You know all of those emails you used to get, saying that the wife, husband, child, or lawyer of some major figure in Nigeria, South Africa, or Timbuktu were ready to send you forty thousand billion dollars if you would just pay a small fee?

Well, there are lots of scams quite like that currently revolving around rental properties. It is disheartening — and easy to fall for, if you are desperate for a place to live.

The people behind these scams count on that. They also count on our eagerness to get a good deal. The house of your dreams might be available for one thousand a month … but the owner is out of the country, has no one in state to talk to you, so you have to pay a couple of hundred dollars to get the key to the property.

Beware of such scams. Do not let your eagerness blind you.