Lisa Coram knows too well how manipulative scammers can be.
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The Port Macquarie resident couldn't believe her luck when she saw an advertisement on Facebook earlier this month for a house to rent in the area.
It looked like a bargain so Ms Coram emailed the contact person immediately.
The lady told her she lived overseas and was working as a Christian missionary.
The pair conversed through email over the weekend.
Ms Coram was then asked to transfer $1200 to secure the property.
Something in her gut told her it wasn't right.
"There were just little red flags, like she gave me all these different email addresses to transfer the money through PayPal," she said.
Her instincts proved right and she later found out it was a scam.
"It made me feel like I was stupid, how could I almost fall for something like that?" she said.
Ms Coram's story comes as the public is being warned about scams targeting Port Macquarie renters after a local man lost a week's worth of wages through a scam this week.
Owner of Percival Property in Port Macquarie Michael Percival said the situation was concerning.
"We advertised a property on Facebook and that Facebook advertisement was replicated by a scammer with a different rental amount and a different email address," Mr Percival said.
"There was a number of responses to that fake ad, unfortunately we are aware of one potential tenant that actually paid money into a fake account to secure the property before finding out it was just a scam. "
Mr Percival advises people not to pay any money or do "anything purely online because you are at risk of being scammed".
"Meet the owners or a real estate agent first," he said.
"Never ever pay any money without seeing a property."
