
Wait! i’m a little confused with laws but if his landlord was a scammer and was caught for fraud, can’t the mc get his money back as a victim of fraud? If he uses the transaction of the down payment and contract as evidence???

if you give cash, or wire your money to a scammer or fraudster that money is 99% gone unfortunately. You can only do chargebacks like this if you used a credit card or the scammer was incredibly stupid and didn't move the money from the receiving account. Most of the time, the money is used right away, liquidated in cash, or sent and further obfuscated to a chain of accounts from various banks.
I really want to not hate the glasses dude becuz I know some people advance on their crushes faster than others (and I’m trying to practice not hating people), but ngl that “you’re not replying” was such a cringe ╥﹏╥