ProZ.com Translation Forums

Scam using existing person's name | Oh my god, I am also cheated!

Sanjay Ray — Tue, 09 Jul 2013 05:36:00 +0000

Forum: Scams
Topic: Scam using existing person's name
Poster: Sanjay Ray
Post title: Oh my god, I am also cheated!

Oh my god, I am also cheated. I have not seen this page before and was expecting payment for a job done 4 months back.

For the benefit of my colleagues I reproduce mails received from this person named as Ralph Damani who calls himself a foot ball agent and wanted to translate a document into Hindi. I am a translator with 30 years of experience and on net since 1998, but I could not distinguish the fake email. The tactic was the same as with other translators.

Here are the mails received from him:

28.2.13
You have been sent a message via ProZ.com.
Author: Ralph Damani [NOTE: The author is not a registered ProZ.com user or was not logged in when sending this message.]
Author's IP address: [IP removed]
Message type: Request for quote
-----------

Hello,
My name is Ralph Damani from New York,USA.I need you to
translate a document for me from English to Hindi as i
will be coming to India next month to scout for football
player.See the attached file and let me know the total
cost.I will await your response.

Regards
Ralph

2.3.13
Hello,

Thanks for your message,here is the attachment and please let me know the total cost.Hope to hear from you.

Best Regards
Ralph

2.3.13

Hello,

The price is good for me,deadline is towards the end of the month and please send me your name and address so that me account rep can forward the payment to you for the commence of the job.

Regards
Ralph

2.3.13
Hello,

Thanks for your message,deadline is towards the end of the month and presently am out of the country i can't do a bank transfer and i don't have paypal so i can only pay you by an International Money order.Hope to hear from you.

Regards
Ralph

3.3.13

Hello,

Thanks for your mail, send me your name and address for the payment.

Regards
Ralph

10.3.13
Hello,

Thanks for a job well done and sending the details.I will let you know when the payment is sent out to you.

Sincerely,
Ralph

17.3.13
Hello

I hope this email finds you well.I have been very busy with some projects abroad, hence my late email.I have instructed my financial assistant(Scott Brown) to have the payment mailed to you.He has already sent out payment to you inform of moneygram international bank order and you should have it delivered in the next 3-6 working days.Kindly let me know as soon as you are in receipt of it.Have a wonderful day.

Sincerely,
Ralph

23.3.13
Hello!

I just got to know a few minutes ago that my assistant(Scott Brown)
made out a moneygram check for the wrong amount($950 US) to you
instead of $175 USD.I instructed him to send $175 USD to you and have
the rest of the money sent to my Arabic interpreter as we are in Egypt
for a FIFA-CAF project which commences late next week.I Just talked to
Scott and he told me he didn't get my instructions clearly and made a
mistake sending the whole of my funds to you.However,i am really sorry
about this mistake .

Kindly have the check paid/deposited into your account at your local
bank.Please deduct your payment($175 US) plus bank charges and assist
in sending the rest of my funds via western union transfer(money in
minutes) to my linguist in Egypt at any of the western union locations
in your city using the information below as my Linguist has also
requested that i pay her in advance before she can be available to
assist me.The fee for the western union transfer should also be
deducted from my balance as that's not a problem at all.I am very
sorry for the inconvenience this may cause you.

Please,provide me with the scan copy of the western union transfer
receipt via email or the mtcn,Sender's name and the exact amount sent
as shown on the receipt as soon as you are able to do the transaction
so i can forward her payment to her asap.I look forward to hearing
back from you soon.Thanks for your great understanding and have a
wonderful weekend.

Linguist's Information for western union wire:
(A name and address is given of a person in Egypt)

24.3.13
Hello!

Thanks for the quick response.I will suggest that you have the payment
cashed at your bank as Scott won't be going back to US until
May.However,you can have the balance sent by international bank wire
from your bank to my Linguist's assistant bank account with the
details below as i have been made to understand that Western Union and
moneygram do not send money and only receive money in India.I look
forward to hearing back from you soon.Happy Sunday.
Ralph

That is the end of the story. I lost my money but learned a few lessons:
1. While accepting jobs from an individual, get his full contact details and do a net search
2. Accept bank transfers/ paypal etc not moneygram
3. Check for IP address and see whether the country of sender is matching with the claims in the mail
4. Check BB
Please add more if you have any.
Hope no body else falls into the trap of the scamsters again!
Ray

Scam using existing person's name | Exactly the same here

Kazuhiro Kondo — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 08:02:00 +0000

Forum: Scams
Topic: Scam using existing person's name
Poster: Kazuhiro Kondo
Post title: Exactly the same here

Gosh, I should have checked ProZ more thoroughly.

