Twin Cities woman shares story of sophisticated fraud

The Brief

• Vanessa Nelson was recruited by email for a VP position at a California tech company.

• The company is real, but multiple rounds of virtual interviews were fake.

• The scammers sought both personal information and a cash transfer.

(FOX 9) – When Vanessa Nelson got the email asking her to interview for a VP position at a California tech company, it didn’t seem out of the ordinary.

She runs her own management consultant business, but her LinkedIn profile indicates she’s open to consider other positions.

“Most of us in this industry get them all the time,” she said. “And they invested hours of time with me – probably six to eight hours total over those 10 days – before there was an offer. Before they asked for any information from me.”

The ever-changing virtual work world

What we know

Vanessa’s first round interview was all chat-based through MS Teams, during which the interviewer displayed a deep knowledge about the company, its vision and its competition.
It lasted around two hours.

The next rounds were either through Teams or on the phone. But no one was ever on camera, in part because they said the company preferred not to see candidates initially in order to remove any bias based on appearance.

Vanessa was also on vacation and didn’t have any business attire.

And in a largely virtual workplace and with young tech companies, this didn’t initially cause her any concern.

“They said for this first, next couple rounds, let’s just stick with audio only. When you’re back in town and you’ve got your business attire, then we can do face-to-face.”

But the job offer came before they ever got to a virtual face-to-face meeting.

Authentic-looking company documents

What happened next

When the offer came in for the VP position, it included multiple attachments.

One was an Employee Code of Conduct. Another was bonus and stock information.

There was also a very detailed explanation of health insurance packages.

“You know people called and they congratulated me, and I heard from all three people that I had spoken with. And they said how excited they were,” she said.

She filled out standard employee tax and payroll documents, providing social security and bank information.

Once she figured out the fraud, she very quickly took steps to protect herself, including freezing her credit.

Finally, a red flag

How she caught it

After everything that felt so detailed and authentic, what happened next screamed of a typical fraud scheme that is so basic and transparent.

“They wanted to send me a check that I would deposit that would cover my equipment.”

The fraudsters explained that they had a server problem that would delay getting her a laptop and other tech needed to do the job.

They would instead send her a check for $25,000, about $15k of that to cover the equipment, then $10,000 for her signing bonus.

She would order directly from their vendor. And she would have to use a cash app on her phone.

Telling the hiring manager this sounded like a scam, Vanessa asked for another Teams meeting to discuss this, insisting this time it would have to be with cameras on.

“And then very quickly they were gone. Once I said I’m on to you, gone. Never heard back,” she said.

She shares this experience to show how elaborate online fraud can be.

How in an era when remote work and virtual interviews have changed everything, scam artists are fooling even seasoned business people.

“No matter what your background is, and how long you’ve been in industry and your experience, this can impact anyone. Especially when the job is one that looks really darn cool,” she said.