Louisiana Business Owner’s Eye-Opening Warning for Others, Content Creators

(99.9 KTDY) - Whether you own a Louisiana business, manage one, or you're a social media content creator, something is snaking its way around Louisiana right now, and the store owner of Fleurty Girl in New Orleans, Lauren Haydel, almost got bitten.

As any business owner will tell you, if you can get free coverage about the products and services that your business sells, you are likely to listen to the other person on the other end of the call, text, email, or social media while they give you their pitch.

Haydel owns the retail shop that offers shirts, door hangers, and gifts of all kinds, which are distinctly New Orleans and Louisiana.

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Louisiana Business Owners Like Haydel Are Cautious

You're going to be cautious before you get into it, because you're a business owner. But if you've been on other shows before, you might be more relaxed and knowledgeable about different aspects of being interviewed than someone who hasn't.

In a video shared on social media, Haydel recounts an email she received, which seemed legitimate, and she proceeded forward, but ultimately it proved to be a scam.

The good news is that she didn't fall for what this person was trying to pull over on her. But what if someone else does, or already has? She wants people to know what happened with her communications with this person.

She's comfortable sharing her experience with us as she did on Fleurty's social media, because she wants to let others know how sophisticated some of these scammers are becoming.

Why She Responded To The Email To Begin With

Haydel has been interviewed on numerous talk shows, programs, and more over the years, so she isn't surprised when approached about being part of something like this.

She received an email about an appearance on a Facebook Live opportunity that Katie Couric was doing. She says nothing seemed out of the ordinary with the grammar or spelling, as can sometimes happen when scammers send things out.

The producer told her that they wanted to interview her during a Facebook Live panel as part of The Next Question, which Couric was doing, featuring small businesses. Haydel says the producer told her that her shop, Fleurty Girl, was going to be on the panel.

READ MORE: POLICE IMPERSONATION SCAMS ARE ON THE RISE IN LOUISIANA; HERE'S WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW

Haydel looked up the information about the producer for Katie Couric, and it was the name given. She continued to believe this was real. While in a FaceTime call, she was visible to him, but he wasn't visible to her. It was just a picture of a microphone on the screen.

He told her they needed to do a test Zoom call the day before the panel was to happen. She agreed.

She was instructed to look for an invitation on Facebook, as that was how she would join the panel. The link to the invite never came.

He Asked For Control Of Her Computer

The producer asked her to grant him control over her computer so he could accept the invitation on her behalf. Haydel is immediately uncomfortable, and it's a huge red flag. She said she was going to try on her own and get back to him.

When she searched for this type of description on Google, numerous examples appeared of how scammers employ these techniques to obtain control of your information.

Once he had control of her computer, he would have control of all her information, accounts, and other digital assets.

Taking Your Social Media Away From You

Part of those digital assets would be social media, where they can change usernames and passwords for, and you can't do anything about it. Haydel has plenty of followers on social media, which is exactly what they are looking for.

Instead of you being in control of anything anymore, you are out in the cold. For any business or content creator that makes money off of social media, instead of those checks coming to you, they are going to end up going to the scammer.

Good luck getting help trying to fix the situation with social media brands. Getting everything back under your control will be very costly.

Red Flags

Haydel says the producer had an email address from a Gmail account, and that's a red flag, as she learned. Some scammers use multiple email platforms, which could indicate they aren't legitimate.

The microphone was suspicious to her, but she shrugged it off, thinking maybe the guy was camera-shy or didn't want to be on screen.

Because she had done so many interviews before, she checked the name of the producer, which is the name of Couric's producer, but she didn't dig any further.

While they offered to pay her, Haydel declined because she really was just looking to get exposure for her business, Fleurty Girl.

Even if they offer to pay you or ask you for money, it's a red flag.

She's Glad She Trusted Her Gut Instincts

Haydel says she wants to let others know that when something doesn't seem right, even if it's even a slight feeling that something feels weird, just hang up, don't respond, and share the information with your family and friends.

She says she is glad she didn't go further when she became uncomfortable and got a bad feeling.

Doing so saved her plenty of heartache, and she's hoping that by spreading the message, it'll help someone else.