Edward Shehan Elizabeth Shehan In Law unit Studio apartment Scam

I contacted a craiglist ad, https://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/apa/7099443409.html about an apartment for rent at 6451 Mystic Street Oakland CA 94618. They replied to me from an email sending me more pictures of the studio and asked basic rental application questions. I sent them my answers and the next day they said I was approved and that i could fill out a rental lease agreement and undertaking agreement.

I did that, signed and everything and returned it back to them via email. I asked if I could speak to him on the phone so he gave me his cell number. I spoke with him once on the phone about the house. He was asking for first months, last months and security deposit. total of $3400.00. When we spoke on the phone he said that i could pay half now and half when i move in so I could hold the space.

I sent 1700 on april 3rd. He gave me an account and routing number with fulton bank. he used the name edward shehan. he also gave me an email associated with the bank. he told me to use the address of the house for rent in the wire transfer from my bank to his. a few days later on aparil 6 he told me he needed the full payment in order to reserve the spot because someone had offered him 6 months rent. so i sent him the other 1700 the same way. he gave me his supposed ID number (1300A399B) as well. He kept texting me back regarding the house for the next week.

on april 18, i had texted him for a few days without any reply so i got worried and sent an email to the original email he gave me. my email was never delivered saying the account had been disabled. I got worried so i then drove by the house which is only 5 minutes from where i live now and knocked on the door. the people who lived in the house said they were not renting the unit and it was definitely a scam. They said a woman had come by before saying the same thing. After i searched online and found someone had a similar scam happen to then from the same name Edward Shehan. https://www.ripoffreport.com/report/book-confidence/palo-alto-california-edward-1488574.