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Scam - German to English, climate change in coastal marine systems
Thread poster: Becca Resnik
Becca Resnik
Becca Resnik  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 21:55
Member
German to English
+ ...
May 28, 2020

It has saved me before to have a chunk of text from a scam posted here, so I'm doing the same. The first line is the name of the document - I thought it was strange that it was in perfect English, but stranger things have happened.

The text is extremely convincing, fleshed out with charts and graphs and such. The email came from a hotmail address from someone who'd found me on ProZ but was not a registered user. Although many of the elements of the situation are red flags, there wa
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It has saved me before to have a chunk of text from a scam posted here, so I'm doing the same. The first line is the name of the document - I thought it was strange that it was in perfect English, but stranger things have happened.

The text is extremely convincing, fleshed out with charts and graphs and such. The email came from a hotmail address from someone who'd found me on ProZ but was not a registered user. Although many of the elements of the situation are red flags, there was still a possibility it was legitimate, so I quoted.

Their response used the oldest tricks in the book - they'd pay me 50% down (not requested) and needed my bank account, routing number, etc. Just to see what he'd do, I told him that the way my bank handles transfers, I'd need his bank account number and routing number to get everything set up. I was curious if he'd give up right away, get angry, or send fake credentials.

He didn't respond, so I asked him if he'd gotten a chance to get the details together and told him that "I’ve got twins on the way, so I’m excited to knock out a large text like this one" (I am most definitely not pregnant). He responded pretty quickly with this: "I was just about to write you, I think we will have to wait on the translation now. I will keep you posted as things unfolds." Given that he didn't push to scam me, I have to imagine that he took me seriously and felt guilty. And that makes ME smile. Of course he could have simply felt it wasn't the effort, but I'm going to hold onto the former.


At any rate, here's the start of the text (8,535 words):


The impacts of climate change in coastal marine systems

Der Einfluss des Klimawandels auf die Küsten-Meer-Ökosysteme

Der anthropogene Weltklimawandel hat tiefgreifende Auswirkungen auf die Meeresökosysteme, sowie davon abhängige Wirtschafts- und Sozialsysteme. Das Verhältnis zwischen der Temperatur und der Leistung der Individuen wurde bisher ziemlich genau analysiert und ein Großteil der Klimauntersuchungen konzentrierte sich seither auf die potentiellen Änderungen in der Verteilung und Abundanz in Abhängigkeit von der Temperatur. Die jüngeren Forschungsarbeiten zeigen allerdings, dass die abiotischen Veränderungen und die biologischen Reaktionen im Ozean viel komplexer werden. Zum Beispiel, die chemischen Veränderungen im Ozean können für das Überleben und die Leistung zahlreicher Organismen beträchtlicher sein als die Temperaturveränderungen. Die Ozeanzirkulation, treibende Kraft der Larven, wird sich auch verändern, was beträchtliche Folgen für die Populationsdynamik haben wird. Ferner kann der Klimaeinfluss auf eine oder mehrere wichtige Arten beträchtliche Veränderungen auf der Ebene der Gemeinschaft verursachen. Schließlich wird der Klimawandel die synergetischen Effekte zwischen dem Klima und anderen anthropogenen Variablen, vor allem Druck durch die Fischerei, wahrscheinlich verschärfen. Die Bemühungen, um die lebenden Meeresökosysteme im Kontext der Klimaänderungen zu verwalten und zu erhalten, erfordern die Verbesserungen der existierenden Prognosen. Die Identifizierung der wichtigsten demographischen Wenden, die die Populationsdynamik beeinflussen gehört zu den Hauptorientierungslinien der zukünftigen Forschungen. Aber man wird auch mit Veränderungen der festgestellten Effekte auf der Ebene der Gemeinschaften unter den ökologisch dominierenden Arten rechnen müssen, sowie mit der Fähigkeit dieser Populationen sich zu weiterzuentwickeln (sich anzupassen), sowie mit dem Verständnis der Maßstäbe dieser Klimaänderung und zugleich der Anpassung der lebenden Systeme.
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Mary Burdman
Denis Rodionov
Constance Hubbard
 
Jennifer Caisley
Jennifer Caisley  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 01:55
Member (2019)
German to English
+ ...
Thank you! May 28, 2020

Thank you so much for posting, Becca - as a fellow DE>EN translator, this may well be useful info for the future! Love how you managed to play the scammer back at their own game a little!

