There are 36 million households in America that pay rent.

A lot of those renters go online to find a place to live, and some end up being duped after they thought they found the perfect home.

An Auburn man tells KIRO 7 Consumer Investigator David Quinlan how his rental house was hijacked by online scammers and his worries that potential renters may have been ripped off.

Jerry Wilson has had it!

Jerry: "It's nothing more than cyber terrorism. I am very upset about it."

He said within a week of posting his rental house on Craigslist, someone hijacked it.

Jerry: "They copied all of our information including inside pictures and outside pictures."

Jerry was renting his remodeled four bedroom house for $1,600 a month.

But when an impostor ad showed up on Craigslist offering the same house for $600 less, things got out of hand.

Jerry: "Within one day I had six people show up and every one of them I told to beware that there is fraud going on."

The bogus ad not only described Jerry's house, it listed directions, included pictures and even warned of fraud above the headline.

Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna said Jerry's experience is a very common problem --so common that the same thing happened to McKenna's nephew.

He was trying to rent out a house in Pierce County.

McKenna: "You can imagine how disturbing it might be to the legitimate renter and to have people come to your door asking to rent the place you're living in."

McKenna says the scammers post legitimate properties online at discount prices. If someone's interested they'd cut a check or wire the money in exchange for the keys.

Jerry: "They're using my property to scam people who cannot afford to lose that kind of money and they're using my previous renter's name."

Jerry reported the problem to Craigslist. The post was removed, but reappeared the next day. Jerry's not sure if anyone fell for the scam, but fears the day when someone pulls up to his house with a moving van.

Jerry: "I want him caught. Whatever it takes."

The Attorney General says there have even been reports of scammers meeting potential customers at the property for a showing.

He says most of the scammers, however, live overseas and therefore, are difficult to catch.

Get advice to renters from the Better Business Bureau