GREENSBORO, NC:: The email came in to Patricia Hughes husband’s mailbox like dozens of others. It certainly could have been discarded before reading but in this case, it wasn’t. The word Budweiser in the subject line caught his attention, “It was an offer to wrap our car and make money,” said Hughes.
Her husband took a few minutes to fill out the online form figuring if Budweiser would pay him to drive his car around town why wouldn't do that? After answering a few questions related to his driving record and how often he drives he hit send.
A couple weeks later a check for $1,450 arrived in the mail, “I was like oh boy we got a check, I called him (husband) and was like are we supposed to get a check for $1,450? He said yeah it came,” said Hughes.
The check came with instructions about paying a person to come to the home and wrap the car with the Budweiser logo. The Hughes were supposed to deposit the check and send $950 to an address in Texas to cover the cost of wrapping the car. A person would come out wrap the car and then come back in three months and remove the decal, “I was ready to hop in the car and go get the money,” said Hughes.
Fortunately, she started to question if this was too good to be true. She took a second look at the email and noticed it never mention Budweiser’s parent company Anheuser Busch, “Once you read the email (closer) you start thinking this is not right,” said Hughes.
After taking a closer look at the check and the emails Hughes decided to call Anheuser Busch, “They told me they have never heard of this, he said I hate to tell you this, but it is a scam,” said Hughes.
The Better Business Bureau calls it the car wrap scam and unfortunately plenty of people have fallen for it. By the time the check they were sent bounces and they are notified by the bank, the money they sent to wrap the car is long gone.