Hawai'i County police are warning the public about a scam involving vacation rentals.

A person posing as a college student makes arrangements to rent a unit and then sends what looks like a check from a university as a deposit via FedEx.

In an e-mail, the sender claims that the university has written a grant check that includes both the amount of the rental and the student's airfare. The sender asks the recipient to deposit the check in the recipient's bank account and then to send the difference by Western Union to an address that supposedly belongs to the student's travel agent.

A Kailua, Kona woman reported this past Tuesday that she received such a check. Police have confirmed it was a scam.