Gardai are investigating claims that a bogus landlord defrauded four families out of up to £6,000 for a Dublin house which he claimed he was renting.
The people paid £1,500 cash each to the man for the four-bedroom house in Lucan.
Four African families responded to an advertisement in the Evening Herald for the house, costing £750 per month. They contacted an Irishman through a mobile telephone number and arranged to view the house. Gardai say the house's legitimate owner was not involved in the fraud.
One African man who paid £1,500 to the fake landlord was shown round the house by the man. He paid £750 booking deposit after viewing the house and the remainder on the day he was given the key.
He said the man, who used the name Jonathan, picked up his family in a black Mercedes to take them to the house last Monday. He dropped them off at the Liffey Valley shopping centre and handed them the house keys in return for a further £750 in advance rent. When they arrived in the estate several other African families were also there along with gardai.
The man said he was depressed as he had no money left for a booking deposit and is living in one room in a hostel with his wife and two children.
"What kind of person could do this?" he said. "This is a shock to me. I'm a family man, and this person saw me and my family and yet he took the money from me. He could have just shot me there, and that would have been the end of it."