Furniture company scammed by identity thieves

HOUSTON – It's a Facebook post by Exclusive Furniture that has been shared hundreds of times and counting.

In it, the store calls out a pair of guys who they accuse of stealing someone else's identity and using it to steal nearly $13,000 in furniture from them.

Fawad Zavary, Exclusive Furniture's vice president, said, "It was more of awareness to let consumers and businesses know this is what's going on in our community."

Store management says the guy who applied for the line of credit had multiple forms of ID and even had answers to security questions when asked by the finance company. However, the store owners say they ended up getting scammed.

We chose not to show the faces on the Facebook post or one of the guys caught on store surveillance because they haven't been charged with any crime yet.

The furniture was delivered on Saturday and not too long after, the real person whose identity was stolen contacted the store.

"He was upset. I'd be upset too. But he's been calm, and helping us through the process and stuff we needed from him," explained Zavary.

Surprisingly, store managers say they have no plans on filing charges against the pair, so long as they get their stuff back, which hasn't proved an easy task.

After days of trying, though, they were finally able to recover most of their stuff late Wednesday night.

The store's message to other businesses: Be mindful.

"We just need to be more careful on how we do day-to-day business so we don't get scammed by some of these people that are out there," said Zavary.

Exclusive Furniture says it's recovered all but two TVs.

Houston police said they're looking into the case.

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Galveston-born, award-winning journalist, dog owner, foodie & occasional golfer.

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