ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — Authorities say a Virginia woman pretended to be an FBI agent and conned her neighbours into taking jobs as her assistants.

Twenty-nine-year-old Brenna Reilly of Arlington was indicted by a federal grand jury in Alexandria last week on a charge of impersonating an FBI agent.

According to a court affidavit, Reilly told neighbors in her apartment complex that she was the FBI’s director of forensics. Two of those neighbours say they agreed to work as Reilly’s assistant and put personal information such as their social security numbers on phony job applications.

She gave the assistants tasks that included writing condolence letters to family members of agents killed in the line of duty. But authorities say Reilly was never an FBI agent.

Reilly’s lawyer declined comment.