| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | Overpayment scam: scammer's reply on hearing of the consequences of fraud Thread poster: Liviu-Lee Roth
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Carrie Zhao 
United States
Local time: 10:29
Chinese to English
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| Well, what else should I say but a big THANKS?!!! I wonder what we should do though... | Jul 26, 2012 |
[quote]Jean@LA wrote:
NikolaKovacevic wrote: This was the intro with the offer. Subject: Translations..ENGLISH_SERBIAN Inbox Alan Cox [email protected] Jun 20 to me Greetings! My name is Alan Cox from Macon,Georgia and i'll be leaving for the United Kingdom on a business trip tomorrow morning.I'll be making a presentation to some groups of serbian speaking people in Belgrade on the 3rd of August,2012.However,i will need you to help me translate some documents from English to Serbian,so each of my audience can have a copy in their local language and they can follow through.The deadline for the delivery of translations is July 31,2012.Please,let me have an estimate for the documents(see attached).I look forward to hearing back from you soon. Kind Regards, Alan 678-701-9193 +447924007140 2 attachments — Download all attachments Mgmt..docx 8K View Download Foreign Exchange Markets.docx 20K View Download ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Now Alan Cox becomes Raul Acosta and wants these documents translated into Chinese. He's using the exact same phone number and attaching the exact same articles. However, the website www.moentaryspec.org doesn't seem to exist. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Raul Acosta [email protected] via mandarin4biz.com 6:46 AM (3 hours ago) to jean Greetings! I'm Raul Acosta from Macon,Georgia and i'll be leaving for the United Kingdom on a business trip tomorrow morning.I'll be making a presentation to some groups of Chinese speaking people in Beijing,China on the 3rd of September,2012.However,i will need you to help me translate some documents from English to Chinese,so each of my audience can have a copy in their local language and they can follow through.The deadline for the delivery of translations is August 31,2012.Please,let me have an estimate for the documents(see attached).I look forward to hearing back from you soon. Kind Regards, Raul 678-701-9193 2 attachments — Download all attachments Mgmt..docx 8K View Download Foreign Exchange Markets.docx 20K View Download
| | | | | Scam from Raul Acosta | Aug 18, 2012 |
Hi, I am reading about scam from Raul Acosta. I have received an email from that man to translate English into Bulgarian and he send me the check for $ 3 900. My price was $604 for that translation. It ringed the bell after I saw a way higher check to me. I went to the bank and they told me that the check is fake. I am going to the police tomorrow to report them. I hope some day they will be in jail.
| | | | | Raul Acosta moves to Michigan | Feb 8, 2013 |
Hello,
When I received this e-mail (see below), I googled this: "Raul Acosta" proz. And bingo!
Thank you everyone reporting such doings.
Bye,
Piotr
And this was in my inbox:
quote starts:
Greetings!
I'm Raul Acosta from Warren,Michigan state in the United States.I will be making a presentation to some groups of Polish speaking people in Warsaw on the 28th of March,2013.However,i will need you... See more Hello,
When I received this e-mail (see below), I googled this: "Raul Acosta" proz. And bingo!
Thank you everyone reporting such doings.
Bye,
Piotr
And this was in my inbox:
quote starts:
Greetings!
I'm Raul Acosta from Warren,Michigan state in the United States.I will be making a presentation to some groups of Polish speaking people in Warsaw on the 28th of March,2013.However,i will need you to help me translate some documents from English to Polish so each of my audience can have a copy in their local language and they can follow through.The deadline for the delivery of translations is March 25,2013.Please let me have an estimate for the documents(see attached).I look forward to hearing back from you soon.
Kind Regards,
Raul
end of the quote
plus 2 attachments
Mgmt
Mergers-and-acquisitions
the sender's e-mail address was Raul Acosta [[email protected]]
[Edited at 2013-02-08 11:44 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | | heartbreaking message? Where? | Feb 8, 2013 |
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Liviu-Lee Roth
United States
Local time: 12:29
Romanian to English
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TOPIC STARTER
Read the very first post !
| | | | | heartbreaking message? Where? | Feb 9, 2013 |
I did prior to writing mine.
| | | | | Much nicer than I was... | Feb 9, 2013 |
When I first started out as a freelancer, I almost fell for the same scam. I was only saved by my graphic design experience, and recognized the fake checks as soon as I saw them.
