A texting scam targeting new hires is raising concerns in New Orleans, with scammers impersonating company leaders and requesting gift card purchases.
Pari Apostolakos, a reporter at WDSU, shared her experience of nearly falling victim to the scam. She received a text from an unknown number impersonating the station’s general manager, asking her to buy $300 worth of Google gift cards for a company meeting, and send photos of the codes on the back of the cards.
She spoke with Larry Lavallais, founder and CEO of Innovative I.T. Partners, Thursday afternoon.
“They knew that was your manager’s name just based on a Google search. Did they announce that you were a new employee?” Lavallais asked Apostolakos, who confirmed she had announced her new role online.
“So all those things are public knowledge online,” Lavallais said.
Lavallais said this type of scam has become more common since the COVID-19 pandemic, with bad actors pulling contact information from online databases.
“What we’re seeing now is that LinkedIn post, job post, they’re looking at the candidates that are being announced and, you know, going after those candidates,” he said.
Desmond Butler, a video journalist at WDSU, also received a similar text after starting his job a few months ago. Lavallais said these scammers often request non-refundable digital currency that is hard to trace, like gift cards.
“It’s working a lot,” Lavallais said. “You’re a new hire. You’re excited. You want to, you know, prove yourself to the organization, right? And if the boss of the boss or the owner reaches out to you and says, ‘Hey, I need you to go and purchase something,’ last thing you want to do is disappoint.”
Jeremy Meyer, a local lawyer and spouse of a WDSU colleague, said he has received similar texts multiple times over the past five years.
“I found that it happens generally, like when I start a new job within a few weeks of starting the job, I’ve already received a text message or an email,” Meyer said.
Michael Drummond, president and CEO of the Better Business Bureau Greater New Orleans, advised people to stop and think about whether these messages are legit.
“Scammers are getting very sophisticated now,” Drummond said. “And this isn’t very sophisticated. This is just a text. But they want people to freak out right away. They want people to go, ‘Oh my God,’ Either react or just not think, and then start clicking things or start communicating back and forth.”
Drummond said people should always reach out to coworkers to confirm the sender’s identity. He said once you get a message like this, report it as spam through whichever messaging service you’re using.
“Once you get taken for money, it’s very hard to get it back,” Drummond said.
Drummond encouraged victims of these scams to report incidents to the Better Business Bureau’s Scam Tracker and local police.
WDSU asked Meyer if he’s concerned about these messages coming his way. He said, in the internet age, “It’s just, it’s the cost of doing business.”
READ MORE:New Orleans new hires targeted by gift card text scam impersonating bosses
