You will find many scams and con artists out there as well some day.Chalk this experience as a success.

I ran into a similar scam last summer here in Dallas.

With CL, 2 key words, "foreclosure" and "deposit" = SCAM!

My wife and I got started in real estate after attending one of the free "teaser's" that are put together to sell these scams.

He said that everything is virtual and i needed a program called REIwebtools. the thing is that the program cost about $1500 plus $97 each month. i was just wondering if anyone has tried it and if so is it real or a scam. im looking so desperately in my area for investors willing to pass down their knowledge to me.

There is nothing wrong with paying for your education but many real estate investing gurus are a scam In general the more expensive the are the more likely they are a scam. 

These guys completely scammed me and many others.

Last thing is I would be careful, maybe its just me being skeptical, but this sounds like a scam to me.

This has got to be a scam or is this normally how hard money works?

This is either her being scammed by someone or her scamming someone, stay away.If you have such little faith in her, tell her what you are going to do, if you receive the check you will count it as her last month's rent and you are not going to give her the cash.Or I guess you could give her the option, if you get the check, you keep it as last month's rent or you return it, let her decide... what ever you do, put it in writing, no telling how thin the ice is over here.