Why do these offers name famous brands?

A famous consumer brand is the costume — energy drinks are the FTC's documented example, with victims in the FTC alert's comments naming real brands and four-figure losses. Real advertisers don't hire your car by text.

Scam verdict · Educational pattern check

Scam Detective research desk · Updated October 2026

Scam — start to finish

Is This Car Wrap Advertising Offer Real? The Check Is the Trap

Q: Is this car wrap advertising offer real?

The FTC is blunt: this is a scam, start to finish. No energy-drink company recruits wrappers by text. The script is the fake-check engine with a decal on it — deposit their check, keep your “pay,” and wire the rest to their “installer.”

Q: The check cleared — doesn't that make it real?

No. Banks are required to make deposited funds available within days, but a fake can take weeks to surface. When it does, the bank reverses the deposit and you owe the balance — while the scammer holds the money you sent the “installer.”

The FTC is blunt: this is a scam, start to finish — no energy-drink company recruits wrappers by text. The script is the fake-check engine with a decal on it: deposit their check, “keep” your first week's pay, and pay their “installer” by money order, payment app, crypto, or wire. The check reverses weeks later; the installer's payment was your money.

Educational verdict from documented scam patterns — not a live report. For a 0–100 risk score on the exact link in your hand, run the checker.

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Straight from the source

The verdict stands on the public record — the line below is quoted verbatim from the source named under it.

“This is a scam, start to finish. And that check you just deposited? That was fake — which means the money you sent is coming out of your own pocket.”

— Ari Lazarus, Consumer Education Specialist, FTC, “How to avoid getting wrapped up in a car wrap scam,” April 1, 2024.

Why this question never goes away

The offer sounds like found money: $600 to $700 a week to drive around with an ad for a well-known company — usually an energy drink — on your car. The FTC says it plays out the same way every time. Respond, and a check arrives. Deposit it, keep your “pay,” and send the rest to the “installer” who will supposedly wrap your car — by money order, payment app, cryptocurrency, or wire, all rails chosen because they can't be clawed back. Then the mechanics of every fake-check scam: banks are required to make deposited funds available within days, but a fake can take weeks to surface. When it does, the bank reverses the deposit and you owe the balance — while the scammer holds the money you sent the “installer.” The FTC has now published this warning three times across eight years, most recently in April 2024, with victims in the comments naming real energy-drink brands and four-figure losses. Real advertisers don't hire your car by text.

Five red flags — any one is enough

An unsolicited text, email, or social ad offering hundreds a week to wrap your car — the FTC's first line: many times, these offers are scams.

A check that exceeds your “pay” with instructions to forward the difference — the overpayment is the payload.

A required “installer” or “decal agent” you must pay — especially by money order, payment app, crypto, or wire.

A famous consumer brand named as the advertiser — energy drinks are the FTC's documented costume.

Any urgency to deposit before the wrap happens — real campaigns wrap the car first; the check clearing in days means nothing about its validity.

Your next three moves

Verify through a channel you open yourself — search the company or brand name plus “review,” “complaint,” or “scam,” and ask the brand through its own official site whether it pays drivers to wrap cars. No energy-drink company recruits wrappers by text, email, or social ad — the FTC has published this warning three times across eight years, most recently in April 2024.

Refuse the specific ask: never deposit a check that arrives before any work and forward the difference to an “installer” or “decal agent” — by money order, payment app, cryptocurrency, or wire, rails chosen because they can't be clawed back. Banks must make funds available within days, but a fake can take weeks to surface; when it does, you repay the bank.

Report the offer to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov — and paste any link or number from the pitch into the $2 instant check for a 0–100 scam risk score before you deposit anything.

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