I later found out from a police report that a prospective tenant who I never had any interaction with lost about $5,000 to one of these scams.

Purchase price: $8,500 Cash invested: $33,500 Sale price: $133,500 This was an interesting property and seemed a little “SCAM-ISH” from the get go but it was worth exploring.

Is it a “Scam”?

I get most of my tenants through facebook these days, better than craigslist which is full of scams.

They were scam artists.If you can talk to someone who knew there 15 years ago and verify their ID and corroborate their pay for everything in cash lifestyle, then you can make a decision after lots of diligence.

Cheryl@Cheryl J McGrath  I have personally seen buyers attempting to buy my properties get scammed this way.  

To me that's just a form of scamming. 

@Christophe MadellIs it legitimate - yes BUT be very careful as 95% of those you find online “offfering” private money are scams and want an upfront payment from you.If they use gmail, yahoo, aol etc for an email and do not have their own business domain - run away

It's these people that are prone to being scammed cause they hear a million nos but then someone says "sure, let me send you an application" and they fall for it.

I want a duplex or bigger just not sure where to look and how to not get scammed any help would be great