This is a public service announcement

Apparently, when you drop the obligatory #newjob announcement on LinkedIn, you must prepare for criminal activity. Some donkeys search these posts out, find the CEO of your new company, find your cell phone and text you. They ask you to send them gift card numbers.

I could almost imagine this working with some newly hired folks who might not be paying attention. Don't buy gift cards for scammers.

๐Ÿ™… harassment
๐Ÿ˜  Scammers
44
braintank
Politicker
12
Enterprise Account Executive
Very common scheme
With AI they're starting to clone voices to make it even more effective.
Sunbunny31
Politicker
10
Sr Sales Executive ๐Ÿฐ
Did you see that 60 Minutes episode about this exact thing? Eye opening!
oldcloser
Arsonist
1
๐Ÿ’€
did not see. must see
Sunbunny31
Politicker
2
Sr Sales Executive ๐Ÿฐ
https://www.cbsnews.com/video/cyber-scammers-digital-theft-60-minutes-video-2023-08-27/
It starts by talking about the grandparent scam, but there's a bit in here with AI powered voice over that is pretty incredible.
oldcloser
Arsonist
2
๐Ÿ’€
thank you!
Sunbunny31
Politicker
3
Sr Sales Executive ๐Ÿฐ
Apologies in advance for the mandatory new drug ad for the malady you never knew you had that you'll have to watch before accessing the story.
oldcloser
Arsonist
2
๐Ÿ’€
always happy to entertain a new life threatening illness.
oldcloser
Arsonist
2
๐Ÿ’€
The possibilities are endless there.
braintank
Politicker
4
Enterprise Account Executive
Which is why I love selling cyber ๐Ÿ’ฐ๐Ÿ’ฐ๐Ÿ’ฐ
oldcloser
Arsonist
1
๐Ÿ’€
That world is a marathon. Wise.. and way too late for me. Gotta live vicariously through you.
AnchorPoint
Politicker
1
Business Coach
yep
Phillip_J_Fry
Opinionated
9
Director of Revenue
Guy at my old company almost fell for one of these. Got a text from our "CEO" saying that he was short on funds and needed him to go get some $50 giftcards. Our CEO made like $12M a year....
Employee slacked his manager to let him know he was running to the store for the ceo. Manager couldn't believe how dumb his employee was.
oldcloser
Arsonist
0
๐Ÿ’€
that's a really bad look.
Sunbunny31
Politicker
9
Sr Sales Executive ๐Ÿฐ
We get emails from our CEO around once/year asking us to go pick up some gift cards.

I got irritated because I reported the scam internally and somehow that flagged me and I had to go through a quick online refresher about internet scams. ๐Ÿ™„
CuriousFox
WR Officer
7
๐ŸฆŠ
That's what you get for doing the right thing ๐Ÿ˜†
Sunbunny31
Politicker
3
Sr Sales Executive ๐Ÿฐ
Right? I complained about it to our IT dude and he just said, yeah, that's the MSFT security autoresponse. And I gave him my patented dead stare and asked him how expected us to report these if we got personally reported each time? Because now ofc I'm not going to.
Revenue_Rambo
Politicker
2
Director, Revenue Enablement
No good deed goes unpunished
Sunbunny31
Politicker
1
Sr Sales Executive ๐Ÿฐ
Learned that lesson. You know why I got flagged? For forwarding a security risk...to a security person. LOL.
oldcloser
Arsonist
1
๐Ÿ’€
insubordination!
Sunbunny31
Politicker
1
Sr Sales Executive ๐Ÿฐ
Kinda my middle name, tbh.
jefe
Arsonist
2
๐Ÿ
Dear God, I recently went through training that talked about how massive a red flag this is.
Sunbunny31
Politicker
1
Sr Sales Executive ๐Ÿฐ
Yep, your CEO is not going to hit you up to go track down some gift cards.
jefe
Arsonist
1
๐Ÿ
Iโ€™ve been getting scam emails and texts purporting to be him. So annoying. I can handle the emails but GTFO with the texts to my personal cell
HVACexpert
Politicker
9
sales engineer
Should of asked for nudes
CuriousFox
WR Officer
5
๐ŸฆŠ
DECEASED
oldcloser
Arsonist
5
๐Ÿ’€
Weird. I always ask for nudes. Totally forgot.
Revenue_Rambo
Politicker
3
Director, Revenue Enablement
Thats amazing, until its an actual text from your CEO ๐Ÿคฎ
Sunbunny31
Politicker
1
Sr Sales Executive ๐Ÿฐ
Has that actually ever happened in the history of this scam?
antiASKHOLE
Tycoon
3
Bravado's Resident Asshole
At least feet pics, sheesh.
Space_Ghost20
Valued Contributor
4
Account Executive
CEO at a company I used to work for would test employees monitoring the live chat with this type of message.

