Career criminal allegedly targets dozens of Detroit mothers in rental scam

Con man accused of scamming dozens with fake rental

Nevin Griffin, a 49-year-old career criminal, just wrapped up federal parole after being convicted of trafficking teen girls in a prostitution ring in 2012, where he made the girls call him "Moneymaker." Bank robbery and fraud charges also litter his past. Now he has allegedly scorned as many as 40 mothers.

DETROIT (FOX 2) - A rental scam left multiple families in tears in Detroit as moms and their children were left without a place to live.

Now those families are demanding to get their thousands of dollars back from the same man they say duped them.

Big picture view:

Now he has allegedly scorned as many as 40 mothers.

Lasandra Jordan made Griffin go viral in October, exposing a wild rental scam they say he masterminded.

"I don’t know if he wanted to see a whole bunch of Black women at each other’s throats because Black women and children and desperate is a dangerous thing, but we all banded together," said Jordan.

They all thought they were moving into this West Side Detroit home after finding it on the real estate sites Zillow and Redfin. The average loss per family was between $3,000 and $4,000 in security deposits and first month's rent.

The moms say Griffin provided proof the house was his, and the fact he was on Zillow and Redfin legitimized him.

So far, a dozen victims, mostly single moms, showed up to FOX 2 with screenshots after many showed up to move in on Oct. 15, at the same time.

"I pulled up at 1 p.m. and there was a family already moving in. I was turning the corner from 7 Mile and I saw the U-Haul, and my heart sunk. In my gut, I knew that was the house," said Jordan.

Meanwhile, Asia Smith says she actually got the keys from Griffin and was already mostly moved in with her two children.

"So from that point on, I did not stay here the first night because I was in fear for my life," she said.

What they're saying:

The day before we sat with Asia, FOX 2 talked to Griffin on the phone to confront him.

Here is how the conversation went down:

Griffin: "It was a misunderstanding about everything that was going on, and everything is being taken care of. What I’m working on is to get them their money back as soon as possible. I’m asking them to give me a week or two."

Victim Briana claims this was untrue.

Griffin: "Here’s the thing…why don’t you have the money, if it was a misunderstanding and you took all these women’s money… Jessica, I’m not trying to do back and forth with…I’m just saying I need a couple weeks. It sounds like a scam; it doesn’t sound like a misunderstanding because you either have the money or you don’t." (hangs up)

Then a couple of minutes later, he calls back to go off the record.

Dig deeper:

As we wrapped up our interview with Asia—the one who actually moved in—a fresh pair of victims, a mom and daughter, entered the picture.

"He said yesterday that he was going to literally let us move in the first, and we would have to pay him the rest of the money by next week. He knew we were investigating this story yesterday. Oh my god, we are $1,500 out," said Tina Anderson.

"We just got through talking to him right now. What did he say? He said he was going to figure out why the young lady was sitting on the porch, and I asked him why the young lady was sitting with Fox 2 News. We talked to him yesterday and confronted him, and he’s well aware," said victim Ariel Wilson. "He said he didn’t know what was going on. He’s lying; we talked yesterday. He knows very much so we are running a story."

He told them they could move in or get a refund, even after knowing we were onto him and that Detroit police were investigating.

The damage, though, is done. All with no faith in his promise to us.

Griffin: "Everybody will be taken care of in the next two weeks, maybe a little longer."

What's next:

Thirteen people have filed reports with Detroit Police, and they are investigating.

Crime and Public Safety Detroit