TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — It seemed like the perfect short-term rental, a condo on Siesta Key in Sarasota County.

While staying in a condo at Crystal Sands, Nancy Kimmes saw an ad and jumped at the chance at a temporary rental that was supposed to rent between August and December.

So in May, she responded to the online ad.

“We were so excited because it was right here in Crystal Sands, and we loved it, and this is where we wanted to be so I found it on Redfin, Zillow, Truilia,” Kimmes said. “It was on all of the sites.”

Kimmes was relocating from California and thought this would be the perfect place to start her new chapter.

She spoke with the supposed owner on the phone and filled out the application. Kimmes is a real estate agent and said the paperwork looked legit, and her background search of the owner checked out.

Within minutes of her $10,000 wire transfer for the deposit, she thought to ask a follow-up question.

“I then asked the fraudster, I asked him what parking space will I get, and he gave me two parking spaces,” Kimmes said. “Well, I knew that wasn’t correct because I was staying here and you only get one parking space.”

It was then that the whole thing unraveled.

Kimmes said she immediately called her bank, and the Sarasota County Sheriff’s office was able to follow the money.

But when she called Better Call Behnken, it remained frozen at the crook’s bank, and she said she got the runaround about a complicated process to get that money back.

Kimmes said she called me for help reaching the right people to get her money and to warn others that just because a rental agreement looks legit, that doesn’t mean it is.