APARTMENT HUNTING in PARIS big SCAMS out there!

I am writing this post to get an important warning out there for anyone and everyone who is looking to rent an apartment in Paris... Awhile back I posted about a big apartment scam on Craig's list Paris but there seems to be other really bad scams out there, as well, that don't involve Craig's list. Please take caution because this just happened to a friend of mine and it involves a huge chunk of money that was lost, not to mention the disappointment of NOT getting the apartment that she believed she was renting. Plus the sheer anger and frustration of being scammed. I have a link to an article in French, so if you read French, please see the article here. If not, here is a rough summary of what it is about...

Apartment SCAM in Paris - subletting an apt. in Paris seems to be the big thing right now...
If you sublet an apartment from someone you have virtually NO recourse if you are
scammed. The scammers are very thorough and come equipped with false
contracts, false copies of their identity- (i.e. copies of passport, edf receipts, id. cards..)
They ask for cash for the first month- usually over 1000 euros... and give you keys
to an apt. they have shown to you, that happens to already be rented but the person is out of town and the scammers have somehow gotten ahold of their keys.

The scammers rent the same apt. to multiple people, so they really make out good.. And, when you go to the police to file a report, the police basically tell you there is nothing they can
do... PLEASE warn people about this scam... My friend lost a big sum of money from
this scam about 2 weeks ago... Get the word out!!