My 18 year old was scammed out of 3K on her first day as intern

[Anonymous]

My kid got a summer internship as a remote researcher. At first the company said they would send her a laptop to work on. Then a few days before the start of her first day, they decided she could work off her own laptop. On her first day, she was instructed to download outlook and another cloud software where she was supposed to enter her work. One of the first outlook emails was from someone with the CEO's name but not the CEO's company address. This person asked for her phone number and from there proceeded to cajole my kid into buying 3K worth of Amazon gift cards because it was supposed to be a present for the employees. By the time I found out about it, it was too late, the gift codes had been redeemed. She used her debit card to buy this.

No matter how many times I have warned my kids about scams out there AND even told them about this sort of scam where the email is not originating from the actual person but someone impersonating that person, my warnings never sunk in.
So a couple of things are bothering me.
1) the company not giving her the equipment to work on but having her use her own
2) Downloading Outlook. 365 emails can be accessed thru their website, just like gmail. One doesn't need to download Outlook.
3) No security protocols as part of onboarding. In my experience, the IT department talks regularly about this sort of stuff to all employees and DEFINITELY as part of onbaording. Company ransomware happens.
4) No security filters in the company emails.

On the one hand, I am really angry at my kid and worried about my child's poor judgment. The latter is a huge source of concern. I can only hope this is a huge wake up call to a kid who has been so used to adults telling her what to do all her life. She is a good student, diligent and hardworking and that is its own problem. She doesn't question authority. She does as she is told. And she was easily scammed.

[Anonymous]

Do not be angry at your kid. My god.

I have also seen tiktoks about this so she is not the only one it has happened to.

[Anonymous]

I would be upset, too, but even adults get scammed.

[Anonymous]

Umm are you sure this is a real internship?

[Anonymous]

So this was not a real internship. The company is bogus.

[Anonymous]

A middle-aged person at my former workplace fell for this same scam. Your kid is not at fault.

[Anonymous]

And where were you?

[Anonymous]

Yeah I'm concerned the entire thing was a scam. I would take her laptop to a computer shop to make sure she didn't download malware. I'm sorry this happened to your daughter.

[Anonymous]

It's not her fault. She is the victim here. I feel terrible for her and for you.

[Anonymous]

I’m assuming the internship wasn’t real in the end? I’m sorry she had this experience. These are common scams, and she needs to get a bit more street-smart, I’m afraid. No CEO is going to ask an intern to buy gift cards. Some life lessons are more expensive than others.

[Anonymous]

Sad and scary.

[Anonymous]

What part of "remote research" did you not understand?

Those are always scams.

Unless this teen took the job without telling you, the poor judgement is on you.

[Anonymous]

This happened to a brand new (fresh out of college) employee at my company. Same thing - the “CEO” emailed her, asked her for her phone number so they could text, gift cards bought on debit card, etc. We (company leadership) didn’t figure it out until it was too late. If it makes you feel any better, this happened to an employee who was working on-site, using company equipment and she had gone through an orientation. There is required IT training on this topic but she hadn’t completed it yet (this was seriously her first week).

The scammers target young people on purpose and they found her most likely because she updated her LinkedIn with her new job info.

We did make a change to our emails as a result of this - there’s now an “external” tag on all emails that originate from outside the organization.

I know your daughter feels bad and I’m sorry it happened to her. It really sucks. All I can say is that it’s a life lesson.

[Anonymous]

Holy cow. OP wrote paragraphs about the scam but still doesn't realize it was a scam.

What is the name of this "company"?

She doesn't question authority.

That's 100% failed parenting.

Robert Fulghum:

"
I wore two buttons on my smock when I was teaching art. One said, "Trust me, I’m a teacher." The other replied, "Question Authority."
"

[Anonymous]

I honestly can't believe anyone would front 3K of their own money, sheesh. Poor kid.