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

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

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Well, my daughter and I talked about it. She said that she regularly receives requests for this sort of stuff on Instagram and other social media teens use and she knows it's a scam. With this one, she is still wondering why her radar wasn't up with this situation. She's dealt with weirdos in her previous retail job and knows when and how to brush them off. 
My guess is that it's because this email was coming from ostensibly an authority figure at her first office job during her first hour onboarding and logging onto Outlook. (It was not the most comprehensive onboarding of course). She was in automatic worker mode. Mix that in with a kid who's always done as instructed by teachers, parents, people in authority.  
I'm trying to encourage her to talk to her high school about it next spring after all the exams are over. Like I said, no matter how many times I told her about these things happening to people we know, family members too, it didn't compute that she would be entering that adult world of scammers. She thinks problem adults are like the homeless and drug addicts we see on the streets and subway who panhandle her. It didn't occur to her that crooks could infiltrate a white collar mileau. If someone her age had given a presentation about how they were scammed at their first job, this may have registered with her more fully. So if she helps other kids avoid this situation, I think it would give a positive twist to the situation.[/quote]

OP, I posted earlier about reporting this experience to the FTC: https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/avoiding-and-reporting-gift-card-scams

Please share this article and process with your daughter. Require her to report this incident and follow the process she's given. She may be able to recoup the money. She will definitely learn.

I am concerned that you are still making excuses for very poor judgment. A person who is mature enough to work remotely should be mature enough to evaluate requests for validity, even one hour into the job. Your daughter does not sound mature enough to be unsupervised in a professional environment and it sounds like she could use to be more assertive with authority figures lest she be taken advantage of by other people in positions of power who are inclined to abuse that power. Her naivete about the suffering in the world and the way that people exploit other people has made her very vulnerable. That is partially on you. If your child believes that only poor people can be criminals, that is because you and her father have not appropriately educated her to protect herself in the adult world. Combine that lack of parenting with blind compliance with perceived authority, and it sounds like your kid's judgment is compromised.[/quote]

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