SAN ANTONIO – Christopher Belasquez answered a Craigslist ad for what he thought would rake in the green. As it turns out, he saw nothing but red flags.
The ad was looking for drivers willing to wrap their cars in advertisements and get paid $500 per week.
Belasquez responded to the ad and was told that he would receive a check in the mail.
"They just told me that they were going to mail it to me, and as soon as I got the check to contact them," he said.
But Belasquez noticed that the name of the bank on the check was misspelled. Instead of "Bank and Trust Company," the check read "Bank and Trsut Company."
Then there was perhaps the most obvious red flag.
"They told me that I have to deposit the whole check in my account and I would take only $550 out of $1,950. Then I would take the other $1,400 to give to the guy to wrap the car," Belasquez said. "Which was kind of weird. Why would you send me a check like that not knowing who I am, you know?"
That tactic is a common one used in scams, according to the FBI.
Scammers send would-be victims a check, instruct them to keep some of the money for themselves and send the rest of the money somewhere else, often via wire transfer.
"The greater concern in most cases for those victims is that they are losing money," FBI special agent Michelle Lee said. "The check is going to bounce. The bank is going to refuse it or take the money back out of their account."
And victims' accounts could be flagged for fraud.
Belasquez tried contacting the person who sent the check to ask questions, but he never heard back. So he never deposited the check.
"Go with your gut feeling. Do some investigating. That's what I did," he said. "Hopefully everything pans out."
KSAT chose not to name the company listed on the check because scammers often use the names of legitimate, reputable businesses to pull off their schemes.
If you feel that you might have been contacted by a fraudulent company, do some research online.
If the information doesn't seem to match up, it's best to ignore the offer.