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Online scammers target local church

Posted at 9:40 PM, Apr 29, 2016
and last updated 2016-04-29 21:40:21-04

Scamming a church?

Officials at Fountain of Life church in Lorain told NewsChannel 5 they rent out a nearby home to raise money, but this week, they found someone trying to rent it out from underneath them.

"It was very disturbing when we got the call that someone put our ad on and was trying to collect rent from our home," Randy Menges said. 

Luckily, Menges talked to a woman who saw the ad before she sent her hard earned money to a scammer. 

The church's pastor, DJ Murray, said house brings in money for church charities. He called it a sad sign of the times.

"When we have this type of thing happen, it's very negative as far as its impact on us," he said. 

We asked Lorain Police Detective Orlando Colon how they deal with crimes like these. He said they can be tough to police. 

"Often it's someone using a fake email to get a fake Google number. It's hard to track," he said.

And Detective Colon had advice for buyers, sellers, and renters.

"Make face to face contact with who you're dealing with, and beware of anything asking you to send money anonymously," he said.