Apparently crooks are finding ways to use Craigslist to their advantage and scam innocent people. 

One of the new ways in which they are doing this is by taking a legitimate home that is listed for sale and  making their own ad. They then list the home as a rental and then ask you to make a deposit. The latest scam occured in Kansas.

"This is one where they ask you to send money to get a key to be able to look at the house or make some type of deposit before you have an opportunity to meet with the people," said Jim Bridges with the Mike Grbic Real Estate team.

When you are asked to send  money or give up your banking information, it is a scam and the crook could possibly drain your bank account.

"It's a scam. A legitimate landlord will meet you at the property, take a credit application and they won't do it over the internet. And they will not ask you to send money to any post office box or ask you to wire money. They will meet with you instead of having you send it to them," said Bridges.

Many of the scammers use the Internet and the latest scam is someone in Africa pretending to be a missionary. This supposed missionary pretends to be staying in Africa on missionary duties and once wired money for someone to rent their home, the victim's money will vanish. However, it can be tough to catch the crooks overseas and bring them to justice because there are numerous offenders running the same scam.

"The justice department's been involved. The state of Kansas has been involved and local prosecuting attorneys have been involved," said Bridges. "There's no way to go get the money back. If authorities  would go to capture the person doing it in Africa, that person would just be replaced (by another criminal) again in five minutes."

Bridges said that if you need a place to live, call a real estate person and do it in person so that you know what you are getting.

Click here to read tips on how to avoid becoming a victim of online scams /articles/2144/20120619/tips-avoid-becoming-victim-online-scams.htm