Rental Scams

Are rental scams common in Salem? Our family is looking at relocating to the city, and I started reaching out to rentals - I was surprised that the first rental I reached out to already seems to be a scam (red flags like the owner out of town, can’t show it to us in person, wants to mail us the keys, etc.). We are coming from an area with wildly competitive rentals and this happens all the time here, so I have been on high alert (definitely didn’t expect to run into scams in Salem!). Does anyone have any good tips or recommendations on finding rentals? Thanks in advance! :)