Exactly the same person, exactly the same procedure.

I also got mail from the same football scout, same 950 dollar moneygram
that is over the payment amount from Egypt, and same request to send
remaining funds to an account in UAE. The moneygram is fraudulent, naturally.

I guess I'll just have bite the bullet on this one. I lost the translation fees, lifting
charges, and an additional charge for bounced check, as well as all the time I took
to go to the bank and do the paperwork. What a waste!

Folks, please be aware.

Scam using existing person's name | Same attempt was made by this person.

Sanjeev Poonia — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 02:37:00 +0000

Forum: Scams
Topic: Scam using existing person's name
Poster: Sanjeev Poonia
Post title: Same attempt was made by this person.

I also received the same mail type of mail. Even language and content are same but Place and country were changed. They even sent me two Moneygram of 950 Dollars each.
But when I tried to verify the origin, the person told me that he is from Newyork, while IP address location was shown from Washington.
When I asked for any phone number they provided me a number in Great Britain.
And, the envelop sent by them bearing stamp of Cairo (Egypt) and without any seder's address.

I didn't responded to them anymore; and understood that it is not a single person but a gang of frauds.

Message body of their mail is like this :
Hello,
My name is Ralph Damani from New York,USA.I need you to
translate a document for me from English to Hindi as i
will be coming to India next month to scout for football
player.See the attached file and let me know the total
cost.I will await your response.

Regards
Ralph

On my query they responded like this : Hello,

Thanks for your mail,my address is shown in the attachment sent to you, here is my phone number [phone removed] and am coming to New Delhi.

This mail address is used by them : [email removed]

Thanks to this forum and Proz.com staff for alert messages.

Scam using existing person's name | Thank you!

AyakoI (X) — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 07:21:00 +0000

Forum: Scams
Topic: Scam using existing person's name
Poster: AyakoI (X)
Post title: Thank you!

Thayenga and Sabine,

Thank you for your advise. It was my concern to harm the person's reputation.

I will report to Proz.com.

Scam using existing person's name | Report to proz

Sunny Sky — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 06:55:00 +0000

Forum: Scams
Topic: Scam using existing person's name
Poster: Sunny Sky
Post title: Report to proz

Hi Ayako,

The BlueBoard might not be the right place for this. You should report this to proz.com via support ticket, including sender's details etc. So they can at least try to prevent people like this from posting here.

Sorry to hear about your experience, I had a similar inquiry too!

Best

Sabine

Scam using existing person's name | The BB entry

Thayenga — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 06:01:00 +0000

Forum: Scams
Topic: Scam using existing person's name
Poster: Thayenga
Post title: The BB entry

Hi Ayako,

sorry to read about your experience.

In regard to posting an entry on the Blue Board, please be careful. You said that the person's name was/is valid. If you now post a BB entry identifying that person by name as a scammer, you might do harm to an innocent person, to the one who's name was abused.

Scam using existing person's name | Agreed!

AyakoI (X) — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 02:35:00 +0000

Forum: Scams
Topic: Scam using existing person's name
Poster: AyakoI (X)
Post title: Agreed!

I agree that we should post it on Blueboard.

Can anyone tell me what is the best way?

I don't know if disclosing the person's name would be appropriate because I think the person's name is used by the scammer.

Scam using existing person's name | Exactly the same experience!

horse — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 02:20:00 +0000

Forum: Scams
Topic: Scam using existing person's name
Poster: horse
Post title: Exactly the same experience!

I think exactly the same thing happened to me, also.
My bank contacted me that the Moneygram they sent me looks like fraud.
I have written back to the client but so far no answer.
I really regret taking on this job from an individual.
We should post this to the Blue Board to alert others.

Scam using existing person's name

AyakoI (X) — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 22:28:00 +0000

Forum: Scams
Topic: Scam using existing person's name
Poster: AyakoI (X)

Hi,

Last month, I got an request to translate a contract from a football scout agent.
I did a background check and the person existed.

The document was real and English he used was also fine.

He asked to pay by international money order which I misunderstood as international US postal money order which I have received before.

It turned out to be a moneygram money order with wrong amount and he asked me to send the balance to another translator in Egypt.
Now I know that this is a typical overpayment scam but I had no idea then.

Fortunately, my bank found out that it was a bounced check so I didn't end up sending the money.

So I only lost bank charges and the translated file.

It was a good lesson for me to learn about these scams.

I am new to ProZ and was not aware of scanning alerts. I hope no one else will get into similar trouble.

I reported the e-mail address used as abuse.

Also, I informed the person whose name was used about this scam.

Once I received the evidences from the bank, I am planning to report it to FTC and International Fraud Watch.

If there is anything else I should be doing, please kindly advise!