A local business owner is sharing the story of how a young employee in her operation fell victim to an aggressive scam, not only to try and prevent a similar fate for others, but to help protect vulnerable teenage workers.
Amber Lyle is the owner of Big Acai Bowl, a healthy smoothie store on the square in Pella, and this past weekend, a teenage employee ended up giving all of the cash on hand in the register to someone posing as an IRS agent on the phone. Lyle is not necessarily angry about losing money, but what could have happened instead and the response from some who are pointing blame before understanding the situation.
“This is a scam that works for a reason, because they are good. In my situation, my employee was convinced that she was helping me, that I trusted only her to take care of this for me, that if she didn’t comply there would be serious consequences, including me losing my business,” Lyle says. “It was very busy, she was doing her job–which she does very well, all while being essentially groomed and harassed for hours. I am so extremely thankful that this was only money. It’s replaceable. The safety of my employees is the most important thing to me.”
The girl was pressured aggressively to stay on the phone line throughout the day — during business hours and after the store closed, and was even convinced to drive out of town to purchase additional gift cards, under threat that she was being watched and followed if she did not comply. Lyle believes the biggest danger is that the scam was directly targeting a teenage employee, and that losing a bag of money is the best outcome, considering the young girl and many others can be under real threat if they aren’t made aware of these kinds of scams.
Lyle says she’s heartbroken for the young individual, who was convinced to stay on the line through several tactics for the scammer to sound legitimate, by using certain names, phone numbers, and locations that would make sense if that person had legitimate reason to call. The employee was convinced to go to local stores for gift cards, and ended up getting help from a local store manager to purchase MoneyPak cards and give those numbers to the scammer.
“I’m using this unfortunate situation to plead with you to speak to your kids about scams. The number one thing I can say is if your child is told not to tell, for whatever reason, it’s a huge red flag. In this case, they had very good and convincing reasons why she should not/could not tell.”
“Please talk to your employees, your kids, and your students, as this is the digital world we are now living in and we need to educate and prepare our kids.”
Lyle is also disgusted by the reaction of some on social media after the story was published first from a West Des Moines store on Des Moines TV outlets Facebook pages — mainly because she believes it’s easy to say “it wouldn’t work on me” until they understand just how aggressive and deceptive professional scammers can be, especially on younger individuals who are targeted or may not understand how agencies such as the IRS or police conduct business.
Captain Paul Haase with the Pella Police Department reminds all residents to educate themselves about the aggressive nature of phone scammers and for anyone of any age to verify who they are talking with on the phone before ever giving out money. Haase says the Pella Police Department has educational resources available for those who may want to learn more about the latest techniques used by callers. He says anyone at any age can be duped into giving out money.
“Always verify credibility of the person before sending money,” he says. “Never send gift cards for payment, especially if they want you to purchase it and give them the numbers.”
Haase says it’s extremely difficult to recover any money given away in this manner. He feels sympathy for all victims in these cases, and that the Pella Police Department is willing to educate anyone who wants to learn more about keeping others or themselves safe in these situations.