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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I really have to believe that a scam would have to be much much more sophisticated before my 18 year old would fall for it. There is no way she would ever pay out $3000 of her own money, without, at the very least, coming to me or her father. The fact that many of you, as adults, are saying you would fall for it, is disturbing. And I am not the most highly intelligent person. Is this one of those high IQ vs street smarts kind of things?

Yeah a middle class kid would never fall for this bc he/she wouldn’t even have $3,000 to spend!

Mine does. Summers jobs every summer. He just finished this summer's job and earned around $4k. We are a middle class family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

This one is on your kid. Don't blame the company.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a CEO at a company that frequently onboards 40 or so new staff at the same time. In the past two or so years this type of staff happens every time we go through a hiring cycle. Scammers monitor LinkedIn and prey on people who have just started new jobs and they either email or sometimes TEXT staff pretending oftentimes to be ME asking them to urgently buy gift cards. Sometimes the staff are so eager to impress because they are so new that they don't question. Now as part of our regular onboarding process we make sure to say that we will never ever ever ask staff to pay for any expenses out of pocket at any time and any request to do so should be assumed to be a scam. Staff are told to call me directly immediately on the phone or contact me via slack if they receive a request they find strange. I'm sorry your daughter learned this lesson the hard way , OP. And this company she is interning for needs to smarten up and honestly they should reimburse her.

+1. This is the right thing to do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You have every reason to be upset OP, but your anger should be at the scammers. We have IT security training, but certainly not on day 1. You need to treat this as a learning experience. You need to explain to your kid that no real job would ever expect a new hire to use their own money for anything. You also need to teach them to look at the email address and that the left hand side of a web address is the important part.

Well, they might, but that's a red flag about the company.

I think not being provided computer equipment by the company is kind of a red flag.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You have every reason to be upset OP, but your anger should be at the scammers. We have IT security training, but certainly not on day 1. You need to treat this as a learning experience. You need to explain to your kid that no real job would ever expect a new hire to use their own money for anything. You also need to teach them to look at the email address and that the left hand side of a web address is the important part.

Lol. Tell that to all of the teachers who walk into completely empty classrooms and have to make them look decent within a few day's time.

1. None of that is required; teachers choose to do that as a gift to their students.

2. None of that is giving anything to the company that any adult would want. They are giving stuff/experience to the kids.

Teachers are required to do that because they get evaluated on classroom climate. If you literally put nothing up on your walls, no posters, no chart paper, no books for students to read in a library area, no rug/carpet if you teach early elementary, no bookshelves, then a-hole administrators mark you down when you get evaluated and you risk not getting rehired. Admin claim they paid out of pocket for supplies/materials when they were new so mall new teachers should do the same. Schools get away with this because primarily women teach elementary school.

I worked as a para in a 4th grade class with a male teacher who had almost nothing on the walls, basically just a few posters of athletes and a basketball hoop that students could shoot nerf balls into to get a homework pass. He was one of the most popular teachers in the school with the students, their parents, the staff and admin. Nobody cared about his minimalist classroom decorations. No rugs or star charts or nooks either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You have every reason to be upset OP, but your anger should be at the scammers. We have IT security training, but certainly not on day 1. You need to treat this as a learning experience. You need to explain to your kid that no real job would ever expect a new hire to use their own money for anything. You also need to teach them to look at the email address and that the left hand side of a web address is the important part.

Lol. Tell that to all of the teachers who walk into completely empty classrooms and have to make them look decent within a few day's time.

1. None of that is required; teachers choose to do that as a gift to their students.

2. None of that is giving anything to the company that any adult would want. They are giving stuff/experience to the kids.

Teachers are required to do that because they get evaluated on classroom climate. If you literally put nothing up on your walls, no posters, no chart paper, no books for students to read in a library area, no rug/carpet if you teach early elementary, no bookshelves, then a-hole administrators mark you down when you get evaluated and you risk not getting rehired. Admin claim they paid out of pocket for supplies/materials when they were new so mall new teachers should do the same. Schools get away with this because primarily women teach elementary school.

I worked as a para in a 4th grade class with a male teacher who had almost nothing on the walls, basically just a few posters of athletes and a basketball hoop that students could shoot nerf balls into to get a homework pass. He was one of the most popular teachers in the school with the students, their parents, the staff and admin. Nobody cared about his minimalist classroom decorations. No rugs or star charts or nooks either.

We aren’t talking about teachers. Don’t hijack the discussion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School mom is on her way to Gucci to buy a tote bag with OP daughter’s money.

OP’s daughter should definitely file a police report and let school mom and her admin know a police report is incoming.

More likely she's betting big on the ponies or getting high at OP's kid's expense.

My mother and my step-father both -- separately -- fell for phone scams. My stepfather truly believed he was paying the taxes on the big screen TV he won using Visa gift cards. My mother ended up wire transferring $50,000 to some woman in China to "reimburse" Amazon.

Those of you who think this only happens to stupid people do not know how incredibly convincing these scammers can be. I hope you never find out.

I don't know that I would have used the word stupid but there is no way any reasonably savvy person wires 50K to someone in China to reimburse Amazon. Reimburse them for what??? And how does any functioning adult think that anyone pays taxes on anything with gift cards??? Are these older relatives of yours suffering from dementia?

These scams are also sophisticated. We still don't know how it happened, but my parents got a message ON THEIR TV while watching Amazon Prime asking them to call customer service. They called and the guy wanted their credit card number. He had some story about them being wrongly charged by Amazon but he needed their credit card number to verify the charge so he could reverse it (or something equally confusing). My mom told me she actually got the credit card out but when he couldn't clearly explain what he was doing she got suspicious.

