This is a housing scam 221 New York Avenue, Long Beach, NY Full detail: I went through this entire thing, so I wanted to share my story to make others aware. My apartment lease was supposed to end on August 23, 2025, so over the summer I began "room hunting" for a new place to live. Around June 23, I started looking through Craigslist and visited several rooms in Flushing, Bayside, and Rego Park. Then I came across a posting in Long Beach, NY that immediately caught my attention. It was right by the beach, advertised like a resort-style room, and looked very appealing. One evening I traveled to 221 New York Avenue, Long Beach, arriving around 10 PM (since the LIRR only runs once per hour). The host, Candy McLaughlin, and her boyfriend greeted me warmly, gave me a tour, and explained that there were two rooms available one she planned to list on Airbnb and the other for long-term rental. I tried to take a video of the room, but she asked me not to film, so I stopped. We ended up having a casual conversation, and they even offered me a beer. Before I left, she told me that if I wanted the room, I needed to pay a $1000 deposit (to secure the room)by the next day because "a lot of people wanted this room." The next day I decided to take it and sent her $1000 via Zelle. Soon after, she called and said that in order to sign a lease, I would need to pay two months' deposit plus two months' rent ($4000 total). I pushed back, since she had just told me the deposit was $1000. She explained that the $1000 was only to secure the room, but to sign the lease I had to pay $4000. Skeptical, I googled her name and found an article about her renting rooms on Airbnb to pay her mortgage as a single mother and she attend Long Beach Council meeting (link), and I also saw that her Airbnb listing had positive reviews (link). These details reassured me that she was legitimate. I visited her place again to finalize the deal. We argued about the deposit I insisted it should be one month ($1000), but she demanded $2000, claiming she had dealt with dishonest tenants before. Because of the "proof" I had seen online, I trusted her and agreed to pay $2000 total, signing the lease with a move-in date of August 23, 2025. We sat down in her living room, chatted, and she served me two beers. She told me her son was away at college and that she was struggling to pay a $9000 monthly mortgage. Out of the blue, she asked if I could pay her another $1000. I was stunned and told her, "We just made an agreement," and didn't give her more. During July, Candy called me a few times and knew I was job hunting. We made an agreement that until August 15, I could cancel and she would refund the $2000 deposit. On the night of August 15, I texted her to confirm that I would move in on August 23, and she replied that she would call me the next day. On August 16, she phoned to say her kids would be back for the last week of August and that I could only move in on September 1. She suggested I stay in a hotel nearby for about $100 per night. I was disappointed and argued that since she was holding my deposit, she was supposed to reserve the room for me, not give it to anyone else even her son. She disagreed, insisting her family came first, but offered to refund my deposit immediately if I didn't want the place. Over that weekend, I searched urgently for housing and looked her up again. This time, I found a Facebook post warning others about her (link), and the comments described the same scam pattern: she takes deposits, delays move-in dates all the time, and some people even ended up homeless. I could predict that by September 1, she would make an excuse to keep postponing my move-in date. On August 19, I secured housing in New Jersey and told Candy I wanted my deposit back. She claimed she didn't have the money and would need to wait for her paychecks promising to return $1000 on August 22 and the other $1000 on August 29. At that point, I no longer trusted her as she told me previously she could refund immediately. I had already posted about my situation on Reddit, and many people suggested filing a police report with the Long Beach Police Department (LBPD). On the night of August 21 (yesterday), I went to LBPD to file a report. As soon as I showed the officers the lease and the address, they immediately recognized her name. They called her, and she drove from Hicksville to the station in about 35 minutes. In front of the police, she handed me $1500 in cash and Zelled me $500 finally returning the full deposit. The police told me if she didn't come, they would forward the case to the court and she would be in trouble because the court already had her records. That was the end of it, but the entire experience was stressful and frustrating. If I couldn't find housing in a week, i would be homeless. I wanted to post this story as a warning: Candy McLaughlin has a pattern of using Airbnb credibility to lure tenants, demand deposits, and then delay move-in dates all the time. Be careful if you come across her listings. This is a HOUSING SCAM. The host Candy Mclaughlin will take your deposit and keep postponing your move-in date, left you standed and homeless
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