[Ohiogirl]

Good idea to check online (County Tax assessor websites) to confirm that the owner's name matches the one you are sending the check to, although I might not have thought of that, either, until I got scammed.

Did you send the check to a post office box? That would be another red flag.

Tenants in the Villages are, on the whole, much better than tenants in the outside world - they are usually retired and gentle on your home. Hadn't occurred to me that you had to watch out for landlords, since I was on the other end (renting out my villa) for 4 years.

Also, try to get something in the lease about what your (tenant's) rights (return of deposit and/or advanced rent) are if the owner ends up canceling for any reason (e.g., sells the property or decides to use it themselves) Sometimes people end up retiring and moving down sooner than they thought, or have to sell for various reasons. That happens also. Friends of mine didn't lose money, but had to scramble at the last minute for an available rental when their potential landlord sold out. They could have had some type of compensation if this had been addressed in the lease.

In your case, with a crook that is hard to find, it probably turns out not to be worth the expense of pursuing them legally, but, boy, what a tough break.

On the landlord side, I think I was contacted by a potential scammer, who wanted my bank account # and routing number for a direct deposit from overseas. I asked for a postal money order instead, and never heard from the prospective tenant again.