll receive emails when your saved products go on sale. Manage preferences.