Scammers use car wrapping get-rich-quick scheme as front

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Fake check scam illustration (Credit: MGN)

Have you seen cars driving around town wrapped with advertisements? It could be an easy way to make money, but it could also be a scam.

How does the car wrap scam work?

First, you are made an offer to let them wrap your car to advertise a product, and then you watch the money roll in.

Car wrap advertising scam text message.

But really, it’s both an employment scam and a check-kiting scam wrapped in one. Check-kiting is when the check is written from an account where funds don’t really exist.

You get that letter in the mail along with a check. With it are instructions on how to get your car wrapped.

Sometimes it can even start with a text message.

LINK: Better Business Bureau Scam Tracker

Where the scam takes place is the fake check they send you in the mail, explains Bryan Oglesby with the Better Business Bureau. “They asked you to deposit that check. And then quickly, they’re going to ask you to take that money and pay their vendor, which is the vendor that wraps the car for them. And once you send your real money to the vendor, that’s where you’re losing out, you’re sending your real money to the scammer, and you’re out that money they sent to you because it’s fake money; it does not exist.”

After sending money through a cash app like Venmo, PayPal, or CashApp, to the “decal agent,” the check ultimately bounces, and you never hear back from that vendor.

Besides, do you really want to drive around in a wrapped car?

MORE: Wrapping up 2020 with more car wrap scams

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