Becca Resnik
Aline Amorim
 
Monica Sheets
Monica Sheets
United States
Local time: 20:55
German to English
Definitely a scam! May 29, 2020

I have the same person contacting me. Unless it's not allowed, I'll post the name/email: [email protected]
I'm curious what IP address your email came from (the first notice via Pro Z has it listed). The one I got was 185.236.42.123, which returns as Stockholm.


 
Koenig
Koenig
United States
Local time: 21:55
German to English
+ ...
Same happend to me. May 29, 2020

I had the same person contacting me. Same name, same hot mail account, and same document in German.
I requested a check in the mail. He requested my phone number for easier communication. I gave him a out of country cell number, which prompted the requested for bank info for payment. I insisted on check payment and asked if this is a problem? The response was: Okay... will keep you posted on update

Thank you all for sharing. Stay healthy.


 
Andres Tillero
Andres Tillero
United States
Local time: 21:55
Spanish to English
+ ...
Where is the Scam May 29, 2020

This person reached out to me and things went as with OP.

Im pretty new at this and always extra careful giving out personal information, yet wiring instruction is generally safe to give. Nevertheless I wanted to dig about the request since it seemed to good to be true.

Where is the scam, can the person do something with my bank account information? I’d be surprised as you would share this info with anyone wiring money or posting ACH, so its information that is comm
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This person reached out to me and things went as with OP.

Im pretty new at this and always extra careful giving out personal information, yet wiring instruction is generally safe to give. Nevertheless I wanted to dig about the request since it seemed to good to be true.

Where is the scam, can the person do something with my bank account information? I’d be surprised as you would share this info with anyone wiring money or posting ACH, so its information that is commonly shared with vendors/service suppliers who in many cases can be strangers.

can anyone shed light on where the supposed scam is?
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Becca Resnik
Becca Resnik  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 21:55
Member
German to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
That's the one! May 29, 2020

Monica Sheets wrote:

I have the same person contacting me.
I'm curious what IP address your email came from (the first notice via Pro Z has it listed). The one I got was 185.236.42.123, which returns as Stockholm.


Yep, same email address. The posting rules do state not to identify them at all, because innocent people's identities get used for this. Which I understand, but I also think it's pertinent information in a scam. At any rate, the IP pings as Belgium for me, but with VPNs and cloud servers, who knows where anyone is anymore.


 
Kay-Viktor Stegemann
Kay-Viktor Stegemann
Germany
Local time: 02:55
English to German
In memoriam
The check payment is exactly what he wants May 29, 2020

Koenig wrote:

I had the same person contacting me. Same name, same hot mail account, and same document in German.
I requested a check in the mail. He requested my phone number for easier communication. I gave him a out of country cell number, which prompted the requested for bank info for payment. I insisted on check payment and asked if this is a problem? The response was: Okay... will keep you posted on update

Thank you all for sharing. Stay healthy.


Why do you request him to send a check? This is exactly what he wants. He wants to send a forged check for a higher amount, ask you for a "refund" or "forwarding" of the surplus, and then disappear while the check bounces weeks later. Standard overpayment scam, decades old.

[Edited at 2020-05-29 13:23 GMT]


Liviu-Lee Roth
Philip Lees
Constance Hubbard
 
Becca Resnik
Becca Resnik  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 21:55
Member
German to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
My favorite part May 29, 2020

Jennifer Caisley wrote:

Love how you managed to play the scammer back at their own game a little!


Oh, and that's indeed my favorite part. In the scam attempt before this, someone sent a certified check - too bad they misspelled "suite" as "cuite" in the address on the check itself that was supposedly from their sponsor. Again just to see how they'd react, I told them I called the bank and that the bank said it could be fraudulent. Their response was that the bank shouldn't have said this, as they don't know the details of the project. [I turned to my husband and sarcastically said, "Oh, I forgot about the rule that bank tellers must know the details of a project to know if a document is fraudulent!"] I responded that "oh yes, that's right, they wouldn't know" and "could you have your sponsor call me to confirm the validity of the check." Surprise, surprise, I never heard back.

