Scammer hijacked my rental ad. Can these guys be caught?

[Jeremy M.]

I've seen this posted in the forums before but it was a new experience for me today...had a rental listed, crossposted actually, on a few different sites.  I get a phone call asking if I'm the property owner. When I confirmed that, the caller stated that she'd talked to "Eric" earlier and he was out of town and she needed to send him the deposit and he'd send her the keys. *eyeroll & sigh  I got the phone number and called inquiring about the rental. "Eric" answered, then acted like we had a bad connection and hung up. He texted me almost immediately and said the rental was no longer available.

I've done a bit of Googling and it seems we have no good recourse for this type of scum. Has anyone else been successful in tracking down phone numbers ect? Reporting it seems to be an exercise in futility.  

[Theresa Harris]

Find out where the scam ad is posted and have it removed.  If there is a for rent sign in the property, make sure it has the right phone number posted and if possible, upload a photo of the house with that sign in the window and phone number to the ad.