I had one a couple of weeks ago that mimicked my credit card company so well that I am still wondering if it was legit.

Dementia and general cognitive decline is very common among elderly.

Elderly who don't have close relationships with their children are another risk factor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School mom is on her way to Gucci to buy a tote bag with OP daughter’s money.

OP’s daughter should definitely file a police report and let school mom and her admin know a police report is incoming.

More likely she's betting big on the ponies or getting high at OP's kid's expense.

My mother and my step-father both -- separately -- fell for phone scams. My stepfather truly believed he was paying the taxes on the big screen TV he won using Visa gift cards. My mother ended up wire transferring $50,000 to some woman in China to "reimburse" Amazon.

Those of you who think this only happens to stupid people do not know how incredibly convincing these scammers can be. I hope you never find out.

I don't know that I would have used the word stupid but there is no way any reasonably savvy person wires 50K to someone in China to reimburse Amazon. Reimburse them for what??? And how does any functioning adult think that anyone pays taxes on anything with gift cards??? Are these older relatives of yours suffering from dementia?

Dementia and general cognitive decline is very common among elderly.

Elderly who don't have close relationships with their children are another risk factor.

These scams are also sophisticated. We still don't know how it happened, but my parents got a message ON THEIR TV while watching Amazon Prime asking them to call customer service. They called and the guy wanted their credit card number. He had some story about them being wrongly charged by Amazon but he needed their credit card number to verify the charge so he could reverse it (or something equally confusing). My mom told me she actually got the credit card out but when he couldn't clearly explain what he was doing she got suspicious.

[Anonymous]

The company is reimbursing her, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You have every reason to be upset OP, but your anger should be at the scammers. We have IT security training, but certainly not on day 1. You need to treat this as a learning experience. You need to explain to your kid that no real job would ever expect a new hire to use their own money for anything. You also need to teach them to look at the email address and that the left hand side of a web address is the important part.

Lol. Tell that to all of the teachers who walk into completely empty classrooms and have to make them look decent within a few day's time.

1. None of that is required; teachers choose to do that as a gift to their students.

2. None of that is giving anything to the company that any adult would want. They are giving stuff/experience to the kids.

Teachers are required to do that because they get evaluated on classroom climate. If you literally put nothing up on your walls, no posters, no chart paper, no books for students to read in a library area, no rug/carpet if you teach early elementary, no bookshelves, then a-hole administrators mark you down when you get evaluated and you risk not getting rehired. Admin claim they paid out of pocket for supplies/materials when they were new so mall new teachers should do the same. Schools get away with this because primarily women teach elementary school.

I worked as a para in a 4th grade class with a male teacher who had almost nothing on the walls, basically just a few posters of athletes and a basketball hoop that students could shoot nerf balls into to get a homework pass. He was one of the most popular teachers in the school with the students, their parents, the staff and admin. Nobody cared about his minimalist classroom decorations. No rugs or star charts or nooks either.

We aren’t talking about teachers. Don’t hijack the discussion.

Some of us are. You do you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The company is reimbursing her, right?

Why should they, she is the idiot who fell for the scam.

[Anonymous]

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

I feel terrible for her too! OP, you’re a crappy parent for making her feel worse!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You have every reason to be upset OP, but your anger should be at the scammers. We have IT security training, but certainly not on day 1. You need to treat this as a learning experience. You need to explain to your kid that no real job would ever expect a new hire to use their own money for anything. You also need to teach them to look at the email address and that the left hand side of a web address is the important part.

Lol. Tell that to all of the teachers who walk into completely empty classrooms and have to make them look decent within a few day's time.

1. None of that is required; teachers choose to do that as a gift to their students.

2. None of that is giving anything to the company that any adult would want. They are giving stuff/experience to the kids.

Teachers are required to do that because they get evaluated on classroom climate. If you literally put nothing up on your walls, no posters, no chart paper, no books for students to read in a library area, no rug/carpet if you teach early elementary, no bookshelves, then a-hole administrators mark you down when you get evaluated and you risk not getting rehired. Admin claim they paid out of pocket for supplies/materials when they were new so mall new teachers should do the same. Schools get away with this because primarily women teach elementary school.

I worked as a para in a 4th grade class with a male teacher who had almost nothing on the walls, basically just a few posters of athletes and a basketball hoop that students could shoot nerf balls into to get a homework pass. He was one of the most popular teachers in the school with the students, their parents, the staff and admin. Nobody cared about his minimalist classroom decorations. No rugs or star charts or nooks either.

We aren’t talking about teachers. Don’t hijack the discussion.

Some of us are. You do you.

Bringing in the argument that because teachers are expected to pay for their own supplies and decor, the OP's daughter should not have seen this as a red flag is ridiculous. You are hijacking the thread with off-topic comparisons and then snark about them.

It is not normal in most industries for employees to personally pay for things like gift cards for other staff members, and it is disingenuous to imply that it is, regardless of the f*cked up dynamics that exist in education (which you describe accurately and I actually agree with).

[Anonymous]

This is called spear fishing and they are quite sophisticated. They follow folks on linked in and then target them very specifically when they start a new job. “Hi I am the CEO and I need your help right away. What is your cell number, I am in an important meeting and will text you.”

[Anonymous]

^ my point is, more experienced folks fall for it and the scammers are good. It is a very tough lesson to learn. She should inform the internship company - they should have cyber insurance and may cover the loss.