Not The First Mix-Up | Florida | Covid-19 and Homestead Exemption Fraud

There are at least four women with the name Sandra Martin in Broward County, FL. Three of them didn’t think much of it. But one of them thought of fraud and using the other Sandra Martin identities went on to scam Broward County out of thousands of dollars in COVID relief rental assistance funds. It’s not the first there was a Sandra Martin mix-up, but it might be the first time a sheriff had to get involved.

Last year, one Sandra Martin got a call from the Broward Sheriff’s Office asking if she was renting out her Deerfield Beach home. County records showed her property was being rented out, had a homestead exemption, and had supposedly received thousands of dollars in COVID rental assistance relief funds. Homestead exemptions are typically available only for primary residences. Therefore, they did not qualify for COVID-19 rental aid that was established to help with unpaid rents that had left investment property owners struggling to make their mortgage payments related to their real estate businesses.

There were four properties owned by a Sandra Martin in Broward County – all four received COVID rental aid. Luckily repeated payouts to the same name set off alarm bells for crimes against property at the Broward Sheriff’s Office. And they quickly found their fraudster. Sandra Janet Martin from Lauderhill. She had assumed the identities of all these other Sandra Martin’s that owned properties in Broward Count to apply for rental assistance to the tune of $80,000.

On March 31, 2025, Sandra Janet Martin was found guilty of COVID-19 Relief fraud.

Shout out to the Broward County Sheriff’s Office.

Today’s Fraud of The Day is based on article ‘I had no idea’: This Maryland snowbird’s Florida beach home was embroiled in an identity theft fraud scheme — how one scammer took a small coincidence and turned it into $80K” published by Money Wise on March 31, 2025.

For Sandra Martin, sharing a name with three other women in Broward County seemed like a harmless coincidence — until it made her the target of identity theft. According to NBC 6 South Florida, the 62-year-old snowbird from Maryland learned that her Deerfield Beach home was fraudulently listed as a rental. Apparently, it was tied to thousands of dollars in COVID relief funds — money she never applied for.

“I was very surprised, I had no idea,” Martin told reporters. Investigators discovered that another Sandra Janet Martin from Lauderhill had assumed the identities of multiple Sandra Martins in Broward County.