Don't fall for the financial fraud Thread poster: shihpw
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shihpw
United States
Local time: 02:31
English to Chinese
I was contacted by a job opportunity from Proz and the quote was accepted by the employer accordingly. The employer stated the payment will be sent from a "sponsor" and I should deposit the check as soon as I received it based on the instruction given. I deferred to wait until the project is completed (over 12k words translated afterwards) to deposit the check to my bank. BTW, they sent more than what I quoted and asked me to deposit the check then return the excessive amount via Paypal. The... See more I was contacted by a job opportunity from Proz and the quote was accepted by the employer accordingly. The employer stated the payment will be sent from a "sponsor" and I should deposit the check as soon as I received it based on the instruction given. I deferred to wait until the project is completed (over 12k words translated afterwards) to deposit the check to my bank. BTW, they sent more than what I quoted and asked me to deposit the check then return the excessive amount via Paypal. The check bounced, the employer was not accessible and the sponsor's family died so could not deal with sending another check.
Make a long story short, the sponsor even asked me to go to Walmart to buy a gift card (by then I have talked to my bank and found out they could not locate the sender's bank account). It is a well orchestrated scam. I was lucky enough not to suffer any financial loss and the bank told me to contact the law enforcement agency which is too busy catching the "real" bad person and dismissed the case I presented.
The only remedy for me to do is to share this experience with the community and hope no one will fall for the scam ever. ▲ Collapse
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Liviu-Lee Roth
United States
Local time: 02:31
Romanian to English
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| Sorry to hear that, | Feb 26, 2020 |
shihpw wrote:
I was contacted by a job opportunity from Proz and the quote was accepted by the employer accordingly. The employer stated the payment will be sent from a "sponsor" and I should deposit the check as soon as I received it based on the instruction given. I deferred to wait until the project is completed (over 12k words translated afterwards) to deposit the check to my bank. BTW, they sent more than what I quoted and asked me to deposit the check then return the excessive amount via Paypal. The check bounced, the employer was not accessible and the sponsor's family died so could not deal with sending another check.
Make a long story short, the sponsor even asked me to go to Walmart to buy a gift card (by then I have talked to my bank and found out they could not locate the sender's bank account). It is a well orchestrated scam. I was lucky enough not to suffer any financial loss and the bank told me to contact the law enforcement agency which is too busy catching the "real" bad person and dismissed the case I presented.
The only remedy for me to do is to share this experience with the community and hope no one will fall for the scam ever.
If you had read the SCAM section more often and on a regular basis, the whole situation could've been prevented since this is a ten years-old overpayment scam (44 pages , 11 000 words).
The "real" bad person could be from anywhere in this world. He/she/they bought the narrative on the dark web and sent it to hundreds of people.
Stay safe,
lee
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| Reading doesn't hurt | Feb 26, 2020 |
shihpw wrote:
The only remedy for me to do is to share this experience with the community and hope no one will fall for the scam ever.
Even better "remedy" would be to READ this forum before you write or indeed before you had any experience to share.
And btw. your clients are not your "employers".
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Michael Newton 
United States
Local time: 02:31
Japanese to English
+ ...
| Financial fraud | Feb 26, 2020 |
I nip problems like this in the bud telling prospective clients that "checks are not accepted, only bank wire transfer and PayPal". This policy could save translators a lot of grief.
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Liviu-Lee Roth wrote:
... since this is a ten years-old overpayment scam (44 pages , 11 000 words).
I have read somewhere (this forum?) that the overpayment scam was already making rounds in the pre-internet era, by means of snail post. So probably as old as checks.
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| You say you didn't suffer any financial loss... | Feb 28, 2020 |
Surely you did, unless your bank let you keep the money even though the check bounced.
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Don't fall for the financial fraud
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