Red Bull may give you wings, but if you fall for a scam using its name those wings may fly your cash right out of your bank account. There is a known scam claiming to pay $600 to anyone willing to drive around with their car adorned with Red Bull logos. But alas, this get money for nothing offer exists only above the clouds.
Once again, phishing is to blame. The scammers send email messages riddled with poor grammar and punctuation, promising to pay you merely for driving your car to and fro. They hook their victims by sending an initial check that they ask to be transferred to a money order. The money order is then to be sent to a "decal wrapping company" who will show up and wrap your vehicle. It can be any vehicle of any size or shape, according to them.
However, they are banking on their victims to immediately turn that check into a money order without waiting to see if it clears. Then they get the cash and send it to the fake car wrapping location and before anyone can figure out what happened, their hard earned cash is gone. Alternately, they are asked to wire funds directly from their personal accounts before they can figure out that check is bogus.
Always question any offers that seem too good to be true. They are just that. Never give out personal or confidential information in email messages, whether it's legitimate business or not. Email is not a secure form of communication. Also, if you were contacted about an offer that sounds good, do independent research before replying or contacting anyone and never use personal funds form checking accounts to pay for any advertising campaigns or send money to anyone you don't know. That's just a big red flag.
In addition, take some time to learn how to identify a phishing email message. They go around constantly and often have offers like this one trying to sell "get rich quick" schemes. Don't be one to fall for them.
Red Bull knows of this scam and has an email address set up to where anyone who receives these email messages can forward them. Unfortunately, scammers have caught on to the popularity of car advertising and the National Consumer's League's Fraud Center has receive numerous complaints about these types of scams. Variations of this involve Monster Energy Drink and other work at home scams.
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