Apartment rental scam? Or am I paranoid?

I am moving to Oakland, CA in October for work, and I've been trying to find an apartment remotely (I'm currently living on the east coast). This is always tricky because you can't go see the place in person or meet the landlord face-to-face. I found a very good deal on Craigslist for a 1 bedroom apartment. I know that at least the building is legit because my boss used to live there. So, I emailed the landlord. From the start, several red flags started showing up. I'm curious to see if people think this is a scam or if I'm just being paranoid.

Here's a list of facts about the situation, in no particular order.

• Unit was listed at around $1800 per month. Similar units in this area (similar size, amenities, and so on) are more in the $2300 range. So, the rent seems too good to be true right off the bat.

• Two days after the post went up, it was flagged for removal by the Craigslist community. I know that Craigslist is sort of self-moderated, so I'm not sure if the removal was for any particular reason. How do people decide that it's a scam and flag it?

• The original posting doesn't list any contact information.

• Listing is directly from the landlord, not from a property management company.

• Photos on the listing appear to be from a previous real estate listing when the condo was last purchased in 2013.

• Landlord only used his first name with me for several emails back and forth. I had to push in order to eventually get the last name.

• Using the name and phone number, I could not find the landlord on the white pages. Also checked the US census database, and I found some matches on that name, but not in Oakland.

• Doing a reverse lookup on the phone number said that it was a landline in Los Angeles, with no name associated with the number. I realize it's possible to transfer landline numbers these days, but it's weird that the number is associated with LA when he claims to be living in Oakland.

• Despite being a US number, the automated voicemail message has a very strong UK accent. Could it be overseas call-forwarding?

• Emails from the landlord always came at odd times (3 AM local time, for example), and sometimes it takes over two days to get a response to an email.

• I called the register of deeds and assessors office and wasn't able to confirm that the landlord's name matches the owner of the condo in question. It was very hard to get the information and the person I spoke on the phone with wasn't entirely sure that she was even looking at the right parcel number, so I'm not sure how accurate this is (Seriously California, get your shit together).

• Original posting on Craigslist did not include an apartment number, just the building address. I was able to eventually figure out which apartment it actually was by looking at the photos and then doing some hunting on real estate listing websites.

• Landlord requires 1st month rent plus security deposit to be direct deposited into a bank account - he's given me the account number. The name on the account does not match his name; he claims that this is his daughter's bank account, and she acts as property manager and accountant for him.

• Unable to find his daughter in white pages (she has a very generic name, but no hits in Oakland).

• His daughter has a different last name than he does.

• He has given me his home address (an apartment complex near the rental unit) but he gets very defensive when I ask for the exact apartment number. He has refused to give it to me thus far. So I only know the building.

• He's offering the place either furnished or unfurnished and it doesn't affect the monthly rent. I would expect a rent increase for a furnished place, or at least a bigger security deposit.

• I'm unable to find any record of his name associated with the apartment complex he said he lives in currently.

• I asked to schedule a visit (I could have a friend go in my place) but he says the current tenants aren't able to accommodate that until two weeks from now.

• He says that he has other interested parties and if I don't make the deposit tomorrow, I won't get the apartment. This could be true, but it could also be a way of pressuring me to make a dumb decision.

• I asked where I should send rent checks in the future after moving in, and he says he won't provide an address until after I have moved in.

• His email address is... weird. It's a combination of words like "rental" and "unit" and "owner."

• Reverse search on the email address yields no leads.

Basically, I can't figure out if this is a real person or not. I'm just afraid that I deposit the money and have no legal recourse for tracking the guy down if it's a scam. The only information I have about him is: *Name *Address (minus apartment number) *Phone Number *Email *Bank Account Number (not his, but somebody else's)

If I could just get a photo of his driver's license or some other form of ID, I'd at least have a way to go after him if it's really a scam.

So what do you think? Scam?