Knoxville families discover rental scam days after moving into home
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — Two Knoxville families have to move out of a rental home after losing nearly $2,000 to a scammer pretending to be a realtor. The families were in the home for just a few days before being told they had to leave.
They believed they were dealing with a legitimate landlord. The rental was a self-viewing home, and when the so-called landlord told the families he was unable to show the home, he sent them the lockbox code so they could enter the house to take a look. Once their fees had been paid, the fake landlord repeated the process and the families moved in, only to discover it was all a hoax.
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Alex Todd and his sister-in-law Natalie Ryffel are moving for the second time in five days because they were scammed. Together with their spouses, they rented a small two-bedroom home in East Knoxville that they found on Facebook Marketplace. The rental sign was in the front yard. They liked the place. It was small, but had a great price at $850 a month.
The landlord was Buh-laal Mustafa Hatim. He both texted and talked with Todd. He also sent him a formal and official-looking contract. At the time, there were no red flags.
'Every time I would talk to him, we would send money over to him. He would, shortly after, send receipts via email,' said Todd.
The receipts amounted to $1,800; $850 to rent the house, another $850 as a security deposit, and a $100 application fee.
'He wanted payment through Chime. I figured, okay, he may not have an actual bank account, Chime is an easy service to use,' said Todd.
'We paid him what we were supposed to pay him,' Ryffel added. 'We moved in the day before Easter.'
'He then texted me and said remove the sign, the rental sign, from the front yard, along with removing the lock, if we could,' said Todd.
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Then, a few days after Easter, they received a text from the realty company: 'You are illegally residing at this property without the consent of the owner. You are instructed to vacate the property immediately.'
'We don't have anywhere to go. We have no home, no nothing. We have no family up here, no nothing,' said Ryffel.
The place is listed on websites at $1,350 a month, not $850, and it is a self-viewing home. Hatim never showed the house; he didn't have to because of the lockbox. The landlord had gained sneaky access to the code.
To get into the house, Todd called Hatim, who then sent a code.
'Once you put in some basic information, it will send you, text you a code to put into this lock. Then the lights would flash and make a sound. Then you would automatically hear the door unlock,' Todd explained.
Here is how the hoax works. Scammers steal property listings from other sites and pretend to be working for the realty company. Self-guided tour homes are potentially easy targets to gain illegal access. The scammer simply signs up for an account and receives a code to unlock the lock box
'You have people who work hard for their money. Only for it to be gone, and you can't even get it back,' said Ryffel.
The legitimate realty company sent a text saying they're extending a gesture of goodwill to the families. They were given a free week-long stay at Wood Spring Suites. The couples are using the time to find another rental. This time, they are much wiser.
'Nobody should have to go through this,' said Ryffel.
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'Self-showing' scams can happen even with safety measures in place, such as one-time use codes on lockboxes that expire after an hour. Before you suspect something is fishy, scammers have figured out a way to fool prospective renters. The scammer can access the one-time use codes, the same way everyone does, except he or she may use a fake ID, or a stolen credit card.
Realtors say if there is a sign out front, call the number on the sign to make sure you know who you are dealing with before you give anyone money.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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