A Knoxville single mother of three says she is now without a home after a rental listing she found on Facebook Marketplace turned out to be fake — and the scam wasn't discovered until a day after she and her kids had already moved their beds, clothes and toys into the house. Maliyah Goins had sent $1,657 to a man calling himself Andre before the real property owner showed up at the door.
Goins found the three-bedroom house advertised at $925 a month, according to WATE 6 On Your Side. The man she communicated with, who identified himself as Andre, told her he lived in Georgia and asked for upfront money along with a photo of her identification and other personal information, the station reports. On August 4, Goins sent $100 for a rental application, and she later wired $1,457 to Andre through the payment app Chime.
Andre sent Goins a link containing a lockbox code, and when she opened it, she found a working house key inside, per the same report. On August 19, he urged her to send another $100 to secure the home. Believing the deal was legitimate, Goins moved her family's beds, clothing and children's toys into the house on September 1 — only for the real homeowner, who had never been paid by Goins, to arrive at the property the very next day.
A Familiar Pattern With Real Physical Stakes
Property manager Michael Cohen, who owns Asset Realty Management, told the station that rental scams are becoming more technologically sophisticated, and he pointed to several warning signs in Goins' case: an out-of-state landlord, rent priced well below the neighborhood norm, an inability to view the property in person beforehand, and pressure to act immediately. Cohen said scammers typically slash advertised rents by 50% to 90% below market value to lure in as many desperate applicants as possible.
The $925 monthly rent Goins was quoted fell far short of what the area actually commands. The 2026 Fair Market Rent for a three-bedroom home in Tennessee averages $1,526 a month, according to federal housing estimates published by RentalRealEstate. Knoxville has also seen annual home price and rent gains above 17% in 2022 — the kind of tight, fast-moving market that leaves renters vulnerable to too-good-to-be-true listings.
How the Lockbox Trick Fooled a Family
The lockbox is what made the scam feel real. A May 2026 analysis by property technology firm DoorLoop documented how scammers obtain access codes from legitimate vacant listings and pose online as the property owner to collect deposits, exploiting the same self-guided tour systems that let prospective tenants view empty units without an agent present. Gaining entry through an electronic lockbox does not prove that the person providing the code has legal authority to lease the property.
After the real homeowner turned up, Goins reported the scam to the Knoxville Police Department and retrieved her family's belongings from the house. She is now staying with friends. Cohen also flagged inconsistent contact information and demands for wire transfers, gift cards, cryptocurrency or payment apps as red flags, and he said a credit card can be recovered through chargeback or fraud procedures, while payment apps may prevent recovery.
Money Sent Through Chime Is Hard to Get Back
That distinction matters because Goins lost the $1,657 she sent. Chime Financial itself has drawn federal regulatory scrutiny; Banking Dive reported in May 2024 that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ordered Chime Financial to pay $4.55 million in fines and customer redress for illegally delaying account balance refunds after account closures.
Goins told the station she and her children no longer have a place to go, and that even if she recovered the money she lost, she would still need to find new housing. Under Tennessee Code Annotated § 39-14-103, theft of property valued between $1,000 and $2,500 is classified as a Class E felony punishable by one to six years in prison and fines up to $3,000, according to legal guidance published by N. Cate Law — a potential exposure for whoever was behind the Andre account, if identified.
A Growing National Problem
Goins' losses fit into a much larger pattern. The Federal Trade Commission reported in December 2025 that consumers logged nearly 65,000 rental scam complaints totaling about $65 million in losses between 2020 and June 2025, and roughly half of victims who reported in the prior 12 months said the scam started on Facebook. The FTC also found that adults aged 18 to 29 are three times more likely than older age groups to report losing money to rental scams, largely because of their heavy reliance on social media during housing searches.
The trend has continued to draw attention, including in an April 2026 RISMedia report on FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center data. Renters also worry about becoming victims of housing scams.
To avoid falling into the same trap, prevention guidance recommends comparing a rental's listed price on Zillow against what a landlord is quoting, and searching the property address online before sending any money — steps that could have flagged Goins' listing as suspicious before she ever packed a box.
