Hoboken Woman Victim Of Rental Scam

A 37-year-old Hoboken woman was scammed out of $5,200 after she spent it on a house in San Francisco, which turned out not to exist. 

The woman reported the scam to Hoboken police last week, and told them that she and her husband found a rental on trulia.com, that was supposedly located on 1483 Sutter St. in San Francisco, police said. The woman now knows that the house doesn't exist, according to the police. 

The woman had responded to an advertisement placed by a man who called himself Lutton Ernest, police said. The woman contacted "Ernest Lutton" for the first time on April 30, after which a phone and email exchange followed, police said.

Ernest Lutton provided the woman with the bank information and she wired $5,200, police said. 

Afterward, Lutton Ernest stopped answering his phone and didn't return any of the woman's messages, police said. Once the woman realized she had become the victim of a scam, she froze the wire transfer as well as her checking account.