Searching For A New Rental? Beware of scams!

So recently, I have been doing a little scouting around Craigslist to see how other rental properties around the area compare to our humble abode.  I have been coming across a number of scams.  Here are some tips to weed them out:

• The rent is really low for the area.  (Seriously, a "3BR huge home in KOP" for $631/month??)
• The contact number is out of town.
• When you contact them, they ask for your email address to "send you information".
• If you leave a message and no one calls you back within a couple of hours. (Real owners or real estate agents or rental managers always get back to you ASAP.)

Never ever give out any personal information without seeing the property in person first.  Not your last name, email address, home phone number (cell phone is okay because they do need one way of contacting you and cell phone numbers are not easily traced by the general public), definitely not any financial information and never your Social Security number.  If they pressure you to give information because "we have many people calling us about this property.  Are you going to rent it or not?", they are probably not legitimate.  (I responded to one such instance with, "Well, I need to know if you are legit or not." and was promptly hung up on.)
 
One more thing: If you see a listing that just has a website link (such as ez.com) -- DO NOT CLICK ON IT!  ez.com is a known tracking website and others may contain worse (such as keystroke programmes and other viruses).  Use common sense when clicking on any links.