If you could make hundreds of dollars a week simply by driving your car to all the places you go anyway, why wouldn't you?
That's the pitch thousands of people saw on Facebook: a chance to make money by putting an ad on their vehicle. Before you bite, consumer expert Amy Davis has a warning that may save you time and trouble.
There is plenty of room on Laura Leal's Buick Rendezvous; real estate she thought she could put to work when she saw an ad on the Katy/ Cypress Area Garage Sale Facebook page.
"I could make $320 a week advertising on my car," Leal told Davis the ad claimed.
Leal sent an email to get more information. Before she knew it, a guy who called himself Richard mailed her a cashier's check for $2450.
He texted instructions separately, telling her to deposit the check into her bank account the same day and then go back the following day to take out everything but her $320 to send to the auto decal expert.
"I thought that was really weird," Leal said. "How someone would be sending me a check, but I would turn around and pay someone for the wrap."
Instead of going to her bank, Leal called the bank on the check, People's South Bank in Colquitt, Georgia.
By phone, a bank employee confirmed the check was bogus.
"She said actually that they had been getting quite a bit of them," Leal said.
Davis discovered the same ad posted on Leal's Katy/Cypress Facebook page was posted on small community Facebook group pages from El Campo to California and North Carolina to New York, making readers assume the car wrap company is right in their community.
"A lot of people that are on these groups are looking to make extra money," Leal told Davis.
But the exact opposite will happen if you follow the directions depositing the check and then pulling money out to send to someone else.
"I would've been overdrawn and owing the bank money," Leal said.
We reached out to the man who posted the ads, going by the name Phil Anderson. His Facebook page shows he lives in Nebraska, but the account could be as phony as the check Leal got in the mail.
"Hopefully now that it's going to be out there, hopefully now they'll stop," Leal said.
We know whoever is behind the ads are still sending out checks because we emailed the same address Leal did to get more information about the opportunity to make money by wrapping our car.
We received the same spiel asking for our information.
