A new scam...

[Footbag]

My wife is helping her bother find an apartment in NYC during an internship. She told me that they had found a nice apartment, and are making arrangements to see it. Then she told me the owner wanted to ensure that her brother could afford the apartment by having him send a Western Union payment to someone he knows and trusts in the city.
I thought that sounded odd, so I told her to respond that he would like to see the apartment and will come with cash in hand. She responded that she had been scammed and would only do it that way.
I told my wife to google a few of the keywords that came up in the scam(Western Union, trusted friend, apartment) She said she searched and didn't think it was a scam, or maybe she didn't want it to be a scam. Sure enough, I Googled, it's a common scam.
As soon as you send proof that you transferred the money to a "trusted" source, the scammer takes the proof and gets the cash. The whole time, it is implied that only the person who sent or received the money can get it from Western Union. That is not true. Anyone with a photocopy of a receipt can get the money.