The State College Police Department is encouraging those subletting apartments to beware of an online rent scam that uses counterfeit money orders.

Sgt. Mark Argiro said that at least two State College residents recently reported a scam in which victims advertising apartments for rent on StateCollege.com would receive a check or money order for a larger amount than asked for.

The victims would then be asked to send back the difference, at which point the original money order or check deposited to their accounts would bounce, Argiro said.

"These scams occur in many different forms," Argiro said. "That's why we always say 'If it looks too good to be true, it probably is.' "

Eric Flanigan (senior-information sciences and technology) said he encountered a similar scam when he advertised his apartment as a summer sublet for $2,000 on the Penn State Daily Jolt Web site, psu.dailyjolt.com.

"Basically, I was on the Daily Jolt and a girl contacted me and she said she was studying abroad, and she needed the sublet for the summer," he said.

Flanigan said the situation seemed normal until he received a check for a larger amount of money than he expected.

"She sent me a money order for $4,000 instead of $2,000," he said. "She asked for $3,000 back, explaining she needed it for plane tickets and moving expenses and she would pay me back the extra [money]."

Flanigan said he was suspicious, and when he took the money order to be deposited at Citizens Bank, 122 W. College Ave., they found it was counterfeit.

"The thing most people don't know is that a money order will show as cash for a few weeks [in an account]," he said.

Citizens Bank spokesman Matt Ciciarelli said a money order can take some time to bounce.

"It's increasingly easy to counterfeit them and harder to spot," he said. "They're a hot item to counterfeit."

Argiro said the scam that Flanigan described is the "exact same kind" of scam as the one reported on StateCollege.com.

The type of scam is very common and very difficult to trace, Argiro said.

"It's very difficult to get the money back," he said.

"Most local law enforcement agencies do not have the resources. We forward it to federal agencies," Argiro added.

Argiro added that cases involving only a few thousand dollars usually do not receive high federal priority.

Penn State University Police said they have not had any incidents of rent scams being reported to them because the Office of Housing facilitates room assignments.

"Because all of our contracts are through the housing office there is no hand-to-hand exchange ... through sublets," Police Supervisor Tyrone Parham said.