Con game
Thread poster: Semrin Demirel
Semrin Demirel
Semrin Demirel  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 15:31
German
+ ...
Mar 16, 2019

Hello Community

Did anyone of you experienced a con game kind of thing?

Like someone is proposing you a job and after agreeing asking you for your bank-details for the payment and in the end nothing is happening?

Cheers, Semrin


Zuri Kim
 
Yoana Ivanova
Yoana Ivanova  Identity Verified
Estonia
Local time: 16:31
English to Bulgarian
+ ...
Scams Mar 19, 2019

These kind of scams are extremely common. Let me guess, it was a decent job, great rate, promised upfront or advance payment by cheque and they need all of your bank details right away?

Zuri Kim
 
Zuri Kim
Zuri Kim  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 10:31
Member (2019)
Similar scam? How do you respond to that if at all? Just don't? Mar 21, 2019

Hi everyone!

I'm new to the professional translation arena and I was initially really excited to receive a couple offers recently.

The first one, I was contacted by text and details worked out over email - They accepted my quote, saying 'their sponsors will send half payment right away and the remaining half when the job is done'. Asking for my cell number seemed strange but I didn't want to question much and just wanted to do the job. But like Semrin mentioned, nothin
... See more
Hi everyone!

I'm new to the professional translation arena and I was initially really excited to receive a couple offers recently.

The first one, I was contacted by text and details worked out over email - They accepted my quote, saying 'their sponsors will send half payment right away and the remaining half when the job is done'. Asking for my cell number seemed strange but I didn't want to question much and just wanted to do the job. But like Semrin mentioned, nothing happened since sending the info.

Then another email came a few days later with a similar type of job. The same exact pattern of asking for quote and then asking for the same exact bank information and mentioning 'sponsors'. I have not responded to the second email yet because the repetition put flashing red lights in my head.

- Is it enough to just ignore these emails?
- How do I differentiate between a real job and a scam when someone contacts me personally (not pretending to be an agency)?
- When being contacted for a job, what questions are appropriate to ask the other person in order for me to confirm the validity of their details and job/service request?

Thanks everyone for your time. I'm really grateful there is a community of wonderful people here to help each other.

Sincerely,
Zuri (Jisu)
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Kay-Viktor Stegemann
Kay-Viktor Stegemann
Germany
Local time: 15:31
English to German
In memoriam
There are some tells Mar 21, 2019

If you have good reason to assume that this is a scam, replying makes no sense, simply ignore and delete. There are some tells that seem to point to a scam regularly:

- if the person seems to be more interested in the payment process than in the actual translation
- if the asker is using a gmail address, particularly those with numbers in it like [email protected]
- if the person gives contradictory informatio
... See more
If you have good reason to assume that this is a scam, replying makes no sense, simply ignore and delete. There are some tells that seem to point to a scam regularly:

- if the person seems to be more interested in the payment process than in the actual translation
- if the asker is using a gmail address, particularly those with numbers in it like [email protected]
- if the person gives contradictory information, for example mixes up language pairs or the contact information or translation task does not add up somehow
- if the person tells incoherent and irrelevant stories
- mentioning "sponsors" and "a presentation in 4 weeks" seems to be a standard scammer's thing too

The most alarming thing, however, is when the asker wants you to pre-pay anything or to "forward" or "return" any money at any time for whatever reason. Whatever you do, never move any money from your account to any receiver the asker tells you or to the asker themselves. That's what most scams are about, tricking you into believing that you have received money (often a check that bounces many weeks later) and making you move some of this money anywhere else (by an anonymous payment method like Western Union or Bitcoin, for example).
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Semrin Demirel
Zuri Kim
 
Semrin Demirel
Semrin Demirel  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 15:31
German
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
I just got scammed by Cynthia Hughes <[email protected]> Mar 23, 2019

I will put the example I have received the other day. I will just put "my answer" without the content so you can read the history. There is another existing discussion in the forum - https://www.proz.com/forum/scams/331945-bank_information_scammers.html - please have a look there as well :


Hello,

I would like to know if you are availa
... See more
I will put the example I have received the other day. I will just put "my answer" without the content so you can read the history. There is another existing discussion in the forum - https://www.proz.com/forum/scams/331945-bank_information_scammers.html - please have a look there as well :


Hello,

I would like to know if you are available to translate a
document from English to German.

Thank you
.
.
my answer
.
.
Hello,

Thanks for your response, my sincerest apologies for the delay in responding back to you.

Attached here is a copy of the document I would like to translate so you can view, send me your proforma invoice/charges per word, modes of payment and your delivery time.

Thank you
.
.
my answer
.
.
Hello

Your price seems relatively low compared to other translators and I really appreciate that. The delivery date is okay but in return I want a perfect and accurate translation

50% of the payment will be sent upfront so you can proceed with the translation as soon as your receive the payment and the balance upon completion of the project.

However, my preferred mode of payment is to make a wire transfer or bank transfer to your account and all that is needed now is your bank details.

For wire transfer / bank transfer
Bank Name:
Bank Postal Address:
Account Name:
Account Number:
Iban Number:

Here is my personal information for your perusal

Full Name: Cynthia Hudges
Address: 12, White hart lane
City: Avon
State: CO
Zip: 81620
Phone: (571) 302-4340

Thank you
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Zuri Kim
Zuri Kim  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 10:31
Member (2019)
Thank You! Mar 23, 2019

Thank you very much, Kay-Viktor!

They never gave me any details about themselves, accepted my quote too easily, and seemed to only want my bank information. I googled the phone number from where they initially contacted me and found reports for scam attempts associated with that number.

Since posting my questions, I've proceeded to just close that bank account to prevent incoming wires from them altogether. Taking your advice to simply ignore and delete. I really appre
... See more
Thank you very much, Kay-Viktor!

They never gave me any details about themselves, accepted my quote too easily, and seemed to only want my bank information. I googled the phone number from where they initially contacted me and found reports for scam attempts associated with that number.

Since posting my questions, I've proceeded to just close that bank account to prevent incoming wires from them altogether. Taking your advice to simply ignore and delete. I really appreciate the pointers you listed.

And thank you, Semrin for starting this thread!
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Semrin Demirel
Kay-Viktor Stegemann
 


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