Desperate tenant to move in

[Charles Zhou]

A tenant brought back an overnight guest yesterday and told us his guest is looking for a temporary place to stay for 2 months or so. The guest lived out of state before yesterday and didn't explain clearly why she left her previous place. I showed her a vacant 1-bedroom unit I own that still waits to be upgraded. She agrees to pay $1,000/month to just occupy the bedroom and is OK with us doing renovation in bathroom and kitchen while living there. My intuition tells me something is off about her being so desperate to find a place and we asked her to leave our tenant's unit today. After she left, she came back saying she is ready to pay $3,000/month instead. We knew something is seriously wrong and declined her offer right away.

Has anyone encountered similar situations like this before? Can someone please educate me what kind of scam this might be?