I hope you don't mind me simply copying and pasting but I thought I should get the word out asap as I know many members offer proofreading services.
I've just been notified that a site I use has been hacked and scam emails have been received. They appear to be targeting proofreaders on more than one site. Here is an excerpt from the email so you know what to expect:
"One of our advertisers has kindly informed us of a scammer who came to him via the contact form on [site name]. I can see that this scam artist, who goes by the name of Rebeca Alonso, has contacted about 20 of you via the site in the past week. I also know that this scam artist is also targeting proofreaders outside of [name] because she emailed my proofreading business directly as well.
Rebeca Alonso is sending people the following email:
"We have few project needs proofread and edited to a high standard can you please let me know if you available to take on any new job...waiting to hear from you soon...Thank You"
She then sends you the work, and posts you a banker's draft for much more than you asked for. You query it, and she emails back apologising, saying that her colleague sent you the wrong amount. She asks you to pay the banker's draft into your bank and then she asks you to refund her the difference.
Of course, the banker's draft will not clear in your account because it is fraudulent, so if you pay her any money it will be your own money you're paying."
As Sarge used to say in Hill Street Blues, "stay safe out there".
I think in the couple of inboxes I have more of them. I agree in general Cate but the point is more that we are trying to make example of what is happening. Somebody I know has been 'hacked' but I could figure that out immediately, somewhere somebody may well fall for it. I have been scammed once, no pot of money lost but I can play the clever dick who can deal with this stuff and then fall for it. The point Val and others is making with the topic is probably, or as I understand it at least, to tell people what is happening so that there are at least no people left to fall for it on SFN.
As for the other aspect of it. Well there was always a tiny chance it might have been real and our internet phone costs nada to call the UK. I've known the man a long time professionally, it is not friendship or reasons like that but solidarity perhaps. The voluntary sector is like that. He gets to find out he is being disabused via the missus, perhaps is able to do something about it. I spend a couple of minutes on it. Simply ignoring something with a colleague's name attached does not seem especially collegial, but then each to their own working environment.
On those last questions, it doesn't work that way in our business. The FO has tabs on us, so we always get support and a direct government loan at worst. They have worked out who Mike is and where he might be, as for hacking contact lists, not difficult it seems from the number of things people are increasing receiving of this nature. His OH just said he is not in trouble of any kind at all, but quite difficult to contact in Manila!
Worrying because unless your/Mike's contact lists have been hacked how they would know you two are connected? Thank heavens he has an OH you can telephone otherwise it would be a dilemma, big time.
One question because I actually don't know the answer - would the Embassy actually not assist with a flight ticket etc. Seems little point issuing a temporary passport if he cannot then leave the country in any event. One would think they'd have an emergency kitty. They know exactly who Mike is to get a refund - they just issued his passport.
I Hope you get this on time, I made a trip to Manila(Philippines) and had my bag stolen from me with my passport and personal effects therein. The embassy has just issued me a temporary passport but I have to pay for a ticket and settle my hotel bills with the Manager.
I have made contact with my bank but it would take me 3-5 working days to access funds in my account, the bad news is my flight will be leaving very soon but i am having problems settling the hotel bills and the hotel manager won't let me leave until i settle the bills, I need your help/LOAN financially and I promise to make the refund once i get back home, you are my last resort and hope, Please let me know if i can count on you and i need you to keep checking your email because it's the only way i can reach you.
Mike
What rings my alarm bell is the following: 1) There is no complete email address, so I cannot knowingly reply to the Mike it is supposed to be, 2) spelling, punctuation and other aspects of the written presentation of this request are nothing like the real Mike's use of English, 3) I am supposedly the only recipient of this request, but in reality I would be very low down an extensive list and finally 4) this is somebody who would get Foreign Office support very quickly because of his former position as the director of an organisation that work together with the FO and UN. It's a scam, one of the growing number but clearly well informed people in order to know that there are people like Mike and myself who are consultants who get around a lot of countries but where we are likely to be.
I'll check with his OH in a minute, but already know it is a scam. It's what the world is coming to as a standard, sad to say.
