She got a text last week from someone posing to be the CEO of her company, asking her to spend her own money on gift cards he urgently needed.
AUSTIN, Texas — Scams are nothing new, but the sophistication fraudsters are using is continually increasing. One woman in Austin was nearly scammed out of her own money after a fake text posing as her CEO was sent to her.
Kaylin Balderrama runs the social media accounts for Austin-based Bazaarvoice.
“Bazaarvoice is a social commerce company – so basically, it’s anything from user-generated content, influencer marketing,” said Balderrama.
She got a text last week from someone posing as the CEO of her company, asking her to spend her own money on gift cards he urgently needed.
“At first I was like, ‘OK, he’s filling out his full name.’ Normally, the CEO does not do that or spell out my full name, but this seems legit. So I replied back,” said Balderrama. “I then quickly realized it was one of those scam people that ask you to buy gift cards for them.”
She played into the scam, knowing it was fake and adding her own requests.
“‘Can I have a raise and a promotion? And can I go to France next month and film TikToks for our company?’ And they replied, ‘I’ll have to check on all of that, but I can guarantee the raise,'” said Balderrama.
Workplace scams like the one that targeted Balderrama at Bazaarvoice are becoming more common. A cybersecurity expert says these kinds of scams are getting more sophisticated as well.
“With the advent of AI in all sorts of ways, as we continue to use this technology, it gets better both for us, but it also gets better for those that use it for scamming or fraudulent activity,” said Mitchem Boles, a cybersecurity expert based out of Dallas.
Boles helps identify scams and cyber threats for a living. He says an AARP study found 34% of people say they or someone they know were targeted by gift card scams.
“This is an ask that basically is hard to trace, hard to get any kind of money back. And so this is the way fraudsters are working right now to entice and to get people to do it,” said Boles.
Balderrama made a TikTok about the interaction that went viral – so much so that her real CEO reached out.
“As the social media manager, I was like, ‘Holy crap, what did I post on our social accounts? What did I do wrong?’ I was having a panic attack, freaking out, checking our LinkedIn,” said Balderrama.
But her CEO was proud of her for catching the scam and making other employees aware – proud enough to reward her with that trip to France she joked with the scammer about.
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