BALTIMORE — A California business owner thought she had landed the biggest sale of her career. Instead, she was conned into sending nearly $200,000 worth of flooring materials to Baltimore in an elaborate cargo theft scheme that's becoming increasingly common nationwide.

Claudia Visona, sales manager at Galleria Tile in San Francisco, fell victim to scammers who impersonated employees of AECOM, a major construction firm. The three-generation family business now faces potential bankruptcy after losing $175,000 worth of tile and luxury vinyl plank flooring.

"I've had sizable orders before, but this one was like right there at the edge," Visona said.

The scam started in August, when a man posing as an AECOM employee placed a rush flooring order. When Visona asked for a 50 percent deposit,

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