Dozens of people searching for housing on Craigslist are getting scammed, with Erie victims losing thousands of dollars.      


"I don't want anybody else to go through what I went through," said Shianna Carlisle of Erie, who paid $600 for a renters deposit on Tuesday.


After she sent the money, she realized she got scammed.


"They're stealing our photos off of different websites and using them to seem as if they've been at in the home, and the home is theirs," said Pat Doran, a realtor at Howard Hanna on W. 12th Street. "People are sending money to receive keys and a signed lease. And unfortunately, it's just not happening," he said.


Carlisle and her husband thought they had found the perfect place - a Craigslist post advertised the two-bedroom home at 245 E. 33rd Street for $550 a month.


She exchanged emails with the fake landlord,  talked to someone on the phone, and even got a copy of the lease.


Some red flags: the scammers said they're based in Philadelphia and couldn't meet, and they only process payments through Wal-Mart money grams.


"The agreement was, I send $600, they send me the keys, and then I send $550 more," Carlisle said. ''It was so appealing and such a good deal that it was too good to be true, pretty much. I was so eager and so blinded by the excitement that I really didn't see it until today," she said.


Just on Monday, another scam victim paid $1,250 for a deposit to rent the exact same house that caught Carlisle's eye.


Realtors say while they've seen similar scams before, right now, the scam rates are through the roof. More than 30 people have called the W. 12th Street Howard Hanna in the last two weeks. At least four victims shelled out cash.


"People are getting taken advantage of. We've seen it in the past and it's come up quite a bit lately," Doran said.


Howard Hanna says their company doesn't post listings on Craigslist.


They advise  people to be wary of rent rates that seem like too great of deal, and to always meet the leaser in person.