COVINGTON, Ky. —

Angel Williams has been looking for housing for months. The end of her lease was quickly approaching, and she said she wants to move closer to her job in Florence to cut down on the money she is spending on gas.

Now she is out of more than $1,500 and has no home to show for it after she was scammed.

Covington police are now investigating.

A few days ago, Williams thought her dream home was within reach. She took her three kids to see the home, after she toured it on her own.

"I'm about to get this dream home that I always wanted for me and my kids," she said. "We prayed over it and everything. Me and my mom prayed over it and it was just like this is just meant to be. This is a new beginning for me."

"Walk in your walk-in closet. Feel like a queen," one of Williams children said during the tour.

Williams said the children fell in love. The family took several videos inside what they believed was going to be their new home.

"Everything seemed legit," Williams said. "I get there, they give me the lock code number, I get the key, I go in."

She had been communicating via text, email and phone calls with the man posing as the landlord. Twice, she said he gave her an access code to go inside the home. She said the codes were different each time.

Williams found the man's contact information through a listing for the four-bedroom Covington home on Craigslist.

She asked the man if he accepted Section 8 vouchers, which is housing assistance from the federal government. The man said he did. He also sent her a renter's application and year-long lease agreement. She signed both.

"He was like, 'I want you to get to know me a little bit better before you get the property, get to know the property a little bit better.' And I'm like, 'OK' and I'm doing that. And it's just like everything just seemed legit. I get the application. It has the equal opportunity property on there and everything," she said.

The man told Williams he was a truck driver, processes payments on the road and only accepts a specific kind of prepaid gift card as payment.

Williams purchased $1,700 worth of gift cards Monday and sent photos of them, along with the receipt. The money was supposed to cover $1,300 for a security deposit and $400 for first month's rent.

"An hour goes by and I'm like alright I'm waiting for the keys. Texted him, texted him, called him, couldn't get through," she said. "When it got about 5 o'clock and he didn't text me back or call me back about the keys, I knew something was wrong. I felt it in my stomach."

Williams had no receipt, no keys and no home. The person she had been contacting went silent.

"I tried not to cry in front of my daughter but I'm like 'daughter, I feel like we got scammed. I feel like this man just took all of our money,'" she said. "Please Lord, this is not true. This man didn't just take everything from me. So I tried calling again and he didn't answer."

According to the Kenton County property valuation administrator, the home is owned by AH4R Properties Two LLC. American Homes 4 Rent is legitimately renting the home for $1,950 dollars a month. WLWT reached out to the company alerting them of the scam and asking who has access to the property. The company has not yet responded.

Tuesday evening there was a fraud alert sticker on the door of the home.

WLWT is not reporting the name of the scammer, because we cannot confirm the person is who they claim to be.

When reached by phone Tuesday night, the man, whose number is posted on the Craigslist ad, said the Covington home is still available for rent.

WLWT asked the man whose number is posted on the Craigslist ad if he is also renting out a home in Florence. The man said he is renting out the Covington home and the Florence home. WLWT has confirmed neither property are his to rent.

When WLWT Investigative Reporter Jatara McGee started asking the man about the $1,700 Williams sent him, he denied it at first and then hung up.

Police recommend a few tips for avoiding similar scams: do not use prepaid gift cards for payment. Do not use websites like Craigslist that anyone can post to for housing. Utilize reputable websites.

Google also has a feature that can help. Right click an image, for example, an image of a home on a listing, and select the option to search the image with Google lens. The feature will run a search to see if the photo is listed on other websites. If you notice another website has a different landlord or seller listed, that is a red flag.

Customers at Starbucks will have new ways to pay for their drinks and food while still earning stars in their rewards program.

The changes to the Starbucks Rewards loyalty program begins Tuesday, September 15.

Customers have complained for years about the need to reload their Starbucks card in order to spend money at the coffee giant and earn loyalty stars. In order for customers to earn stars in their loyalty program, customers had to use a Starbucks card or gift card to pay. This forced regular customers to constantly reload their card to ensure there was enough money for their purchases.

Starting Tuesday, alternative ways to pay will be allowed and still allow members to earn stars for purchases. Alternative methods include debit/credit cards, cash, and select mobile wallets.

However, there’s a catch.

Customers paying with their Starbucks card or gift card will earn two loyalty stars per $1 spent, and those paying with alternative methods will earn one star per $1 spent.

Some people visiting Butler County health clinics on Wednesday got a surprise: $50 gift cards for getting the COVID-19 vaccine.

“We're willing to do whatever we can that's legal and within reason to get people vaccinated so that this pandemic can be behind us,” said health commissioner Jenny Bailer of the Butler County General Health District.

The incentive is for patients on Medicaid, and it’s part of an effort to get more people vaccinated. According to Ohio’s five managed-care providers, people on Medicaid are vaccinated at lower rates than the rest of the population. Bailer said that this type of benefit isn’t easy to offer, so she was glad that the program was able to get off the ground.

"We've kicked around the incentive program in a lot of different ways," Bailer said “There are a lot of barriers to implementing incentives, so we felt really happy that this one came through for us and we were able to do this with Medicaid."

Another major motivation for getting the gift card reward to vaccine recipients was the slowdown in people showing up at vaccine clinics. Bailer said earlier this year Butler County was up to 33 different drive-through clinics; when they put out a call on Facebook, about 2,000 cars would show up. Things are much different now.

"Most of the people who really wanted to get vaccinated have gotten vaccinated,” Bailer said. "So now we're reaching out to those who are a little bit harder to reach, maybe don't have transportation, maybe they're a little hesitant and they want to do a little education and think about it first."

Emily King, a cashier at Dollar Tree, heard about the payout and was happy to have the convenience of a walk-in clinic Wednesday to get her first dose of the vaccine.

"I've been needing to get it for quite some time,” King said. "I thought, 'Well, this is really close to where I live. I might as well get it done.'"

Fifteen-year-old Morgan Sloan was waiting to get the vaccine until she became eligible. She’s said she’s been living with extra caution and still masking and socially distancing herself from others.

“I kind of woke up and my mom said, 'You're getting your vaccine today,' and I said, 'OK, great, let's go,'” she said. “I just feel safer being out in public, being around people."

Kathy Eatmon of CareSource, one of Ohio’s managed care organizations, said in addition to the $50 gift card incentive, people are being assisted in registering for Ohio’s Vax-a-Million drawing. And for added motivation, the $50 gift card isn’t just for the first dose — it can be given for both doses of COVID-19 vaccine. Eatmon said she hopes that word of mouth will help drive more people to show up for the clinics.

"I always tell them to tell a friend,” she said. “If you know a friend who hasn't received that vaccine, go ahead and tell them to come on out today.”