"This is not the first warning we've issued regarding bogus ads that list non existent houses for rent. One Tampa homeowner discovered this particular scheme continues to catch consumers.
It wasn't until Paul Streicher began to show his Carrollwood house did he realize someone had hi jacked his on line listing.
Streicher found his home advertised for rent on Craigslist attached to a California number but the fraudster failed to remove Streicher's cell number from the original ad.
The phone number rings to a company that identifies themselves as Sun Financial. Sun financial blamed the bogus ad on an unnamed affiliate.
Hillsborough County Consumer Protection's Eric Olsen says just last October the state of California issued warnings to prospective renters about imposter landlords.
Two years ago we aired a similar story involving a warning from the FBI.
Often in these cases consumers are instructed to wire hundreds of dollars in deposit money that is almost never recovered.
In other instances the bad guys collect enough personal information to steal the applicant's identity which can take months, sometimes years for the victim to recover.
You can report this type of activity to the FBI's internet crime complaint center. Http://www.ic3.gov/complaint/default.aspx