My son (14) and I came from the United States to feel out things for relocation in the United Kingdom. Since I have done rentals online succesfully prior getting to the location, I was not worried. So I paid deposit and 2 months rent upfront to an individual (online) who turned out to be a scammer.

We arrived at the location (with loads and loads of luggage)in the borough of Camden, London, to find out that the place was NOT for rent. There is a police report filed with the Camden Police, the incident reported to Action Fraud and of course to my bank, However since the funds were transfered via bank transfer from bank to bank, everyone told me that I will never see my money. It was 3700 GBP (1300 deposit plus 2X 1200 for 2 months rent) , which is roughly 5,5 K USD.

The UK government helped me greatly by setting us up in an emergency hostel and the British red cross provided me emergency money for food and public transportation. However they could only do this as a temporary solution, so we had to leave, we have been staying with friends since in Cheshunt, however we will need to leave in the next days.

This incident happened on the 7 of May, 2021 and since all my remaining money I had is gone and all my credit cards maxed out and I am getting in debt more and more as we speak because I cannot pay my bills.

So my situation right now is that I have no money to get back to the USA

nor

have enough money to get a place here.

I have tried looking for work, but with no permanent resident and the unknown where I will be staying, no one will hire me. And with no job I cannot find a place to stay. It's a devil's cycle. I had several job offers but they had to turn me down due to this. It is so frustrating!

I honestly don't know what to do.

I am still interested in making it here, especially Manchester, but no matter what way I'd chose I am in this deep whole. I have applied for universal credit as well although that still wouldn't get me out of my situation but at least we'd have food money and transportation money, but I was turned down because we have not been in the USA long enough (we have pre-settled status)

I cannot tell you how scary this situatio is for me! Thanks to this criminal who took all my money, he put me in an incredibly desperate situation.

If you can please share this page and if you are able to help I would very much appreciate it!

Or maybe you have authority to hire for a job that comes with acommodation Birmingham or Manchester so I could work and save money to get our lives back in order.

Thank you all for reading, and yes I am very ashamed that something like that could happen to me :(.