CINCINNATI — With new cars so expensive, and the cost of auto insurance constantly rising, wouldn't it be great to get paid to drive your car?
That's the lure of car wrap advertising. But before you sign up, you need to avoid the many scams targeting job hunters.
Natasha Forte is among those getting paid to drive.
She earns $100 a month advertising a local law firm on her Chevy Trax, which she drives as an Uber driver (you'll see why that's important below).
"I have had three assignments with wraps," she said, " and I can say that you can get cars wrapped legitimately."
But she says it took a while to find this law firm deal, because several that she applied for turned out to be scams.
Almost fell for energy drink scam
"I found this link to Reign Body Fuel energy drink," she recalls, " that was offering a car decal program that was paying $700 a week."
The pay seemed a little too good to be true, but she signed up anyway, and in a few days received a FedEx envelope containing a check for almost $4,000.
"They instructed me to deposit this check, and as soon as the money was made available to call these people who would wrap my car," she said.
But Forte soon became suspicious, because she was instructed to hand the cash to a courier.
Something didn't feel right, so she stopped.
And that's a good thing.
The FTC warns on its website that thousands of people have fallen for car wrap scams, and in most cases have cashed the check, handed the money to a delivery person, then learned that the check bounced, costing them $3,000 or more.
The FTC says most scams involve the names of energy drinks like Monster, Red Bull, or soft drinks like Pepsi and Dr Pepper. Reign Body Fuel had nothing to do with the offer Forte received.
Legitimate car wrapping companies
The Penny Hoarder lists three legitimate car wrapping companies that you may want to reach out to, if you are looking to earn money like Forte was.
It suggests trying:
However, the Penny Hoarder says gig drivers are preferred by these companies, because of the hours they spend driving.
If you simply drive your car back and forth to a job, or the grocery store, you will probably not qualify.
It helps if you are already an Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, or similar driver who is on the road for hours each day.
Some other companies say you don't need to be a gig driver to qualify, but several of them have poor ratings at the Better Business Bureau. Check them out at www.bbb.org before you sign up.
Natascha Forte --who now advertises her local law firm through Carvertise -- says if you get a big check before you do any work, beware.
"If I gave them the money they asked for," she said, "they would have disappeared with the cash, and that's just a scam."
That way you don't waste your money.
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