Would this strategy work?

[Samantha Klein]

Today I saw an apartment in the paper advertising a two bedroom apartment for $695, market is $650 or so. Instead of charging $695 for sec deposit, they were only asking $300. I imagine that's a strategy to collect more rent, apply that to the missing deposit then after you have their deposit covered, you can pocket the rest and if they do no damage then you only have to legally return $300. Has anybody done it this way and if so, how did it work out?