While we don’t condone scamming in any form, we’ve written enough about inept scammers over the years to pick up a few tips on how to avoid being caught so easily. For example, if you’re going to try to swindle people out of thousands of dollars in bogus rental deposits, don’t get greedy and try to hoodwink six different tenants in just a matter of a few weeks.

There’s a woman in Blue Springs, MO, who probably wishes she’d thought of that before she was arrested and charged with six counts of stealing by deceit.

According to the Kansas City Star, the woman leased the house from its actual owner in July but her deposit check bounced. She was subsequently able to make up for that oopsy by paying in cash or cashier’s check.

We’re guessing that this was about the time she started pretending she was the owner, offering to lease the house out to other tenants… if they would just hand over deposits of $1,200. In total, she scammed the six groups of wannabe tenants out of $9,650.

But given that people tend to want to move into a home they just paid to rent, it was inevitable that these six parties might notice the house was getting a bit crowded at some point.

The actual owner of the building caught on after a neighbor tipped him to the fact that some people were trying to move into his house. This led to the police investigation and the eventual arrest of the scammer who as of earlier today was still behind bars.

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