The Housing Authority of Glasgow is looking to make people aware of a Section 8 Housing scam that has been polluting email inboxes for several months. 

The scam emails list houses that are for sale in Glasgow and Barren County. However, the emails have these residencies labeled as available for rent through the Section 8 Housing. Housing Authority Executive Operations Officer Sheri Lee said she suspects that the scammers will take security deposits of several hundred dollars and leave people that fall victim to the scam without housing.

“What I’m trying to do is to educate that this is a new type of scam that is being perpetrated here locally,” Lee said. “What they’re doing is taking folks’ money, and then they end up $200-300 in the hole, but no place to live.”

Lee said her email address, which is published as the contact email for the Glasgow Housing Authority, has been receiving “at least two or three of these emails a week for the last two months.” 

“I may not be the only one getting these … they could be sending these to other housing agencies,” she said. 

Lee mentioned one of her main concerns regarding the scam emails is refugees that are going to be relocated to the city from Honduras.

Lee said the groups that could be trying to help find housing for refugee families “may not even have a clue that this type of scam could be out there, and they could fall victim to it.”

Lee said the best way to combat this type of email is for people to “do your due diligence.”

“I always think it’s a good practice to verify who you’re dealing with is the legitimate owner of the property or the representer of the property,” she said. “Especially if it’s somebody you don’t know or you don’t recognize the name as being a local property owner … . Ask questions, ask them for a deed to prove that they are the owner.”