Intern Housing Advice: $500 a month will not get you an apartment in Penn Quarter

Followup from Intern Housing Advice: Scope your location. This is my advice to young ones who are coming here from where ever for an internship, fellowship or whatever to avoid the scams that haunt the housing boards on Craigslist.
Pretty much almost all the listings on Craigslist for DC apartments under $600, if they actually are in DC not College Park or Crystal City, smell fishy or are mislisted. This is obviously a scam, using someone elses pictures. Well obvious to someone familiar with the city.
So let me quickly go over the scam. Say you are an intern looking for housing and you see this great ad for an apartment in DC for $450. You email the contact in the ad and they are willing to rent it to you sight unseen. You then send/wire/Paypal the deposit+ 1st month’s rent or the application fee to this person you don’t know from Adam, for a place you’ve never set foot in, and your money is gone.
Cheap rent is to be had in group houses and rooms for rent. Typically an honest ad will give an intersection the place is near and mention the neighborhood it’s in. Group houses may also be funished, or at least have furnishings left over from the last roommate.