BRENTWOOD, Calif. (KGO) — A Brentwood woman lost her life savings after accepting a remote job she thought was with Facebook. She learned the hard way that her job wasn't legit.
7 On Your Side's Stephanie Sierra worked directly with Meta to take action on this case, and shares an important warning for all of us: scammers are using advancements in AI to lure people into remote work as a way to make fast cash.
Dawn Furseth says she lost everything she's worked for- within a mere month and a half.
"It just infuriated me," she said.
"How much money did you lose?" 7 On Your Side's Stephanie Sierra asked.
"$176,000, yeah… but learned a lesson for sure and that's why I wanted to share it… because these scams are getting so sophisticated so quickly for people…" Furseth said.
The 60-year-old Brentwood resident just finished a contract working for a Bay Area software company.
This past October, she started searching for new opportunities.
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"You know, you get these emails that say, 'Hey, we've got a part time job for you, remote situation, and you only have to work (a) couple hours a day.' In the situation I was in, it sounded like, OK… let me try it," she said.
Furseth says a woman named "Lily" told her this job was with Facebook's ad management center — explaining she would be placing ads in the platform as they're testing AI.
"It's kind of in a beta state right now. So, all the software buzzwords that my career was in software… so it seemed legitimate – so I thought, huh… OK," Furseth explained.
According to Furseth, she was paired with a "training mentor" who coached her during the onboarding process — but aside from one call, only communicated with her on WhatsApp.
"So I had to take money from my bank… via wire transfer into a crypto platform… and then transfer that in the Facebook platform app. And it sat there in a digital wallet that I would pull from to place the ads," she said.
Furseth says that should've raised a red flag at the time. But she tells us upon logging into what she thought was a legitimate app, she saw messages from her real Facebook account.
Stephanie Sierra: "When you logged onto this app… it had your actual Facebook messages in it?"
Furseth: "Yes."
Sierra: "Every single message?"
Furseth: "It looked totally like it… I checked the URL, made sure everything looked fine… logged in with the same credentials as my normal personal Facebook. It was all the same."
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While it's unclear if and how those messages were accessible on this fake app, Furseth says it made it appear legitimate.
In the weeks that followed, Furseth says she placed a slew of Facebook ads – and her account showed huge profits.
At six weeks, she had one final ad to place before cashing in.
"I used to think I was smart… but they tricked me!" Furseth said. "All I wanted to do was to pull out $400K… and they said, 'Oh you didn't do it right. You were supposed to pull everything.'"
Furseth says the scammers posed as Facebook's customer service threatening to freeze all her money — until she paid a 20% penalty.
Furseth: "I didn't have anything left."
Sierra: "At what point did you realize something wasn't right?"
Furseth: "This mentor started getting really personal. And the fur on the back of my neck stood up."
A total of $176,000 of her savings — gone.
Furseth says her so-called mentor then suggested she sell her car and all her physical belongings at a pawn shop to try and unfreeze her account.
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The messages keep coming… haunting her.
7 On Your Side worked directly with Meta on this case. Upon review of further documentation, Meta removed the fraudulent WhatsApp accounts that targeted Furseth.
According to WhatsApp, "We work diligently to reduce any spam or unwanted messages that might be sent on WhatsApp. However, just like regular SMS or phone calls, it's possible for other WhatsApp users who have your phone number to contact you."
Meta, the parent company of WhatsApp, says it is common for scammers to cycle victims through many platforms, making the scope and scale of the scam more challenging to detect. Now Meta is rolling out new tools to help users spot the fraud faster. In fact, the tech giant reports more than 6.8 million WhatsApp accounts linked to criminal scam centers have been suspended around the world.
The crackdown comes as Meta is exploring ways to caution users when starting a chat with someone not in their contacts, by showing you additional context about who you're messaging.
It's all to protect users like Furseth.
"It's terrifying… because I had a good job for most of my career… and one stupid mistake and it's gone…" she said.
Furseth shared her story with hopes to protect others.
And now WhatsApp is implementing features to protect users, like showing safety tips when you're added to a group by someone you don't know so you can exit safely.
And a reminder: you can always report suspicious messages and block senders anytime on Facebook and WhatsApp.
Resources for protecting yourself from scams on WhatsApp:
How to identify suspicious messages
How to block and report someone
New WhatsApp tools and tips to beat messaging scams
General scam and safety information from Meta
Take a look at more stories and videos by 7 On Your Side.
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