‘I am absolutely speechless.’ Local business owner says scam left employee traumatized.
Updated: Aug 3
Just when you think you’ve heard it all, there’s this.
I’ve written hundreds of scam stories over the years, but not only was this a first for me, it was a first for Captain Jeremy Lanier with the Stephenville Police Department.
Here’s what happened:
The telephone at Tahiti Tan rang about 7:30 p.m. on Monday, shortly before the salon was set to close for the day.
An employee, a young woman who had only recently begun working there, answered.
The scammer on the other end identified themself as a police officer and said there was some type of an emergency and to get customers out of the salon and lock the doors.
The employee complied.
She was then convinced to switch the call to FaceTime, but the screen on the scammer’s end was turned off so they could see her, but she couldn’t see them.
And this is when things took a turn for the weird.
The scammer instructed the employee to empty the cash register, go to a back room, undress and count the money.
Then she was instructed to drive to Walgreens and put the money in a cash app.
When the employee got back to the salon, the scammer told her to take a small bottle of tanning drops off the shelf and return to the back room where he asked her to perform another inappropriate act.
But before that happened, thank God, the situation was interrupted by a call from her father who convinced her to hang up and call police.
“I am absolutely speechless,” Kayla Vanden Berge, owner of Tahiti Tan, told Beneath the Surface News.
“I haven’t spoken to (the employee) yet, but I know she is traumatized and embarrassed.”
Captain Lanier said scams involving financial fraud and sextortion are not uncommon, but this incident certainly is.
“This is the first time I have seen those two scams used together like this and I have been working sex crimes my entire career,” he said.
After going over the report on Tuesday morning, Captain Lanier is reminding the public that no authority figure – from law enforcement officials to anyone affiliated with the IRS or other governmental agencies – will ever ask you to pay for something with a gift card.
“And I won’t even go into the fact that they will never ask you to count money in the nude,” he said.
I’m truly sorry to hear about the distressing situation your employee has faced. Scams like this can have severe impacts, and it’s important for local businesses to stay vigilant. On a related note, for those considering safer financial alternatives, converting Bitcoin to USD can offer a more stable way to manage funds. For reliable information on this process and how to securely handle cryptocurrency, check out ICO Holder’s guide on crypto investments. Stay safe and take care!