KHON2’s Action Line is seeing a new trend. It involves fake cashier's checks, and by the time the bank catches on, it's often too late.

They came to America looking for an education in business. They got a crash course in fraud.

"I thought that one was 100% to be like cash, just take it to the bank," said Feng Pei, a University of Hawaii student.

He's talking about a $4,500 cashiers check. He got it in the mail from a person posing as a potential roommate who replied to their Craigslist ad on the internet. The amount was way more than the deposit and first month's rent.

"He said he just want me to do him a favor," Pei said.

The favor? Cash the check, keep the rent and deposit, and wire back the difference, about $3,000. But that wasn't all.

"He wants me to do him another favor," Pei said.

Another favor, within days another check, another wire transfer for thousands of dollars. It seemed legitimate because it was another cashier's check.

"For the cashiers check it's different,” Pei said. “It's not like a personal check."

These checks really were different, a fake cashier's checks. By the time the bank found out they were counterfeit, the wired money was long gone to the scam artist. It's a problem many banks in Hawaii are facing.

"They send you a check and then as you to wire money back for some reason, then the check comes back as counterfeit," Nora Forsythe, who works in the First Hawaiian Bank department that watches out for fraud.

But local banks are just getting ramped up on what to watch out for. And many of these cashier's checks are sailing through.

"The bank teller didn't tell us anything about that. Didn't tell us, oh, we need to hold this back," said Ningjin Miao, Pei’s friend and roommate.

In Pei’s case the bank recouped nearly $8,000 from the customer to cover the bad checks.

"It's a lot of money to me, because this is my parents, their whole life savings to let me come to the states, to take education, to pay the tuition," Pei said.

Many banks say the liability does rest on the person trying to cash the check even if they believed it was legitimate. But with a new scam in town, the banks and the customers should be on guard.

"When in doubt, always call,” Forsythe said. “Call your bank, or the financial institution that you deal with. Make sure they check your accounts and verify the information."

Watch out for overpayments on items if you're selling on the internet. They may ask for the difference wired back, then the check turns out to be bad. Also, sweepstakes scams, large check amounts asking for a "service fee" returned by wire.

If you have a consumer complaint, call Action Line at 591-0222.