If a student responded to the scammer’s initial contact, the scammer would send the first month’s rent and a deposit, as well as an additional $2,000. The additional amount varied for some students, including Berger. Berger received a check for $2,950.

Berger said she was instructed to use a prepaid card called Green Dot Moneypak to pay $2,200 to the unnamed financier of the check, because the scammer said they overpaid by that amount. Berger sent the numbers of the cards through email to the scammer.

“There were many times I should have realized what was going on,” she said. “I pictured an international student with no place to live.”

The problem arose when the check sent to Berger for $2,950 bounced because it was a fraudulent check. The $2,200 — the amount Berger agreed to send back — already was sent to the scammer through the cards, and Berger was out of luck.

“The biggest thing to do is sit back and analyze everything,” she said. “I know I’m not getting my money back, but I want to spread awareness about this and help catch whoever did it.”

When The State News tried to contact the scammer with the phone number given, the Gainesville, Fla. area code number would redirect to a number with a 248 area code. The person who answered the phone said the scammer was using his number erroneously and said he’d received numerous calls from students hoping to reach Wendy, but declined to comment further.

Berger has since filed two police reports: one with the East Lansing Police Department and one with the police department in her hometown of Huron, Ohio.

East Lansing police Capt. Jeff Murphy said he personally was not aware of this incident, but said fraud scams like this are not uncommon.

“All it takes is someone who is convincing,” he said. “This kind of thing happens a lot, not just here.”

Some students were lucky to back out of the agreement before they got involved too deeply. Elementary education senior Kiersten Kelly said the typos in the original message tipped her off.

“(The scammer) used many errors in her writing,” Kelly said. ”She always demanded that I respond to her emails quickly. It got to the point where it got rather annoying.”

Kelly did not end up sending the scammer any money and called the police, who reportedly told her they couldn’t file a report because no crime had been committed.

Kelly said her communication with the scammer stopped after the scammer sent her $2,000 more than the two parties agreed upon.

“She responded to the same post twice in the same day (with the same message),” she said.

Kelly said she looked up the tracking number and saw that the check started in Las Vegas, but the bank was in New Jersey. Kelly said the scammer would not give her the name of the financier sending her the check.

Murphy said students can get desperate if they need to sublease their apartment, and when that desperation sets in, safeguards tend to come down.

“All of a sudden, this person looks like they are going to come in and save the day, so you do something you would normally be cautious about,” he said.

Murphy said research is important to avoid fraud and cautioned that if it sounds to good to be true, it probably is.