diff --git a/scrapy/conf/__init__.py b/scrapy/conf/__init__.py
index 140a800ba..bf1840181 100644
--- a/scrapy/conf/__init__.py
+++ b/scrapy/conf/__init__.py
@@ -6,9 +6,14 @@ See documentation in docs/topics/settings.rst
 
 import os
 import cPickle as pickle
+import warnings
 
 from scrapy.conf import default_settings
 
+if 'SCRAPYSETTINGS_MODULE' in os.environ:
+    warnings.warn("SCRAPYSETTINGS_MODULE environment variable is deprecated, " \
+        "use SCRAPY_SETTINGS_MODULE instead", DeprecationWarning, stacklevel=2)
+
 import_ = lambda x: __import__(x, {}, {}, [''])
 
 class Settings(object):