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MISSOULA - University of Montana students are headed back to the Garden City and that means many of them will be looking for housing.

They'll look at the newspaper, at the bulletin board at the UC, and go online to sites like Craigslist. While Craigslist can be a great place for jobs, jewelry, or furniture, it can be a hard place to find a rental.

"Craigslist is pretty accessible and it's a free service, there isn't a lot of checking that goes on," says Beki Hartman, the director of UM's Off Campus Renter Center.

Hartman meets with students who have renter questions and problems and says that recently, many have come to her with scams off of Craigslist.

"A lot of people say they're out of the country and aren't able to show the rental units to the renter," said Hartman.

Students aren't the only ones who have come across the scammer listings.

A Kalispell family looking to relocate in Missoula recently found a house to rent on Craigslist that seemed too good to be true. The rent for the three bedroom house was only $1,000 a month.

"Some of the questions on the application asked what are our dogs names were, if we worked late at night, if we'd be home all day long, those kind of questions. I'm like why would anyone need to know that," said Chara Brown.

The scammer told Brown he was a missionary, and was looking for a kind family to watch the house while he was away. The scammer asked Brown to send the $500 deposit "via Western Union or money gram."

Brown said the scammer also used poor grammar in the emails and called her from out of the country.

But after doing some research, Brown found out the house didn't even belong to the person from the emails.

"I mean anyone could have found that and totally have fallen for it, so we just think Craigslist needs to be monitored and things like that," said Brown.

Many of the scammers are using listings in Missoula, but just aren't the owners. They price the rentals below value, and hope someone will take a bite.

"Just be really careful and if it looks to good to be true, it just might be," said Brown.

"Some of the Craigslist scams say to drive by the house and see if you like it and then send them the money, but you want to be able to actually look at the unit inside and talk to the person in real life," said Hartman.

Hartman is urging all of the student renters that come to see her, to be smart renters and never send money over email or the phone. She says if you can't be in Missoula to view the house, have a friend stop by and look over the lease.

Later this month the University of Montana will launch an online housing finder that's open to everyone in the community. Every listing on their site will be reviewed by a staff member, to make sure it isn't a scam.