MANSFIELD — Otto Schmidt was taken by surprise when a woman stopped him while he was mowing one day last autumn.

“She just drove up and said, ‘I understand your house is for rent’,” the Mansfield man said. “I said, ‘No, it’s for sale.'”

Schmidt, 84, said the woman was very specific.

“She said someone called her and told her my house was for rent for $600 a month,” he said of his 1052 Woodland Road home, which is still on the market. “She said they got the information off of Craigslist.”

The encounter left Schmidt confused, but was familiar to his Realtor, Hilda Lamp, of Haring Realty.

With 25 years in the business, Lamp said she has seen her share of Craigslist scams.

In most cases, con artists will pull home photos listed on real estate websites and list the property on Craigslist for rent.

“In order to get the keys, it usually tells you to send money to a certain place and then they’ll get the keys mailed to them,” Lamp said. “There’s your first red flag.”

Many times, interested parties will drive by the homes, find the real estate agent’s phone number and call them directly.

Jim Wilson, a 16-year agent with Sluss Realty, said he has experienced similar scenarios numerous times.

“It is just dreadful,” Wilson said. “And what a complete waste of time. You get a call, go show a house, they’re looking around and the next thing you know the people say, ‘So you’re asking $650 a month for rent?’

“It is just really frustrating.”

Wilson said scammers have different purposes.

“Some do ask for money, but others will talk people into giving out personal information saying things like, ‘We need to check your history,’ ” he said. “It’s usually younger people who fall for this kind of thing or those who lack some common sense. You would think that people would drive by, see that the house is for sale and that would be the end of it.”

Sluss Realty President Bix Sluss advises victims to call the Attorney General’s office.

“If they get enough complaints, hopefully they’ll do something about this,” Sluss said. “There is pretty much nothing we can do locally.”

Sluss said a call to the Department of Commerce went nowhere.

“They said to sue (Craigslist). Good luck doing that,” he said. “They didn’t provide me any hope. There needs to be laws in place to stop this. People blame us, but we didn’t do it, and it’s very frustrating because there’s not a darn thing we can do about it.”

Skip Yarger, of Coldwell Banker Realtors, said he recently handled a home placed on Craigslist in which an interested young woman sent $700 to the listed address and showed up at the home for the keys.

“The people who are doing this are out of the country. Not even Craigslist has control over this,” he said. “This was the second time it’s happened to a house I’m selling. I get alerted because people research the house and find me.”

In both cases, Yarger said he has emailed the lister.

“I said, ‘I am the listing agent and there are copyright laws’ and that I would be reporting them,’ ” he said. “But there’s nothing really you can do about it.”

In the most recent case, Yarger said the homeowner had interested people trespass onto the property and peek through her windows.

“When people ask for money up front in these ads, that’s when you should know something isn’t right,” he said.

Schmidt said he wasn’t surprised by all the renting interest in his two-story brick home listed for $79,500.

“People don’t have enough money to buy it, but they can afford to rent monthly,” he said. “I don’t know much about Craigslist, but people definitely need to be careful with who they’re dealing with.”