Now, as to whether this makes me a bad person or not, I won't comment, but I will let you know that I put that poor fool through the ringer. I did contact the police, the FBI, etc.. but when they did nothing, I decided to do what ever I could. So first I sent him to WU about a dozen times with fake control... See more When I first started out as a freelancer, I almost fell for the same scam. I was only saved by my graphic design experience, and recognized the fake checks as soon as I saw them.
Now, as to whether this makes me a bad person or not, I won't comment, but I will let you know that I put that poor fool through the ringer. I did contact the police, the FBI, etc.. but when they did nothing, I decided to do what ever I could. So first I sent him to WU about a dozen times with fake control numbers, then I told him that I was mailing a check (wouldn't give me his address, I wonder why?? haha), then I started demanding that my name appear in the documents as the translator or I wouldn't send him anything. Then I told him that I lost it betting on a local worm race event (for the record, my worm actually won, but that's beside the point). Then the guy called me demanding his money... That's when I got mad and told him that I knew it was a scam and that I'd been screwing with him the whole time, I told him I'd given him traced control numbers, and that I already knew where he really was (it's not hard to mask an IP address, but there are ways of figuring out if the email was routed through something like that and actually find your way back to the scam artist).
He never called back... I still send him bills every month, with new late charges and interest.
Last I heard, the FBI actually is looking for the guy. Another translator was scammed at the same time and was able to collect a lot more information than I did.
The thing is though, it looked like a real job. The scam artist had stolen a linkedin account from some one that actually worked at the company that wrote the document I was supposed to translate. He didn't accept my original rate and we spent a couple days going back and forth negotiating it.
I was suspicious because I was still very new to freelance work and this person found me in a list of translators, but I was on page 413. I mean, no one could have just found me, accepted my ability as a translator without any testing or resume or references.
I am genuinely sorry for your loss. I'm sorry to say that I don't know of any way to get the money back or to track them more closely. All I can say is that I hope you get enough work now to cover what was lost so that you can continue providing for your loved ones, who are truly blessed (or lucky, depending on your religious views) to have you in their lives.
[Edited at 2013-02-09 16:41 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Raul Acosta in Poland | Mar 21, 2013 |
Unfortunately I didn't read this info before and I in fact did the job wasting my time, I've been in the translation for a couple of years, and I can't believe I was so stupid when it was so easy to check him! I do not know if I should report this to the police as sb has said even the FBI did nothing!
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NikolaKovacevic wrote:
I am not afraaid of internet criminals and I trust to American society and it's fairness. I did this job cause it made sense, didn't know about the bouncing checks and was sure that once I have the money on my account that the check must be fine.
I'm so sorry for you Nikola. I know it's not much comfort but you're certainly not the only one to have been taken in by this kind of scam. In fact, proof that there are plenty of people who do is the fact that there are so many floating around.
I just want to say that I think it's really brave of you to share your story to help others and try to eradicate these criminals. I am sure that there are plenty of people who feel too embarassed to share their story but I must say that I'm very grateful for those who do because if I've not been taken in by a scammer, it's definitely thanks to all of you who warn us all about these things on proz.
I really hope you get somewhere with this and also that you don't use up too much of your time and energy if you don't.
I wish you lots of luck for the future and I hope you get plenty of genuine clients soon to make up for this. There are plenty of those about once you get started so I'm confident you will.
| | | | Jeff Whittaker
United States
Local time: 12:29
Spanish to English
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| | Once bitten, twice shy | Mar 21, 2013 |
True, as Tomas said, these were all pointers, but you only realise later though you kind of have a gut feeling. when it happened to me, without any money being sent, looking back, I realised how quickly he had accepted my quote without asking for samples, etc but thought that it was because I was Maltese and there are not many as members- maybe they look out for new members too. I denounced him here but it seems we cannot make a list of scammers so you can easily flick through and check. anyway,... See more True, as Tomas said, these were all pointers, but you only realise later though you kind of have a gut feeling. when it happened to me, without any money being sent, looking back, I realised how quickly he had accepted my quote without asking for samples, etc but thought that it was because I was Maltese and there are not many as members- maybe they look out for new members too. I denounced him here but it seems we cannot make a list of scammers so you can easily flick through and check. anyway, they would quickly change names. I googled his name and found him and the association he said he belonged to as well as SKYPE address. I do not know how they dare! Offers are scarce enough these days without having to deal with such scammers. Also the document had mistakes and incomplete phrases or contract sentences which he did not want changed- that should have been another pointer. so next time, ignore those too. Good luck with other projects, try and put it behind you and get on. ▲ Collapse
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