Yes. Rental scams are common, and one ugly variant advertises a home the owner is still living in, sometimes without the owner knowing. These show up most on open marketplaces like Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace. In one case, a scammer listed an occupied house for rent and told applicants not to knock. Someone knocked anyway and found an elderly couple who had lived there for decades and knew nothing about the listing. The red flags are consistent: - The listing tells you not to visit or knock. - A deposit is requested by Zelle, Venmo, or PayPal before you've seen the inside. - There's no normal application, credit check, or background check. - The rent is priced noticeably below comparable homes. Protect yourself before any money moves. Verify the listing through a licensed real estate agent, or confirm who actually owns the property. Applying through a platform that runs payments and applications through its own system adds a layer of safety over paying an individual directly. And when a deal looks too good and someone is rushing you to pay sight unseen, treat that as the scam it usually is.