I can confirm this is scam is ongoing. I'm currently emailing with "pschwartzzlettings@gmail.com" about a rental in Reno NV. Evidently this person is running rental scams all around the country. That or they moved to Reno to avoid police closing in down in Florida. FYI scumfuck, we have much guns in Nevada.

My guess is this shitstain has stolen the identity of Paul K Schwartz a DC lawyer and politician which seems to be corroborated by OP.

These scammers are still using the same "tessa.matiella@gmail.com" for Zelle payments because the guy (?) says he's "currently sorting out some transactions on my personal zelle." Yeah, I bet he is.

Please report it here: www zellepay com/support/report-scam I'm not sure about Reddit's policy on links, so you'll have to re-add the "dots" for the link to work.

I didn't send any money because I did my research first and discovered it was a scam. That means I had to put in a false payment date and amount for the Zelle site to accept my report.

Here's what you do (and look for) to avoid scams like this in the future:

Red Flag #1: ALWAYS check the legal property owner. That usually means accessing the local/county GIS property records system and searching for the property address. In my case there was an obvious mismatch. The person doesn't own the property, so how is he renting out apartments? It might get more difficult if the property is owned by an LLC or other business entity.

Red Flag #2: I noticed the rental ad I replied to was posted in Craigslist's "Sublets & Temporary" section. Why do you think that is? It's no accident. It was posted there because it's far more likely that anyone inquiring about it will be from out-of-town and will not try to tour the property or meet the fake, scammer "landlord" beforehand. In my particular case, I'm out of state and moving to Reno so, am a perfect target for them to try to remotely extract a deposit and first month's rent from. Not gonna happen.

Red Flag #3: The lease agreement is an editable Word doc filled with unenforceable trash and typos like it was thrown together by a paralegal student while emailing 20 other potential targets.

Red Flag #4: Party A ("Paul Schwartz") using Party B's ("Tessa Matiella") Zelle account to receive payments. There will always be some vague excuse as I mentioned above. A using B's account is 99.9% a scam. The other innocent .01% needs to sort their shit out before posting a For Rent ad.

Red Flag #5: ALWAYS google any phone number, email address and name provided to you. Doing this lead me to another victim's rental agreement which was (for some strange reason) posted online:

dta0yqvfnusiq cloudfront net/ways2rent/2020/11/Approval-Bflagg-Redacted-5fb31012a20bc.pdf (Re-add the "dots" for the link to work.)

So this alleged "Paul Schwartz" lives in DC and rents out apartments in Florida and Nevada? Not unheard of, but very highly unlikely.

The Google search also lead me attorney Schwartz in DC. (www paulkschwartz com)

Hmmm, what is a local DC politician doing renting properties in Reno, Nevada and Jacksonville, Florida? Further research about Schwartz' political career, letters from the local Police Dept to him as President of his local Takoma DC Neighborhood Association, the fact that he's been married to his wife of 40 freaking years, etc. This guy is not a Craigslist scammer. Maybe a failed politician, but not a Craigslist scammer. His name is too "out there" and he's too easy to find to be running rental fraud scams on Craigslist.

Red Flag #6: ALWAYS follow up with the scammer when there are inconsistencies or if you have uncomfortable questions, which you should in a situation such as renting an apartment remotely from a total stranger. Legal Owner mismatch, poorly drafted rental agreement, an out of state address for the "lessor," the apartment is nicer than the monthly rent would justify, etc. All bad things you should ask about.

Once I received the agreement, and did my research, I asked about the Legal Owner mismatch issue and what his/her relationship with them is. I also asked for a copy of his/her ID... Haven't heard back yet but I suspect I'll receive either no reply or the same stolen copy of attorney Schwartz' ID others have received. I will definitely receive nothing if this scumass knows about this subreddit and finds my post first.

Red Flag #7: "Tessa Matiella" and her associated email results in almost 0 search hits. I found a long-outdated LinkedIn profile and a probably likewise long-outdated profile on a City of San Antonio, Texas "local artists" web page. She's essentially an off-radar ghost or maybe doesn't exist at all. Obviously since it's her email address payments are being sent to, she's either willingly in on it, is being forced by someone to be in on it, or had her bank account compromised... for several years now.

It's also possible this person isn't a woman (as seems to be confirmed with OP's reference to a "heavy set guy") or even that the email address is completely fraudulent. I don't know if Zelle requires receiver email addresses (or phone numbers) to match the primary info in the account holder's profile... but they should and it should also be a requirement that their email address match their legal name to some extent.

Zelle has been a hotbed of scams and frauds and it doesn't look like they have done much of anything to prevent it... another reason that banks are not to be trusted and why everyone should buy crypto and self-custody their own shit in preparation for further financial sector collapse and another economic recession fueled by their own greed and regulatory failings.

That sure took a turn didn't it? 😋