I ran into one of these fraudulent, over-paying-cheques-and-send-back-the-difference scams when I was trying to sell my digger; so it seems to come in all sorts and types, the common factor being the overpaying. I wish more of these dishonest folk could realise that "as ye sow, so shall ye reap" is not just some throw-away biblical expression but a fact of life; that you only get out of it what you put in or, more scientifically, "for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction". It would be a better world if they suddenly woke up to that and started to behave.
On the other hand, Lymm, Cheshire, where my eldest son lives, still has the "stocks" in the centre. I'd not be against locking some of these thieving b*****ds in there and shaming them - or pelting them with rotten eggs...
Yes and no, I basically no longer trust any of them - even if I appear to know them. The problem with large, international publishers is that they write to a lot of people and standard letters serve a useful purpose. Unfortunately they serve a useful purpose for scammers too. Since I have very particular arrangements for payments, all the juggling they propose with cheques because of the overpayments and so on could never happen in the first place. There again, my UK bank has appeared to have written to tell me my account is suspended until I pay amount X. Everything looks legitimate except that there is a) no way I can actually contact where letters come from and b) if I paid amount X to place X then I'd be giving money away. I now have an arrangement that only posted letters with verifiable signatures are acceptable. It's terrible when bit by bit a large part of financial life is becoming risky like this.
I fell for a similar one asking for accommodation - had my suspicions but the potential client checked out on google and nothing turned up when I googled the strapline.
"Good Afternoon,
Our United Kingdom head office is sponsoring a vacation trip for us to your country. We are two medical Doctors with our wives coming from Latvia. We had chosen your facility for our 14 night’s vacation. We will arrive to your destination on the 4th October 2013. Below are our few needs;
Arrival Date: 4th October 2013
Departure Date: 18th October 2013
Number of Guests: 4 (2 couples)
Number of Rooms: 2 (double rooms)
Our mode of payment is by cheque.
Kindly let me know if you have availability for 14 nights. Please let me know if you will accept advance payment with cheque. The cheque will arrive immediately to allow for clearance in your bank. Hope to hear from you soon. All invoices will be in my name as below.
Best Regards,
Dr.Andris David Lasmanis,
The LLC Hospital Jurmala
Address: Vienibas Prospect 19/21
Jurmala
Latvia."
Offered them some dates and requested card payment but when they came back with the overpayment via cheque proposal it was obvious what was going on.
It would be an easy one to fall into Kerry especially if you work on an ad hoc basis as I used to do quite frequently trying to build a small client base. They must have twigged that people may take on small assignments after a request comes via their contacts form (basically the whole point behind having the form in the first place). Aside from losing actual cash, if you do the assignment first/payment after as I tend to with Malta University you could lose a lot of precious time on something you'll never be paid for.
It sounds like you had a lucky escape Brian. I wonder how they accessed the publisher's standard correspondence. Mind you, why am I even wondering - these a/holes are so savvy now I wouldn't put anything past them.
So happy I posted this in time for you Kerry. At least it may have helped.
I had one last week. It appears to have piggy-backed a publisher's standard letters. I was suspicious because the editor I do bits and pieces for and I have known each other about 40 years so he always sends me an informal message. I emailed him to tell his colleague not to bother, he emailed me back to say he has no colleague with that name.
I think they are becoming too commonplace and convincing so that now we are all going to have to watch ourselves. As far as I am concerned, for the last couple of years I have been about as likely to go back with questions if they look real and ignore the rest. Getting boring!
They are doing the rounds then, probably using a variety of names.
The way it would mess me up is if it seemed a short assignment and, like now, I'm busy on something else so thought "Oh I'll just spend a couple of hours on this" - too late then when you realise it's a scam. Unpaid time would have gone pffffftt into the proofreader abyss.
Very, very glad you saw it in time, and also very glad I'm so stuck in the Old Bailey at the moment that I'd have to decline the "offer" anyway.
I got sent one of these about ten days ago - convincing looking text sent and all seemed ok until I got the "we've sent you a check for the wrong amount" line. Yeah right!