I have lots of other ideas in my back pocket, but I've been scared to use them only out of fear of giving them more ideas to scam others. I've been tempted to say that, in addition to their bank details, my bank also needs a scan of their passport or their online banking security questions to verify their identity. But again out of the greater need to not feed them ideas, I stick to guilting them into thinking they were about to scam a preggo.


Susan Welsh
 
IrinaN
IrinaN
United States
Local time: 20:55
English to Russian
+ ...
Becca, I'm sorry to rain on your parade May 29, 2020

But the only smart thing to do is to spend about 1.5 seconds on hitting Delete and Report Scam button upon receiving such fishy offers. It screamed: "Scam" from every corner.

For one, by responding you confirmed that your email is real and active and is now in every database on the dark web. There is no particular real person, such as some nerd is his mommy's basement having fun, trying to scam you and crying after failure to do so. Don't fool yourself, you can't beat it except by
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But the only smart thing to do is to spend about 1.5 seconds on hitting Delete and Report Scam button upon receiving such fishy offers. It screamed: "Scam" from every corner.

For one, by responding you confirmed that your email is real and active and is now in every database on the dark web. There is no particular real person, such as some nerd is his mommy's basement having fun, trying to scam you and crying after failure to do so. Don't fool yourself, you can't beat it except by not reacting at all, and there is no reason to celebrate by imagining a nervous breakdown suffered by some sorry a**. You are dealing with a gigantic and sophisticated industry fully prepared for a certain percentage of failures, no problem. Keep your email away from them.

I can't believe you are planning to waste your time and keep replying to every scam there is. As a minimum, you need to realize that the first message is not even generated by humans. It's an auto roller coaster. Liviu-Lee explained it thousand times in a dozen of forums.

Just steer clear and stay safe!
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Michele Fauble
Liviu-Lee Roth
Susan Welsh
 
Becca Resnik
Becca Resnik  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 21:55
Member
German to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
A few places May 29, 2020

Andres Tillero wrote:

This person reached out to me and things went as with OP.

Im pretty new at this and always extra careful giving out personal information, yet wiring instruction is generally safe to give. Nevertheless I wanted to dig about the request since it seemed to good to be true.

Where is the scam, can the person do something with my bank account information? I’d be surprised as you would share this info with anyone wiring money or posting ACH, so its information that is commonly shared with vendors/service suppliers who in many cases can be strangers.

can anyone shed light on where the supposed scam is?


At least in the US (where it appears you are, and where I am), they can take every penny in the account with your bank account and routing number! Wiring money or other such transfers should be done through a third party service, such as Western Union. The other dead giveaway is that they voluntarily want to overpay. What they'll do is send you the funds, which you don't know are actually nonexistent, and then either make up some reason they need the "overpayment" back (and then they get this amount of money plus the bad amount originally sent back) or they just take it back outright. This can happen up to *two weeks* after the money is in your account.


 
Katarzyna Slowikova
Katarzyna Slowikova  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 02:55
English to Czech
+ ...
No title May 29, 2020

Becca Resnik wrote:
He didn't respond, so I asked him if he'd gotten a chance to get the details together and told him that "I’ve got twins on the way, so I’m excited to knock out a large text like this one" (I am most definitely not pregnant). He responded pretty quickly with this: "I was just about to write you, I think we will have to wait on the translation now. I will keep you posted as things unfolds." Given that he didn't push to scam me, I have to imagine that he took me seriously and felt guilty.


I wouldn't bet on this.
But in any case, if you like these games, you'll love James Veitch (if you don't know him already): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4Uc-cztsJo. You'll also have a good laugh here: https://www.419eater.com/html/letters.htm and maybe get some inspiration for your own scam baiting.
This project was also fun: https://www.rescam.org/ but unfortunately isn't going on anymore.
Scams are boring - always the same pattern, but they do have a huge comedy potential because the guys are so dumb and so greedy.
I wonder what would have happened if you pushed him to give you the job... the twins are coming any day now, you desperately need the money...your husband has run away with your mother, your house has burned down, whatever... maybe something funny would come out of this.


Liviu-Lee Roth
dutchtoenglish
 
Becca Resnik
Becca Resnik  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 21:55
Member
German to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Yes! May 29, 2020

Katarzyna Slowikova wrote:

I wouldn't bet on this.


Not the most likely scenario, but I figure a lot of them might have kids, and even scammers have soul. So I'm holding onto hope that I've poked at his little soul!


