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Identity Verification
Thread poster: ELisabeth Luhrs
ELisabeth Luhrs
ELisabeth Luhrs  Identity Verified
Australia
Local time: 15:12
German to English
+ ...
Aug 23, 2010

I received an email via proz.com from someone in the UK with a 'yahoo' email address reqesting 'Interpreting' services in NSW, Australia in September for 3 days. Allegedly this person is attending an event and requires a German speaker to assist his non-English speaking wife (who he mentioned is 5 months pregnant) to purchase certain items and sightseeing. Sounded ok to me eventhough I had caution bells in the back of my mind. Upon asking this person to verify his ID, the email trail slowly stop... See more
I received an email via proz.com from someone in the UK with a 'yahoo' email address reqesting 'Interpreting' services in NSW, Australia in September for 3 days. Allegedly this person is attending an event and requires a German speaker to assist his non-English speaking wife (who he mentioned is 5 months pregnant) to purchase certain items and sightseeing. Sounded ok to me eventhough I had caution bells in the back of my mind. Upon asking this person to verify his ID, the email trail slowly stopped. In my initial email I advised him I need to fly to Sydney as I reside in Tasmania and even asked him if this event was in Sydney to which he also did not reply.
I found a profile on Facebook that appears to match him based on location and what he wrote about his wife in his email and on his FB profile. His interest on FB showed as: "Women".
I certainly will not go ahead with this job for evident reasons and this person has all of a sudden stopped conversing with me. I think any professional businessman who tells me money is no object would not have a problem verifying his ID - it's a very normal and understandable request.
So my fellow colleagues, just look out for such requests and please check it all out and be cautious. I just can't understand if someone has false intentions to meet a woman or god help us maybe even harm her in any way, why go to a translators website???? All very strange to me.

Just be careful.

Have a great day,
Elisabeth Luhrs
Australia ▲ Collapse
 
Katalin Horváth McClure
Katalin Horváth McClure  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 01:12
Member (2002)
English to Hungarian
+ ...
Well known scam Aug 23, 2010

The same scam has been going around with variations on the nationality and occupation of the guy (sometimes a priest), the location of the event and the story of the wife (there are children sometimes, too). He would agree to any price, paying for your travel and hotel, then send you a check in advance that is way over the agreed amount, and ask you to refund the difference.
His check will bounce, but that takes a few days, meanwhile the unsuspecting victim has already wired the "differenc... See more
The same scam has been going around with variations on the nationality and occupation of the guy (sometimes a priest), the location of the event and the story of the wife (there are children sometimes, too). He would agree to any price, paying for your travel and hotel, then send you a check in advance that is way over the agreed amount, and ask you to refund the difference.
His check will bounce, but that takes a few days, meanwhile the unsuspecting victim has already wired the "difference" (in real funds) back to the poor guy who "mistakenly" sent too much money.
Don't even bother to reply to these.
Katalin ▲ Collapse
 
ELisabeth Luhrs
ELisabeth Luhrs  Identity Verified
Australia
Local time: 15:12
German to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Thanks for your feedback Aug 23, 2010

Hi Katalin,

Thanks so much for your feedback. I wouldn't have done anything without verifying his identity and checking him out. But my husband (ex-Police Officer for 23 years) had his doubts from the very beginning........of course sometimes it sounds ok and you don't expect to find too many of these on our proz.com website but it just shows us how cautious we all must be.
Thanks for that and enjoy your day.

Best regards,
Lilly Luhrs
Australia
 
Enrique Cavalitto
Enrique Cavalitto  Identity Verified
Argentina
Local time: 02:12
Member (2006)
English to Spanish
Wiki page on scams Aug 24, 2010

I have little to add to Katalin's explanation.

You may find helpful the page on detecting and reacting to false job offers and other scams included in the ProZ.com wiki section.

All members are invited to contribute to this and other pages of this community knowledge area.

Regards,
Enrique
 


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Identity Verification







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