Dozens of REMOTE WORK INTERVIEW SCAMS and FAKE CHECK SCAMS circulating on freelancing platforms Thread poster: Andrea Capuselli
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Dear community, I am posting briefly to share a brief collection of iterations of two common scams, the remote work interview and the overpayment / fake check scam. New variations are popping up every day.
REMOTE WORK INTERVIEW: The first email invitation is followed by a Google Hangouts interview and a request for personal information, presumably as part of a pay-to-work scam or an overpayment scam. You can lea... See more Dear community, I am posting briefly to share a brief collection of iterations of two common scams, the remote work interview and the overpayment / fake check scam. New variations are popping up every day.
REMOTE WORK INTERVIEW: The first email invitation is followed by a Google Hangouts interview and a request for personal information, presumably as part of a pay-to-work scam or an overpayment scam. You can learn more about how the scam works here: https://www.proz.com/about/translator-scam-alerts/default#2
- Scammer pretending to represent "Custom Pharma Services": The emails reported came from [email protected] and [email protected]
- Scammer pretending to represent "Alpha Trad": The emails reported came from [email protected] and [email protected]
- Scammer pretending to represent "Vertex Pharmaceuticals": The emails reported came from [email protected]
- Scammer pretending to represent "IBC Solar" and "Kessinger Publishing": The emails reported came from [email protected] and [email protected]
- Scammer pretending to represent "AidTrade": Some of the email addresses used are [email protected] and [email protected]
- Scammer pretending to represent "ALRISE Biosystem": The email addresses reported have been [email protected] and [email protected]
- Scammer pretending to represent "Wockhardt": The scammer uses the fake email domain @wockardt.com (note the missing h), as well as @gmail.com accounts
- Scammer pretending to represent "A Tradimillenium Lda": The scammer uses the fake email address [email protected]
OVERPAYMENT / FAKE CHECK SCAM: These scammers contact translators offering an advance payment in order to wire them fake checks and then request a refund due to overpayment issues. Some of the documents used by these scammers are:
- "Search for Philip K. Dick" by Anne R. Dick
- "The Political Economy of Capitalism" by Bruce R. Scott
- "Fundamentals of Business Profitability"
- "Agricultural Restructuring in Europe: A Case Study"
- "Research Project on Agricultural reforms in EU"
- "Community development lecture on organic farming"
- "Public Organisations Procedures Research"
- "The impacts of climate change in coastal marine systems"
- "Analytical paper on the economic scale and growth of the collaborative economy France"
- "Support of workplace diversity policies: The role of race, gender, and beliefs about inequality"
- "La desigualdad de ingresos de Francia en perspectiva histórica"
- "Educación y crecimiento económico: Del siglo XIX al XXI"
- "Ökologischer Landbau und weltweite Nahrungsmittelversorgung"
Stay updated on risk management and common online scams here: https://www.proz.com/about/translator-scam-alerts/ ▲ Collapse
| | | | Heinrich Pesch 
Finland
Local time: 22:14
Member (2003)
Finnish to German
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| Did you get yourself any of these | Jul 20, 2020 |
I'm glad to report that I never had any of these requests, though I get up to 30 junk mails every day, mostly now about Bitcoin and erection cures.
| | | | | New members seem to be primary targets | Jul 20, 2020 |
@Andrea, in the threads we see about scams and scammed people, one conspicuous fact is that the people who report scams (or attempts) are people who have just registered with Proz or became members. You can see that in the profiles of the writers of postings. This is really disturbing. It seems there are scammers out there who filter the Proz directory for newly registered members and approach them with their scam attempts, obviously (and rightly) assuming that they will be more likely to fall f... See more @Andrea, in the threads we see about scams and scammed people, one conspicuous fact is that the people who report scams (or attempts) are people who have just registered with Proz or became members. You can see that in the profiles of the writers of postings. This is really disturbing. It seems there are scammers out there who filter the Proz directory for newly registered members and approach them with their scam attempts, obviously (and rightly) assuming that they will be more likely to fall for these tricks.
