Just posting this because I thought it might help someone else.
Someone reached out to me on Facebook about taking over my college apartment for the summer and at first it seemed normal. They went through the application process and paid the fee, so I thought everything was fine. I stupidly reimbursed them for the fee.
After that, things got weird. They told me their company was going to send me money for their first month there, their moving costs, and the application fee reimbursement all together. Then they forwarded me an email saying they would send an electronic check by email and asking for my bank name and mailing information. The way my lease works for a takeover is the new subleaser is only liable if they actually pick up keys and move in.
That part felt very off. The email had weird formatting, asked for a response before the end of the day, and looked a lot like a fake check / overpayment scam. I learned about it after looking into it. At this point my apartment reached out saying she used fake contact information on the lease application and whenever they tried to contact her, the phone number was completely fake. I thought it was more legit because she used a real company letterhead in her emails. When I said I was not comfortable with it, they stopped responding. I had sent her an advance amount of money to help them pay for the insurance once they would have moved in (which is lost) but I am so happy I didn't go through with the transaction. I feel so stupid and naive for getting my hopes up and losing money over this. Everything looked legit and I got fooled.
Just a heads up in case anyone else runs into something similar. Be careful as people are trying to scam college students looking to give their places up for the summer.