CarSponsors.com Review – a Sponsorship Operation Called “the Biggest Scam” by Some

CarSponsors.com offers car owners the opportunity to acquire performance parts, various visual tuning elements, rims, audio equipment and even cash, as part of a sponsorship program. To be allowed into the program, car owners need to pay a fee, in exchange for which (and for various types of promotional activity they may also be asked to perform) they will allegedly receive all the above said goodies (and more) for free. What is wrong with this picture though?

Before we get into why so many people call this operation a scam, let us take a closer look at what we are dealing with here, in regards to the company peddling these sponsorship deals, as well as the actual offer.

What is CarSponsors.com?

CarSponsors.com presents itself as a sort of virtual meeting place for companies looking for marketing/advertising opportunities in exchange for sponsorships, and rank-and-file car owners, looking for ways to pimp their rides with quality parts, as cheaply as possible.

As such, the CarSponsors.com website features a section where would-be sponsorship providers can sign up, but the main focus of the operation is to bring as many car owners into the fold as possible. To push this angle, they even offer affiliate partnerships to those who do jump onboard, so they can get still more people hooked and paying their fee.

This is where things turn a bit southward. At a closer look, a number of other red flags pop up as well. The About Us page of the site is entirely useless, in the sense that it provides no information on the company and individuals behind the operation. Going solely by the official page of the operation, there is no way we can tell who runs this scheme.

Looking around a bit, one will find a BBB (Better Business Bureau) profile on the operator. The company is seemingly called Carsponsors.com, and it is based at 3990 Wholesale Ct, North Fort Myers, FL 33903-4286. What’s surprising is that it has apparently been in business for 13 years now. Needless to say, the profile is full of complaints and negative reviews.

How exactly does CarSponsors.com operate?

The MO of the company is rather straightforward: they promise their would-be victims clients a variety of sponsorships, provided they sign up to the scheme and pay the required fee. This fee has evolved over time, from around $79, all the way to more than $100. Once the fee is paid, the company sends some promotional material the client’s way, and maybe some cheap trinkets as well, but afterwards, they cut off contact. When people realize they’ve been scammed, they try to get their monies back, but it seldom works out. The only proper avenue of action in this regard is apparently to threaten a lawsuit, in which case, CarSponsor.com will apparently return the fraudulently acquired funds.

How can you be certain that this is indeed a scam?

After all, there are quite a few positive reviews out there about the operation too…

Well, those positive reviews mostly originate from their affiliate partners, people who attempt to make up for the money dropped to the scammers by drawing in others to be scammed. There are just as many – if not more – negative reviews, which detail the practices of the scammers and which expose their whole business model.

Such reviews were produced in writing and in video format by various disgruntled customers, but most telling in this regard is an account posted by one of the former employees of the operation, concerning the inner workings of CarSponsors.com.

According to this former employee, the company employs a bunch of people whose task it is to call and harass potential customers into joining the program. These people work for a commission, meaning that they get a cut of the money paid out by every one of the unfortunate victims of the scheme. Also, these agents are taught how to sell the deal to their victims, so they can indeed sound very convincing over the phone. It matters not what type of car the victim has, it will be hyped by the CarSponsors salesperson as “the perfect fit.” Every application undergoes a verification procedure, which can last from 24 to 48 hours, at the end of which, the sentence is handed down: the applicant is either accepted into the program or rejected. Those who cough up the $99 or so, are always accepted, those who don’t, are always rejected, regardless of all the other variables involved in their applications.

Incidents were reported in which the company representative did not even make it clear for the would-be client that his/her credit card would be charged. The card was requested for verification purposes. Later, when the statement landed, the victim was surprised to see the charge.

The Facebook profile of the operation is quite a piece of work, too. Things just do not seem to add up about it. First of all: there are some 214k likes there, and slightly fewer follows. With such a massive following, the posts made elicit suspiciously little reaction of any kind. While there are indeed a few comments here and there, they’re mostly people tagging other people in them…There are no complaints and no actual, genuine-looking user feedback available in any shape or form. Something is definitely not right about that either.

Conclusion

To make a long story short: steer clear of these scammers. They’ve been swindling unsuspecting clients for almost a decade now. It is indeed a miracle that despite all the ire they generated, they are still in business somehow. All these guys want is to grab your money. What they deliver in return is absolutely worthless. Sure, you may get a discount or two here and there on some parts, but if you call the manufacturer directly, you will probably be able to negotiate a much better discount on your own. Other than that: free parts…forget about them! Do yourself a favor, take the money you would’ve given these scammers and invest it into the parts/goods you want to buy.