ONLY ON ABC7NEWS.COM: South San Francisco family forced to live in van after being duped by fake landlord back indoors

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Wednesday, June 19, 2019
South SF family living in van after being scammed by fake landlord back indoors
There has been a major outpouring of support from the community for a family who was duped out of $10,000 by a fake landlord.

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- There has been a major outpouring of support from the community for a family who was duped out of $10,000 by a fake landlord.

When we interviewed the Gonzalez family on Monday they were homeless with no saving and no backup plan-- Tuesday, all that changed.

EXCLUSIVE: South San Francisco family lives in van after losing $10,000 to fake landlord

An anonymous donor gifted the Gonzalez family with a week in a hotel with option to extend it if needed.

"I'm surprised. Thank you," said Victor Hugo Gonzalez.

Victor and his wife Lidia broke out in tears.

"This is nice, I'm glad that we are upstairs because we have a good view," said Elizabeth Treminio.

Elizabeth, 11, said they hadn't showered for days. Her plan for tonight-- to sleep.

This was not the only surprise-- another viewer named Cathy said she wanted to do more for the Gonzalez-- "I want to invite them to be guest at my home."

Victor Gonzalez had no words, but his wife did.

In less than 24 hours the community raised over $10,000 for the Gonzalez family.

"I woke up and I saw the story and my heart broke immediately and I asked my husband can we take in the kids and he said yeah we can. So that's when I reached out and emailed you. I just feel bad for the kids," said Misti Baldo.

Bill Marcy donated the last $400 to bring the GoFundMe total to $10,000.

Marcy left a message saying, "Thank you for sharing the link I paid the remainder to get to the 10,000 mark!"

The GofundMe is currently more than $13,000. If you would like to contribute you can find the page here.