MILLSBORO, Del. - A Millsboro woman is on the hunt for a new job after she says she was a victim of employment fraud.
Katrina Dixon-Parker walked down stairs to her home office. She hasn't spent time down there since November 2024, that's because she says she is a victim of employment fraud.
Katrina has worked as a nurse for 20 years with a certification and a dual degree. For the last few years, she's worked from home to care for her family.
"My mom is debilitated, I have a young daughter and my husband just had back surgery," Katrina shared.
A Millsboro woman who fell victim to an employment scam helping her mother walk up the stairs.
Katrina can be seen in the above photo helping her mother walk up the stairs. The mother suffers from a knee injury.
Katrina says on Nov.4, 2024, she was approached on LinkedIn by one of the scammers posing as a recruiter for IBSA Pharma, a pharmaceutical company based in New Jersey.
On Nov.7, she says she had a phone interview with the scammer posing as a recruiter.
She says she did a written assessment along with the interview.
Fake employment offer letter used to scam a Millsboro woman.
A fake check sent to a Millsboro woman by scammers posing as ISBA Pharma.
Katrina says she was told to deposit the check and purchase an Apple MacBook Pro to send back to the scammers so they can put the correct hardware on the computer.
She realized this was unusual and something was wrong.
Katrina called the real company's human resources manager for answers.
"She said, unfortunately there is no job and those two women, they do exist, but you didn't talk to them. You talked to somebody else," Katrina recalled as she fought back tears.
After speaking with the real company and her bank, Katrina learned she had not spoken with recruiters from the company. When Katrina spoke to her bank, she was told to deposit the check so they could flag it and she would not have any money taken from her account.
The scammers used the same names of people who really worked for IBSA. The scammers had almost identical email addresses as real IBSA workers. According to IBSA USA domain is @ibsapharma.com. The fake domain is @ibsacareers.com
Katrina says she's heartbroken by this experience.
"I just feel like the carpet just was pulled out from underneath me and I'm afraid because I don't want to lose anything else. I mean, especially my home," said Katrina.
Katrina says she's grateful for her support system which includes her church family and her sorors. Katrina is a member of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Incorporated.
Katrina Dixon-Parker, a Millsboro local and a member of Sigma Gamma Rho, Sorority, Inc.
A member of Katrina's church shared on Facebook different ways people could help Katrina in her time of need.
A Facebook post to help a Millsboro woman who fell victim to an employment scam.
CoastTV spoke with IBSA Pharma. In a statement, the company says "IBSA Pharma is aware of employment scams which make false use of our company name or our employees names to defraud job seekers. IBSA has reported this activity to law enforcement..."
In an effort to avoid falling victim to this kind of scam again, Nicholas Hart, CEO of IBSA Pharma, says the company has put up a warning on its website about potential employment scams.
A warning posted to IBSA Pharma's website after being notified that its company name and employee's names were being used in employment scams. A scam that a Millsboro woman fell victim too.
Hart also told CoastTV that the company contacted LinkedIn to inform them about the scam. In the end, Katrina says she just wants to be able to purchase her own home and work there.
The good news with this story is that Katrina was not scammed out of any money.
Incredibly, two weeks after this scam, the same scammers apparently tried to scam Katrina again.
This is a copy of another check and a flyer she received to become a Walmart secret shopper.
A fake check sent to a Millsboro woman by scammers asking her to be a secret shopper at Walmart.
A flyer sent to a Millsboro woman attempting to scam her by having her be a Walmart secret shopper.
Katrina says the number on the bottom of the flyer is the same number from the first scam. She did not fall for this scam.
Katrina says she's still applying for jobs so she can work from home.