MEMPHIS, Tenn. — With the overall cost of living skyrocketing, many people are searching for ways to make some extra cash.
But before you jump at the next easy job opportunity, you need to do your research.
Scammers are impersonating big companies and are advertising jobs that don’t exist.
It’s a scam hitting the Mid-South hard right now.
Con-artists are pretending to be with well-known companies like AutoZone and are asking people to wrap their cars in an ad for cash.
“Somebody who is in financial straits would think yes, that’s really great. You get paid to do nothing,” Ralph Swody said.
Swody knows times are tough.
That’s why when he got a text asking if he’d be interested in having his car wrapped in an AutoZone ad for $500 a week, he considered it.
“I drive a lot and I’m around town and all over the place so I thought I could get paid to drive around. Seems reasonable,” he said.
The scammer sent Swody a seemingly real check for almost $3,000.
He was told some of it was for him and the rest was to go to a company to wrap his car.
Swody called his bank, which told him it was most likely a scam.
“What happens is you’ll take that check to the bank, they’ll release the funds, but the check hasn’t cleared,” Daniel Irwin with the BBB of the Mid-South said. “So you will follow the instructions and in about 10 to 15 days, the bank will come back to you saying the check didn’t clear, you’re on the hook for the money.”
Irwin said fake checks and car…
