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," Balderrama said.
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," Balderrama said. "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,'" Balderrama said.
Workplace scams like the one that targeted Balderrama at Bazaarvoice are becoming more common. A cybersecurity expert said 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," Mitchem Boles, a cybersecurity expert based out of Dallas, said.
Boles helps identify scams and cyber threats for a living. He said 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," Boles said.
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," Balderrama said.
Her company was proud of her for catching the scam and making other employees aware, so they invited her to join the team at Cannes Lions in France this year – doing what she does best on social media and in real time.