Monique Witteveen (left) and Sidney Paine wired rent money to a scam artist who claimed to have a house for rent in Winnipeg. (CBC)A young family that moved to Winnipeg hoping to start a new life is scrambling to find a new home, after falling victim to an internet home-rental scam.

Monique Witteveen and Sidney Paine lined up jobs in Winnipeg while still living in Ontario, and began looking for somewhere to live.

They found a home to rent on the classifieds website Kijiji Canada. After several e-mail exchanges with the landlord, they wired the rent money to seal the deal.

"It was $700, all-inclusive, furnished and three bedrooms. It was just the perfect deal," said Witteveen.

The couple sold all of their belongings in Ontario and moved west. But when they turned up at their new home in the city's Point Douglas neighbourhood last weekend, someone else was already living there.

The couple exchanged several e-mails with the purported landlord, who presented himself as a Winnipeg minister, before wiring him the rent. (CBC)

"It ended up being a scam where somebody else was residing there," Witteveen said. "It was a completely different landlord."

Police have said there's not much they can do. The family sent the money through an international wire transfer service, so the would-be landlord — who posed as a Winnipeg church leader — could be anywhere in the world.

"I kind of feel like an idiot for falling into everything, you know," said Witteveen.

Police say rent scams like this are rare in Winnipeg, but it's one of many ways fraud artists make off with money on the internet.

RCMP Cpl. Leslie Dolhun recommends people renting an apartment online do the same type of checks as they would in person.

Witteveen and Paine didn't discover they had been scammed until they had sold all of their belongings and arrived at the house they thought would be their home in Winnipeg. (CBC)

"Cross-reference the information, look in the phone book, contact someone you know in the city and find out if it's a legitimate business," he said.

"Make some other inquiries beyond just talking to someone by e-mail."

For now, Witteveen and Paine are staying at a friend's bachelor apartment, scrambling to find a place to live.

"I learned through this whole experience not to trust anybody," said Paine. "That really sucks, because I'm a pretty trusting person."

Witteveen hopes sharing their story will prevent others from making the same mistake: "We're not the first people and we're probably not going to be the last."