If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

For at least six months, Pottle Realty Rental Director Traci Blackman has been finding some of the rental properties on the Boothbay Harbor realty company's website on Craigslist website – but Blackman didn't put them there.

“I scour Craigslist often to check listings. The Roads End home is not the only one someone has been using to scam people. And, it's very easy to do; all anyone has to do is copy information from a website, and paste it into a post,” Blackman said.

Scammers will lift photos and descriptions of properties. Sometimes they know the name of the owner, other times they know enough about the area or find names of people who live on the road through Google or other search engines; just enough to make it all seem plausible.

Take the case on Roads End. A couple from Woolwich arrived at the property the week of March 18 and were observed by Bob and Jean McKay, who also live on the road.

Bob went over to speak with the couple, who told him they were going to be renting the home for three years while the owners, a Mr. and Mrs. McEvoy, were in Africa working for a children's relief fund. The scammers used resident George McEvoy's last name. McEvoy does not own the property, but he does reside on the road.

“They said Mr. McEvoy was a philanthropist and was working for a children's relief fund there,” Bob McKay said. “The rent included utilities because he wanted the house to be occupied. They asked me if he knew the owner. I said I did, but his name was not McEvoy, he was not in Africa and it all sounded like a scam.”

When he asked them how they heard about the house, they told him Craigslist.

McKay said the couple had a check for a deposit or down payment that they planned to mail as soon as they left the property.

One week later a woman drove up to the house, parked and got out to walk around the property. This time Jean McKay went over to speak to her. Same story, right down to the check.

After another person left disappointed, Jean McKay decided to speak to McEvoy's secretary (since her employer's name was being used as part of a scam). Together they decided to put up a sign to warn people about the scam before they got out of their cars.

Blackman said whenever she finds one of their listings, she immediately uses the email provided on Craigslist to report the post as a scam.

“And they do, for a few weeks or a month, and then they put it back up,” Blackman said. The scam is always that the homeowner will be away for years at a time in Africa or Jamaica. "I have people calling or emailing me all of the time, asking if a listing is a scam.”

And her answer is almost always yes.

“The Internet can be a wonderful thing, but, if someone can take information off our website and use it falsely, they can do it to anyone,” Blackman said.

Linda Conti, Chief of the Attorney General's Consumer Protection Division, received reports about this type of rental scam for the first time a couple of years ago.  

Conti said it's easier to use summer rentals or the home of someone who is away on a job assignment for a long period of time. In small communities, most residents know each other, or know of one another; and for those without first-hand knowledge of the area, it could still seem completely believable to arrange rent with someone other than the homeowner.

In either case, the potential renter/victim knows first hand (or through the Craigslist listing) that the owner is away. And, as Conti pointed out, once you've been scammed out of money, it is impossible to get it back.

“We've had several go-rounds with Craigslist on various things in the past,” Conti said. “On the Internet it's buyer beware. The state can't regulate it. Consumers must be diligent. If you are looking for a home, they should call the town office or chamber of commerce in the town they plan to visit to find one. Stay away from Craigslist.”

For rental agents or realty companies that list properties on their own websites, Conti's advice was simple. “Put up a notice stating (you) do not advertise on Craigslist.”

Read more about scams in Maine here.