PORTLAND, Ore. -- A five-bedroom house for $1,200 per month was too good to be true for a Portland woman recently in search of a home.

April Harrington said a Craigslist.org scam aimed to fool local renters. The scammer had pirated a local homeowner's ad on the popular classified listing site.

"Supposedly, we're to wire her the money, she would mail me the key and then I could move in," Harrington said. "But I wouldn’t actually see the home inside before that."

The scam asked for the money to be sent to an address in Nigeria.

Neighbors said they saw other people, aside from Harrington, roaming around the house over the weekend.

The family who is actually renting out the home lives in Cedar Hills.

"I felt bad if anybody fell for the story," said Patty Lawler, the house owner.

Harrington said she sent several scolding e-mails to the fake owner of the home. She said she copied in some of Craigslist's cardinal rules for evading scammers, which include never wiring money.

She tried to get the number of the ad and complain to Craigslist, but the ad was no longer on the site.

Woman Warns Of Craigslist Renter Scam