# A sign scam

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-sign-scam/841176>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 2, 2019, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-sign-scam/841176 "2019-10-02T22:10:06Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\
**Post date:** [October 2, 2019, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-sign-scam/841176/1 "2019-10-02T22:10:06Z")

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I received a phone text message:

“Would you allow us to paste small decal on your cars, trucks, bikes for short term advertisement and pay you 2 of 2 five hundred dollars ($500) per week for the rent?  
Get this started now by replying YES.”

Is anyone familiar with this?

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**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\
**Post date:** [October 2, 2019, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-sign-scam/841176/2 "2019-10-02T22:19:20Z")

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It’s an oldie but goodie:

> **[The “Car-Wrap” payment scam: an old form of fraud that refuses to die](https://www.consumeraffairs.com/news/the-car-wrap-payment-scam-an-old-form-of-fraud-that-refuses-to-die-072815.html)**
>
> Yesterday I got an email from a friend offering an amazingly lucrative part-time job opportunity (and who couldn't use extra

> [@](#):
>
> Had I responded to the car-wrap scammer, I would eventually have received a check for several thousand dollars. The scammer would instruct me to deposit it in my account, keep some of it for my own payment, then use a wire transfer to forward the rest to the supposed “graphic artist” or “decal specialist” who would put the decals on my car.
> 
> Except, of course, no such graphic artist actually exists; a few days later the check would bounce, and any money I’d wired to the scammer would be gone.

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**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\
**Post date:** [October 2, 2019, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-sign-scam/841176/3 "2019-10-02T22:21:35Z")

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It’s just a variant of the old cashier’s check scam. So you sign up to do this, they mail you a (bad) check for $3000 with instructions to deposit it into your checking account and mail/wire $1000 to the company that’s going to make the stickers. You send them the thousand, the check bounces and you’re out the money.

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**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\
**Post date:** [October 2, 2019, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-sign-scam/841176/4 "2019-10-02T23:29:28Z")

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Thanks.  
Perhaps I will forward this to some folks I don’t like.