But in any case, if you like these games, you'll love James Veitch (if you don't know him already): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4Uc-cztsJo. You'll also have a good laugh here: https://www.419eater.com/html/letters.htm and maybe get some inspiration for your own scam baiting.
This project was also fun: https://www.rescam.org/ but unfortunately isn't going on anymore.


YES, I love the James Veitch ones! I am unfamiliar with the other two and can't wait to check them out.


Scams are boring - always the same pattern, but they do have a huge comedy potential because the guys are so dumb and so greedy.
I wonder what would have happened if you pushed him to give you the job... the twins are coming any day now, you desperately need the money...your husband has run away with your mother, your house has burned down, whatever... maybe something funny would come out of this.


I so want one of them to keep taking the bait so I can sell them a story just like that. And when that day happens, you be I'll post it to ProZ!


 
Becca Resnik
Becca Resnik  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 21:55
Member
German to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
This just hit me - now I'll know to be wary ahead of time May 30, 2020

Becca Resnik wrote:

At least in the US (where it appears you are, and where I am), they can take every penny in the account with your bank account and routing number!


I check the Visitors tab on my profile regularly, as I find it important to see where I'm getting traffic from and whether recent changes I've made are bringing me more traffic. I'm fairly new to ProZ, so I've only just made it high enough in directory rankings that people are finding me there. I was really excited about this and showing it off to my husband, noting that I can see what they searched for to find me. I commented that it was odd that they were looking for German to English technical translators *in the US.* Sure enough, not long after I had appeared under those search criteria, this fellow contacted me. Fairly certain the same had happened with the previous scam. I'm sure there could be a reason someone would search for a translator in the US - perhaps if they're having something translated into US English and aren't finding someone that strikes their fancy without that search filter? But I have to imagine now that more often than not, they're trying to get bank details they can actually use. So when I see this pop up in the Visitors tab, I'll know to be on high alert.


 
Liviu-Lee Roth
Liviu-Lee Roth
United States
Local time: 21:55
Romanian to English
+ ...
a little different May 30, 2020

Becca Resnik wrote:

At least in the US (where it appears you are, and where I am), they can take every penny in the account with your bank account and routing number!


No, they cannot. Each bank has security features for online banking and it alerts you if there is something fishy.

[quote]Becca Resnik wrote:

I've only just made it high enough in directory rankings that people are finding me there.

Being familiar with scammers' MO, more likely it is because you are a newcomer to the Proz family. They target primarily the new subscribers.
As I mentioned numerous times, crooks who could be located on the other side of the world, sell and buy the narrative and pertinent answers on the dark net (forums for cybercriminals). I met criminals that are not able to utter a simple sentence in English but handled complex scams written in English.
Best preventive measure, stay informed and exercise due diligence.

Stay safe
lee


Michele Fauble
 
Becca Resnik
Becca Resnik  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 21:55
Member
German to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
I've seen otherwise May 31, 2020

Liviu-Lee Roth wrote:


Becca Resnik wrote:

At least in the US (where it appears you are, and where I am), they can take every penny in the account with your bank account and routing number!


No, they cannot. Each bank has security features for online banking and it alerts you if there is something fishy.



They certainly have features, but that doesn't mean they alert you in time (or at all). Some banks will call you right away at an attempt of a large purchase, and others say nothing at all. I've been lucky to never have been the victim, but I've sure been a witness to friends and coworkers in this situation. After all, if it were foolproof, then it would indeed be safe to send your bank details (so they could directly transfer to you) - no? Even if they didn't try to take literally every penny, they can take a serious amount without most banks ever knowing it was suspicious activity.

And yes, I'm sure you're right that they target newbies! But while they can filter a search to a country, they can't to a length of time on ProZ. I would guess they filter to the country (after language pair and maybe field) and just hit us all up.



As I mentioned numerous times, crooks who could be located on the other side of the world, sell and buy the narrative and pertinent answers on the dark net (forums for cybercriminals). I met criminals that are not able to utter a simple sentence in English but handled complex scams written in English.
Best preventive measure, stay informed and exercise due diligence.

Stay safe


I'm extremely internet-savvy, so I feel pretty good about watching out for myself. Agreed - being informed is *key.*

Same to you on staying safe!


 
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Scam - German to English, climate change in coastal marine systems







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