California Woman Warns of Facebook Job Scam
The Perfect Scam
AARP
4.5 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 17 April 2026
⏱️ 54 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
After taking a break from her tech career to care for her aging mother, Dawn is reentering the workforce in her mid-50s, and she isn't having much luck. She takes a chance on an offer for a new kind of job at "Facebook." Guided by a "mentor" through an onboarding process, she learns that her new role involves placing Facebook ads as part of an AI testing initiative. Dawn will have a digital wallet into which she must add her own money to pay for ad placements, but she will receive a percentage of the ad revenue. Dawn is reassured when she signs on to the platform and can see all the posts and private messages in her Facebook account. As required investments increase, Dawn deposits $176,000, only to have her account frozen when she tries to withdraw funds. Realizing that it is all an elaborate scam, Dawn comes forward to warn others about this sophisticated job scam.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This week on the perfect scam. |
| 0:04.0 | It was initial feeling of being hopeful |
| 0:09.0 | and maybe seeing a light at the end of the tunnel |
| 0:12.0 | after my contract was canceled and my friend basically |
| 0:17.0 | let me down in a very large way. |
| 0:23.5 | But I thought I'd be able to keep paying my bills. |
| 0:28.4 | And everything came crashing down. |
| 0:35.9 | Welcome back to The Perfect Scam. |
| 0:40.8 | I'm your host, Bob Sullivan. Don Ferseth spent several prime working years taking care of her aging mom, some great years, truly. But when it came time to |
| 0:47.1 | reenter the workforce as a 50-something woman, well, we all know how tough it is to find a job right now |
| 0:53.2 | and how much tougher it is for older |
| 0:55.6 | Americans. And so, after a couple of false starts, facing a very large San Francisco area rent |
| 1:02.9 | bill, Don took a chance on a new kind of job, and it's left her with an even bigger problem |
| 1:09.6 | than unemployment. |
| 1:14.2 | Everyone knows San Francisco's expensive. |
| 1:18.9 | They might not quite know how expensive, especially if you have three pets. |
| 1:22.0 | Would you mind giving me a rough idea of how much your rent is? |
| 1:23.4 | How tragic it is? |
| 1:24.3 | Yeah. |
| 1:31.3 | Right now, I'm living in a 1,900 square foot home renting. Drive time into San Francisco during commute hours is probably two hours each way. |
| 1:38.3 | And the rent here is $3,500. |
| 1:41.3 | You pay $3,500 a month and you commute four hours a day. |
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