A 35-year-old Franklin Square man is accused of posing as a real estate agent and renting out apartments he didn’t own, pocketing $61,625 from at least 15 victims across Queens and Brooklyn in a scheme prosecutors say stretched from September 2022 through November 2023. Rajat Verma was arraigned on a 40-count indictment on October 29, 2026, and is due back in court on November 23.
According to the Queens County District Attorney's Office, Verma would approach small landlords while posing as an apartment hunter himself, then hand over forged checks in order to get keys to the properties. Once he had access, he allegedly turned around and advertised the same apartments online as available rentals, collecting security deposits and other payments from unsuspecting tenants. Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said Verma allegedly posed as an agent and rented out properties that did not belong to him, leaving victims out of both money and housing after they signed phony leases.
The alleged scam covered eight properties in all, seven in Queens and one in Brooklyn, located in Glen Oaks, Rego Park, College Point, Ozone Park, Hollis and Maspeth, per the same office. The Queens Chronicle reports the total haul from security deposits and other payments reached $61,625.
Fake Names, Fake Keys
Investigators say Verma allegedly used at least 11 aliases along with different phone numbers and email addresses to keep the scheme running, including names like Rajib “Raj” Sharma, Sammy Miah, Barry Padmanabhan, Bobby Gupta, Dave Mair and Ahmed Abbas, according to the Queens DA's Office. Curbed, which described him as “the faux real-estate agent with a dozen names,” reported that he used roughly a dozen different aliases in total, among them “Bobby Gupta,” “Dave Mair” and “Samir.”
In some cases, the keys Verma allegedly handed over didn’t even work. The Queens DA's Office said renters were sometimes given phony leases and keys that did not open the front door of the unit they thought they were moving into. In one especially jarring instance, a tenant arrived at an apartment only to find another family already living there, the same office said. Verma allegedly promised the same property to multiple tenants at once, according to prosecutors.
Verma’s attorney, Joseph Grasso, has denied the allegations, Curbed reported. The indictment includes charges of scheme to defraud, grand larceny, identity theft, criminal possession of stolen property and criminal possession of forged instruments, and Verma faces up to seven years in prison if convicted, according to the Queens DA's Office. As with any indictment, Verma is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
A Pattern Across the City
Verma’s case is far from an isolated one. Prosecutors in the Bronx say Juan Valoy stole $25,000 from three victims through a similar apartment rental scam, as reported by Gothamist. And in an earlier Queens case, Shahab Khan was sentenced to three-and-a-half to seven years in prison and ordered to pay $40,175 in restitution for stealing from victims through apartment rental and investment scams, per the Queens DA's Office. Nicholas Fuelling was accused of a rental scam before pleading guilty to grand larceny and fraud.
The pattern tracks with a broader surge in complaints. New York recorded 378 suspected rental scam complaints in 2023, rising to 568 in 2024 and 589 in 2025, a 55% increase over that span, according to state data obtained by CBS News New York. Nationally, the Federal Trade Commission reported nearly 65,000 alleged rental scams and about $65 million in losses between January 2020 and June 2025, the station noted. Curbed has pointed to New York City’s historically low vacancy rate and record-high market-rate rents as conditions that leave desperate apartment hunters more vulnerable to this kind of fraud.
The case against Verma was later detailed by New York Post. Verma remains scheduled to appear in court on November 23.
