Authorities have arrested a man for a rental scam in East Boston, Massachusetts on Wednesday.
Timothy Andreev, 40, of Mashpee was arrested for eight outstanding warrants for Larceny by Scheme.
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Police say they received eight reports of fraud over the past month about finding an apartment for rent in East Boston using Facebook messenger and contacting the person showing the apartment later identified as Timothy Andreev.
Andreev would show the apartment, receive a deposit and then block victims and not return any calls, authorities said.
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According to authorities, he received $32,000 in the past month.
The Massachusetts Real Estate Licensing Board said Andreev did have a real estate sales license, but it expired in February.
NBC10 Boston has learned that Andreev may have deceived clients for years.
According to Joshua Chopy, president of Chopy Media out of Rhode Island, Andreev refused to pay for his real estate photography services back in 2020.
"He would block me, then he'd unblock me and then he'd apologize," Chopy said Thursday night. "In the time that I knew him, I knew that he was a shady character after he left me hung out to dry for $500 plus."
Chopy told NBC10 Boston that he had to eventually reach out to Andreev's brokerage to get the money he was owed.
"He was just very unprofessional, and then I had to reach out to his broker at the time in order to actually compensate our company for the services that we completed. Because, I mean, we did the work and we deserved to get paid for it," he said.
Andreev is expected to be arraigned in East Boston District Court.
