A woman posing as a real estate broker collected tens of thousands of dollars from would-be New York City renters in a fraudulent-lease scam, police say.
Jennifer Ricardo, 33, of the Bronx, was arrested Monday after a two-month investigation, the NYPD said.
Investigators say Ricardo pretended to be a real estate agent in Washington Heights and Inwood, and promised applicants spots in an Academy Street building that was undergoing renovations at the time.
She claimed to work for a real estate company and issued fake leases and inoperable keys to victims in exchange for cash deposits.
Ricardo collected more than $24,000 from her victims, police said.
When some of the victims later went to the building to move in, they were told by management there were no apartments available and that they had been scammed.
Ricardo, meanwhile, had fled to her native Dominican Republic.
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She returned to New York Monday and turned her self in to police. She was charged in 10 separate incidents of grand larceny and one incident of scheme to defraud.
It wasn't immediately clear if she had an attorney.
