NYC Hell's Kitchen fake apt listing (gay scammer)

[kingsley88]

In any case there are other New Yorkers here in the board. I've lived in NYC for over 15 years yet somehow this is the first time I ever heard of a fake apt listing by a gay scammer. 

Erik Bottcher (@ebottcher) • Instagram photo

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818 likes, 126 comments - ebottcher on August 27, 2025: "HK Apartment Scammer: Nicholas Fuelling is...

NYPD Seeks Suspect After Multiple Renters Scammed in Hell’s Kitchen

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When Miguel Márchese arrived in New York City earlier this month, he expected the usual challenges of...

 

[pubic_assistance]

$3200 for a two bedroom in midtown Manhattan is a red-flag right there. This is up there with selling you the Brooklyn Bridge. 

Poor guy had a quick lesson in reality. Never trust a "dream come true". 

[BSR]

11 hours ago, pubic_assistance said:

$3200 for a two bedroom in midtown Manhattan is a red-flag right there. This is up there with selling you the Brooklyn Bridge. 

Poor guy had a quick lesson in reality. Never trust a "dream come true". 

According to ChatGPT, the closest thing to an “average” (tough to nail down because it’s a broad range) for a 2-bed in Midtown West (Hell’s Kitchen, once upon a time) is $6200, $3000 more per month than the scammer’s “offer.”  Why on earth would any landlord pass up $36,000 a year? just to be nice to a total stranger??  Maybe not quite the same as offering a great deal on the Brooklyn Bridge, but way too suspicious to be legit.

That said, I still feel an eensy bit bad for the guy.  Maybe the scammer told the scammee that it was rent-stabilized or something.  Regardless of how naive the victims were, the scammer still deserves a hefty prison sentence.

[pubic_assistance]

4 hours ago, BSR said:

Maybe the scammer told the scammee that it was rent-stabilized or something.

That's what happens when you watch the TV show "Friends"...where they are supposedly living in their grandmother's rent-controlled Greenwich Village apartment and paying $600 a month. People think this is actually a thing you can do... just find a rent controlled apartment from the 1950s, and live in it without anyone noticing, that you're not in your 80s.

That building is on the corner of my block. A very desirable location. The two bedroom apartment on the top floor (no terrace) that they supposedly live-in on the show is actually $7,900/mo. NO landlord is paying so little attention that he's losing out on $87K a year, while young two chicks are illegally subletting his apartment. 

[+ Vegas_Millennial]

On 8/31/2025 at 9:42 AM, pubic_assistance said:

That building is on the corner of my block.

Wait... Are you Ugly Naked Man they often see from their apartment? 

Just kidding, I couldn't resist 😊