Therefore I think Proz should try to do even more to raise awareness for these scams with new members. It seems the current warnings are not enough. Either the people don't read them or they simply don't recognize the scams even though they have been warned. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Kevin Fulton
United States
Local time: 15:14
German to English
| New members listed | Jul 20, 2020 |
Kay-Viktor Stegemann wrote:
It seems there are scammers out there who filter the Proz directory for newly registered members and approach them with their scam attempts, obviously (and rightly) assuming that they will be more likely to fall for these tricks.
No need to filter for new members, they are shown separately in a "Welcome new members" window. Excited at the prospects of more work resulting from membership, they take the bait. I've suggested that this feature be eliminated, as I cannot understand its purpose, other than to alert scammers as to new potential victims.
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Thayenga
Germany
Local time: 21:14
Member (2009)
English to German
+ ...
| Assist new members | Jul 20, 2020 |
As Kevin stated, the welcome new member feature should be removed. Keeping it in place is basically an invitation for scammers. Instead of posting them on the homepage, ProZ should send each one a "welcome package" to alert them to the most obvious signs of the most common scams, and also to emphasize the importance of abiding to these warnings. This will not prevent being scammed, but it should make it a little more difficult for the scammers.
| | | | | Thank you for your comments! | Jul 20, 2020 |
Dear all,
Thank you all for your comments. From what we have seen, these scammers use the translators directory to conduct a search, then jump to the later pages to find newly registered accounts. The ProZ.com team and dedicated moderators work to flag and block these visitors but, as you may know, online scams are a big industry and the best resource against them is information.
We have started sending out emails with information on risk management to new members, as ... See more Dear all,
Thank you all for your comments. From what we have seen, these scammers use the translators directory to conduct a search, then jump to the later pages to find newly registered accounts. The ProZ.com team and dedicated moderators work to flag and block these visitors but, as you may know, online scams are a big industry and the best resource against them is information.
We have started sending out emails with information on risk management to new members, as well as including a link to the Scam Alerts Center on emails from non-logged in users, and continue to look for ways to ensure that updated information on scams reaches all translators in the ProZ.com community. Your suggestions are more than welcome. ▲ Collapse
| | | | IrinaN
United States
Local time: 14:14
English to Russian
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Can you make the registration impossible before reading and accepting some "leaflet" in the middle of the process with a short description of the same nature as your emails but with the mandatory step to visit Scam Alert?
For those who would still feel like they are smarter and can just click back and force to get through faster... let them deal with it on their own. As much as I am sympathetic with the victims, it's getting really childish, almost irritating. People who are about ... See more Can you make the registration impossible before reading and accepting some "leaflet" in the middle of the process with a short description of the same nature as your emails but with the mandatory step to visit Scam Alert?
For those who would still feel like they are smarter and can just click back and force to get through faster... let them deal with it on their own. As much as I am sympathetic with the victims, it's getting really childish, almost irritating. People who are about to enter the adult world of serious professionals but can't stop believing in Santa and won't listen to the "elders" deserve some shock therapy.
Sorry if I sound nasty but "baby, you killed three people but mommy knows it's not your fault" methods lead to... you can observe it today in all its beauty. Our parents and their parents knew better how to deal with unruly kids:-) ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Some people are out of reach | Jul 20, 2020 |
IrinaN wrote:
For those who would still feel like they are smarter and can just click back and force to get through faster... let them deal with it on their own.
The last time I transferred money from my own UK bank account to my own TransferWise account, my bank displayed so many warnings that I was almost frightened out of my wits. It felt like doing something extremely dangerous.
Nevertheless, the media keep writing about people who happily transfer tens of thousands of pounds to criminals, ignoring all the warnings, or who lie to bank staff about the purpose of withdrawing cash or transferring money when staff raise a flag.
How do you reach people like that?
Are people so used to clicking to accept T&Cs, privacy policies, cookie policies and what now 50 times a day (which it would not be possible to read through in a lifetime if you had nothing else to do) that they no longer pay attention to real warnings?
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IrinaN
United States
Local time: 14:14
English to Russian
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Thomas T. Frost wrote:
they no longer pay attention to real warnings?
Let's bring the top marketing guns in all language pairs on Proz to make it sound convincing. Add Jolly Roger?
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