EAST HARLEM — A woman searching for a new city home was swindled out of $3,000 by an online scammer, police said.
The 61-year-old East Harlem resident was looking for apartments online and found one for $3,000-a-month in Brooklyn, she told police. She did not specify what website she was using.
After contacting the poster, she met with him in person on Feb. 16 around 3:45 p.m. to exchange money for the keys, police said.
The man gave the victim two bronze keys and she gave him the money. But when she went to the apartment — listed as being on State Street — she discovered the address did not exist, police said.
She reported the incident to police two days later.
She told police the man who gave her the keys stood 5-foot-7 and weighed about 150 pounds.