I remember him doing it during one of my shifts covering the chat. We did this type of training 2x a year during my banking days, so I knew not to fall for it. He slacked me 5 minutes later letting me know it was him doing his routine tests of employees.
Beans
Big Shot
3
Enterprise Account Executive
So common, think some folks at my old gig fell for it because we so small and the CEO would randomly text Q's
oldcloser
Arsonist
1
๐Ÿ’€
What I was thinking... could catch someone looking to do the boss a favor.
Sunbunny31
Politicker
1
Sr Sales Executive ๐Ÿฐ
The ones I've received have been pretty convincing.
Well, except for the one sent to my personal email from a gmail account. Gotta admit, that was a bit sketch.
antiASKHOLE
Tycoon
3
Bravado's Resident Asshole
So... you didn't get my apple cards?
oldcloser
Arsonist
1
๐Ÿ’€
knew it was you!
antiASKHOLE
Tycoon
3
Bravado's Resident Asshole
You caught me with my pants down.....one could say that "you didn't like them apples"
Diablo
Politicker
2
Sr. AE
We used to get similar msgs last year via email and it looked so genuine
Pachacuti
Politicker
2
They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy
This is why I prefer NOT to text, but to call instead.
js2458
Politicker
2
Enterprise SDR
When I was in college a few years back, a person called my grandparents pretending to be me claiming that I was in jail after driving a car without a license and that they needed to send gift cards to bail me out.

Crazy thing is that the scheme itself was so shit but they did a great job researching me: they knew my name etc. and they also knew that I didnโ€™t have a drivers license at the time.

My grandparents, being old and somewhat senile, freaked out, called my parents, who then called me in the middle of class and asked me why I was in jail. Was super confusedโ€ฆ

These guys are ruthless and they unfortunately give good salespeople a really terrible name.
Sunbunny31
Politicker
2
Sr Sales Executive ๐Ÿฐ
Had the same thing happen to my kid's grandma. I'm pretty sure one of them called her and said "grandma?" and she, being more than a little hard of hearing but far too vain to admit it, probably bellowed "MY DAUGHTER'S NAME?" which of course is social engineering right there. And she got the same story, she was arrested by the police, needed help, weepy and teary. But god bless my MIL - she hung up in a panic after apparently bellowing "WHAT?" WHAT?" and proceeded to call me and blew up my phone while I was in a demo. Got the gist of the call from one of the half dozen emails, called my daughter's high school to confirm she was, in fact, in class. Called the PD to confirm that my daughter was fine and I'd call my MIL, called my MIL to let her know it was a scam and her granddaughter was fine. Called my husband who was at work and was just getting to his own voicemails to let him know it was handled. Crazy!
Fortunately my MIL is too stubborn, hates phone calls, and is deaf, so the scammers were up against a grandma who wasn't going to get them anywhere.
HappyGilmore
Politicker
2
Account Executive
Always love getting these kinds of texts, really shows my CEO cares.
ThatNewAE
Big Shot
2
Account Executive - Mid enterprise
It's a very common thing these days. I am appalled at the efforts these guys take to scam others. Might as well divert the same efforts to something less destructive.
RandyLahey
Politicker
2
Account Executive
lmao...incredible
GDO
Politicker
1
BDM
I had a few of those as well. Even sent from a spoofed mail adres of our CEO
Coffeesforclosers
Notable Contributor
1
Director Sales and Market Development
I have a presentation of importnace matters in some minutes
oldcloser
Arsonist
0
๐Ÿ’€
I need some Apple certificate back code. I mean...
Grow
Valued Contributor
1
Enterprise Account Executive
One of our employees got scammed this way.
oldcloser
Arsonist
0
๐Ÿ’€
bahhh. Homie just trying to do the right thing. Too bad.
pirate
Big Shot
1
๐Ÿฆœโ˜ ๏ธ Account Executive
Ha I like that you asked them for a favor
ApocalyBoom
Politicker
1
Account Executive
Every year we get an email from the CEO asking us to pick up some gift cards.
PineappleYa
Opinionated
1
AE
This has been around for ages. Happened to me in like 2016
1
Account Executive
Apparently it also happens to a lot of new hires, fake messages claiming to be the CEO. Or some upper management
TheQueenofDiamonds
Politicker
1
Account Executive
Heartless, your CEO asked for help and this is how your respond?! Oh humanity
oldcloser
Arsonist
0
๐Ÿ’€
yes, yes, yes, I'll work on my attitude.
Rocinante
Executive
1
Account Executive
Have you read Voxโ€™s newest post about this? It turns out Millenials are actually more prone to being scammed or phished than boomers are.
Which is kind of crazy if you really think about it.
1
Proposal Pusher
Lol my company gets blown up by these, we even have a slack channel about it
oldcloser
Arsonist
1
๐Ÿ’€
Big fan of your screen name.
1
Proposal Pusher
Thatโ€™s what I yell at myself every morning, while simultaneously listening to โ€œDreams and Nightmaresโ€ by Meek Mill.
1
Coach
I ask for $400 cash app like normal
1
Coach
They usually leave me alone after that. I think I got 4 of these last week
1
Senior Regional Sales Manager
Ugh. Iโ€™ve been dealing with this since 2018. Thereโ€™s almost no way around this outside of regular and continuous cybersecurity awareness training coupled with regular social engineeringโ€ฆ
oldcloser
Arsonist
0
๐Ÿ’€
Iโ€™m almost 2 months in. They still donโ€™t think I know the CEO wonโ€™t text me ๐Ÿคท๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ
Kosta_Konfucius
Politicker
1
Sales Rep
Holy shit, just stumbled on this!
ChumpChange
Politicker
1
Channel Manager
Get tons of these messages from my apparent C-suite. I loveeeeee taking them for a ride similar to this.
oldcloser
Arsonist
0
๐Ÿ’€
freaking relentless these people
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