Homeowners scammed by Super Bowl promises may get relief eventually

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - You may remember the promise: List your house for rent with us, and you'll make thousands during Super Bowl week.

But it never happened. Instead you or your neighbor lost hundreds, in some cases thousands of dollars in upfront fees. Now, the chances are better that you may get some of that money back.

Latanya Williams Brooks hoped her house on the east side of Indianapolis would bring in big bucks Super Bowl week and help make ends meet. As she told 24-Hour News 8 in March, she paid $600 up front, after the company made her plenty of promises.

"They promised $3 thousand a day for five days, that the renters would be here. They promised they'd check their background check," Brooks said

Instead, the single mom said, she lost all her money and got nothing.

"Tough lesson? Yes. Oh, yes,” she said. “A lot of pain and agony. Calling on the phone, being mad. And out of money I didn't have to give, just to give to someone."

After Latanya and dozens of other families filed complaints against two Phoenix-based listing websites, Major Event Rentalz and Super Week Lodging, the Indiana attorney general went after them, filing lawsuits against both.

A judge has now granted a default judgment of more than $200,000 against Super Week Lodging. The problem is, the company ignored the court proceedings. So getting the money won't be easy, said Attorney General Greg Zoeller.

"We can't spend more money to collect than we recover,” he said. “But we are going to make very aggressive efforts to get as much money back for people that were defrauded as possible."

Zoeller said he believes there are assets that his office can go after. But he said it's rare to get anything near the total amount lost.

So scam victims will have to wait a while longer before getting any money back.

Brooks, who has caught up with her bills since being taken, said there's a lesson in her misery for everyone.

"Everything that looks good isn't always good. It's always to investigate the company," she said.

The lawsuit against Major Event Rentalz is still pending.