LEWISTON — Heather Coulombe, mother of four, lost $1,100, her entire life savings.

Loretta Pottle, mother of two, was swindled out of $980 cash and left without a place to live.

Both women lost money in a low-level real estate scam in Lewiston. Now there are indications that half a dozen others may also have fallen prey to the same man.

Police have a suspect accused of renting out property that doesn’t belong to him, but as of Wednesday, he remained on the lam.

Coulombe said she met with the man at 5:30 p.m. Sunday at 711 Main St. He had listed the property as a three-bedroom available for $650 a month and he was happy to walk Coulombe and her children through the space.

“He brought me in and he told me all kinds of stories about how his grandfather had owned the place,” Coulombe said. “He said he just wanted to get a good tenant in there and that everything would be fixed up for us.”

It all seemed so legit. Later, Coulombe handed over $1,100 to secure the apartment. Soon after, she went back to 711 Main St. with her four excited children so they could pick out their bedrooms.

“I showed up,” Coulombe said, “and there was another man standing in the driveway.”

That other man, as it turns out, was the real building owner. The apartment Coulombe had paid more than $1,000 for, the man told her, was not hers to keep.

“I just broke down,” Coulombe said, “because I realized that I had been scammed.”

The con has sparked a number of angry threads on social media as the public rallies around the victims, who are still scrambling to make living arrangements for their families.

“It was literally all we had,” said Pottle, who fell for the same scam around the same time. “And I mean, this man just coldheartedly took it with my children right there.”

Like Coulombe, Pottle said the scammer had met her at 711 Main St. and walked her through the three-bedroom apartment. Everything seemed on the level.

She handed over $980 in cash, but when she and her family tried to move into the apartment, she too learned that it was owned by somebody else. The man who had presented himself as the landlord was long gone.

It appeared the bogus landlord had temporary access to the apartment after a friend had been evicted from the property. Lewiston police say they are investigating Pottle and Coulombe’s cases as fraud. A search is underway for the man, who may be working with at least two others.

For Coulombe and others, the stunning aspect isn’t that there is an unscrupulous man out there taking advantage of others. It’s that he was able to do it so convincingly, and while completely aware of the damage his con would cause.

“I get ripping somebody off,” Coulombe said. “That happens. But he saw my kids there with me. He knew that money was all we had.”

“It’s horrible,” Pottle wrote on Facebook. “I just want my family to be OK. I’m sorry I messed up and gave that man everything we had. I’m sorry my family is going to be homeless because of me. But you know what? I was doing what I thought would help my family, not destroy us.”

Anger toward the suspect was heavy on social media throughout the week, but so was altruism, as several people joined the fray to support the victims.

“We just want to see justice served and ensure that no family has to endure this kind of stress again,” said Steve O. Gagne. “Lewiston is better than this. These con men have no place in our community.”

Gagne, of Lewiston, is extra motivated to see the suspect brought to justice. A friend of Coulombe’s, Gagne is the one who found the apartment listing that led to her dealings with the con man.

Gagne has been trying to make it right ever since the scam was revealed.

“Since then I have created a GoFundMe campaign and have reached out to several members of the community to help spread the word,” Gagne said Wednesday. “Mayoral candidate Ben Chin has offered to assist, as have many others. It has really been an eye-opener! I have been in contact with some of the other victims and trying to organize everyone to maximize the help they can receive. At the time I had no idea how many had been affected.”

Lewiston police wrote in a statement: “In recent weeks we have started receiving more and more complaints of fraudulent activity where a person is soliciting prospective buyers/renters on social media sites such as — but not limited to — Craigslist or Facebook when they have no ownership or rights to the property.”

Police advise renters to double-check property ownership through the assessor’s office or other sources before handing over money.

Friends of Coulombe have started a GoFundMe campaign to help her recover from the loss of her savings. The page can be found at gofundme.com/justice-for-heather.

Friends of Pottle have set up a similar page for her support. It can be found at gofundme.com/wz4d7k-fell-victim-to-rental-scam.

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