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If you’re a business owner/manager, then you are probably familiar with schools/organizations reaching out to your business for sponsorships. But not every organization seeking sponsorship is legit—spot the scams before you commit! One of our subscribers, Joy, nearly lost $700 to one of these scams and she shared her story and some photos with us.

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Back to Joy’s story:

I’m a local small business owner in South Florida. Recently, I received a call to my store from a nice lady introducing herself as Pam, a local high school sports team rep. She was requesting sponsorship for their school’s football team by offering various sponsoring packages-essentially you pay a certain amount of money and get your business logo printed on tshirts, cups, a banner to hang on the school fences etc. As I’ve been wanting to promote my business locally, this was a timely opportunity. Pam sent me an email with a list of different packages I could purchase.

I consulted with my business partner, and after emailing back and forth with her about specifics, I had nearly decided to move forward. However, something felt off. I was surprised about how on a week day, she was immediately responding to each email I sent. So as a final precaution, I checked her email address and realized that it was a third party email, not associated with the high school she claimed to be repping. Then I checked her email signature and saw the company was called “Elite Sports Promos”.

When I googled the company, not only did I find that it was not a registered company, but there were multiple negative reviews and warnings from other business owners who had fallen victim to this hoax.

This is not a scam exclusive to Florida-as it turns out Elite Sports Promos scams people all over the country. Thankfully, I listened to my gut instinct and conducted a quick Google search, but many others have not been so lucky. I’m sharing this in hopes that future business people will not fall prey.

Elite Sports Promos is just one of the internet scams that prey on businesses by selling growth strategies. Here are some things to look for when you receive a request for sponsorships:

1. Email address-should include the name of the organization that they are representing.

2. Verify: Go directly to the source. Contact the school/organization to verify the person or entity calling/emailing you.

3. Look up the company name on the internet: Chances are, if they’ve already been scamming people, then those people have put out warnings about it.

Don't Get Got!

P.S. Your experiences matter. If you've encountered a scam or hack and have insights to share, we invite you to connect with us. Let's build a community that stands against cyber threats.