I've had several people contact me recently asking about properties they saw on the internet.  Initially, I was excited to work with another buyer, however they were not asking about a property to buy/purchase.  They called me as a third party source to see if a listing they saw for rent on Craig's List was for real and if the owners are really looking to rent it. The reason that spawned their calls was that the "so called" seller would only communicate through e-mail and ask them to wire $ to them for a depost- FIRST RED FLAG! They also said the owner was in Nigeria- SECOND RED FLAG! As a courtesy I looked these properties up & they were actually in MLS.  The owners however were here in Honolulu! What it seems these scammers do is pull photos off active listings, then post the info. on Craig's List as if they were to the owner.  What seems to draw them more candidates is they put the rent really low to get a lot of takers.  2 of the calls I got were on a home in Niu Valley that would normally rent for roughly$2500/month.  They had posted it at $1100/month.  They probably have no idea however since they are potentially half way around the world... To date, I've probably received at least 4 of these types of calls & in all circumstances I suggested they contact Craig's List and the authorities (ie. HPD, FBI, etc.).  BE CAREFUL! There's a lot of crazy stuff out there!