When the X-100.3 van pulls up along side, the wrap on the truck, from headlight to rear door, is a traveling billboard.
Black with huge red lettering, the vehicle wrap is one of the most cost-effective advertising methods a company can do to promote itself or a product, and it will last for years.
“Depending on your message, we can simply apply cut vinyl lettering and graphics as we do for the ACHD Commuteride fleet,” says Shane O’Harra, owner of The Sign Center on Fairview Avenue in Boise. “Or apply a mix of cut vinyl with digital print contour cut graphics.”
These wraps, while long-lasting, aren’t cheap to apply. He says installation costs thousands of dollars.
So he was puzzled when he heard a Brand Car proposal. The company, apparently based in England, claims to be a large advertising agency looking for professional drivers. The company wants to “rent” cars, for up to three months, cover them in vinyl decals, and pay the owner to drive about “their normal routines as they usually do.”
Compensation: $400 a week. O’Harra grimaced.
“There are companies that will provide an opportunity to wrap a vehicle and allow you to drive it around,” he says. “But that sounds too good to be true. Maybe they mean up to $400. I don’t know that it’s a scam, but it’s very misleading.”
The email solicitation requires only personal contact information and is seemingly harmless. But reports from around the region indicate this is a typical overpayment scam in which Brand Car sends a forged or counterfeit check for a couple of thousand dollars and tells the recipient to deposit the check, take an upfront payment of $400 and send the remaining money to a third-party business that will install the vehicle decals.
The catch: Once the checks are deposited and money is forwarded, the bank discovers the checks are fraudulent, and the depositor’s account is charged.
“If you were driving in downtown New York you may be able to get that kind of money,” O’Harra says. “But, 400 bucks is probably for a high-travel area, not Boise, Idaho.”
Residents need to be cautious when looking for a way to make extra money. Scammers know budgets are tight, and renting your vehicle out as a billboard at a high price is a tempting offer.
The scam BBB learned about Tuesday afternoon indicated it would be Pepsi products being advertised, but other BBBs have reported other beverages like Monster, Coca Cola and Budweiser. It’s just the scam du jour these days, and scammers are known to contact you through mass emails or even websites where can you can post your resume. Be careful where you give out your personal information.
A red-flag warning on this is a request to forward the money to a third-party provider. Refuse to forward funds to a third party for shipping, services or other reasons. The buyer can work with the third party directly.
Robb Hicken: 947-2115
