A "client" that seemed legitimate spent €250 to later on reclaim €600. Thread poster: Keith Jackson
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Keith Jackson 
France
Local time: 19:46
Member (2017)
French to English
+ ...
One service I offer to the general public is as a NAATI-certified translator for the purposes of visas, driving licences, etc. for Australia.
In December '23, for the first time since I began working as a professional translator, someone knocked on my door and asked for a certified translation for visa documents to attend an event in Australia in May '24. She'd found my address on the embassy's website, and lived locally. She was a national of the Ivory Coast and a lawyer. The trans... See more One service I offer to the general public is as a NAATI-certified translator for the purposes of visas, driving licences, etc. for Australia.
In December '23, for the first time since I began working as a professional translator, someone knocked on my door and asked for a certified translation for visa documents to attend an event in Australia in May '24. She'd found my address on the embassy's website, and lived locally. She was a national of the Ivory Coast and a lawyer. The transations involved ID cards, diplomas, proof of addresses, police checks, bank accounts, etc. I received payment by bank transfer upfront, around €250, and did the translations. I sent the soft copies, and the client said she would come and collect the hard copies personally. No problem. She never did. In February '24 she asked me if I could drop the hard copies off at her address around the corner. We made an appointment, and I dropped them off. No problem.
Last week, (April '24) I was contacted by email by the lawyer's sister in Cote d'Ivoire, asking in broken English, for a similar service, 20 pages of NAATI certified translation for a visa for Australia for the same event in May. The sister insisted on payment by Western Union rather than bank transfer. We agreed a price of around €600. She sent a WU tracking number, which worked, and indicated that the funds were available to be collected in cash and in person via a WU office.
I didn't rush to collect the funds because the WU office meant a trip to the big city, and I had a lot of work to do.
Then yesterday, I received an email from the sister (suddenly in impeccable English) apologising and annnouncing that the event had been cancelled, and asking me to refund the €600 (which I had made no attempt to collect). She provided a link to a webpage of the event with the announcement of the postponement. I wrote back with a neutral description taken from the web describing what I realised was the scam:
"Hilarious!
In this scenario, the scammer typically poses as a legitimate individual or organisation and convinces the victim (in this case, the translator) to provide services, such as document translation, with the promise of payment. They may even send a fraudulent payment to create the appearance of legitimacy.
After the victim has provided the service or sent the purported payment, the scammer comes up with a plausible excuse, such as the postponement of the event, and requests a refund. However, any refund provided by the victim would result in the victim losing money, as the initial payment sent by the scammer was likely fraudulent or unauthorised."
I then received a telephone call from my "lawyer-client". If I had answered, I'm sure she would have vouched for the good faith of her "sister", and urged me to collect the funds and refund the money.
An email from the sister also urged me to do just that.
What I can't quite take in, is how elaborate and well-planned the scam was. A "client" that seemed legitimate spent €250 to later on reclaim €600. I think my "client" really is a lawyer for the Côte d'Ivoire, just a crooked one, and that a scam operation that targets translators is being run from premises just around the corner. 😟
[Edited at 2024-04-10 09:22 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 19:46
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
| @Keith, likely not a scam | Apr 10 |
What I would do, is to pick up the money and then send it back to them, either also with Western Union or with a bank transfer. EUR 600 is a lot of money in African countries.
I don't see the scam. At best, this may be money laundering (they forced another person to pay EUR 600 to you, and then you pay EUR 600 clean money back to them), but EUR 600 is a very small amount to be laundered.
In this scenario ... They may even send a fraudulent payment to create the appearance of legitimacy. ... the scammer requests a refund. However, any refund provided by the victim would result in the victim losing money, as the initial payment sent by the scammer was likely fraudulent or unauthorised.
The page that you quote from relates to a payment that is not actually sent (e.g. a bounced cheque). In the bounced cheque scam, the victim sends back money before the funds have actually cleared in their own bank account (banks often make money available without checking whether the cheque is real or that the funds are actually available). Or, in the case of bank transfers, the scammer puts in effort to make it appear like the funds have already cleared (e.g. by sending a fake payment receipt).
If your money is ready to be picked up at Western Union, it means that the funds have cleared already. You won't lose any money by picking up the money, because Western Union can't "get back" the money from you after they've given you the money. The sender will lose the money, because they have already paid the money to Western Union and the payment has already been processed (and cleared) by Western Union.
I don't think your situation describes a scam.
There is no way for Western Union to return the money to the sender. You can either just not pick up the money (in which case Western Union keeps it) or you can pick up the money and then return it manually. There is no way for a sender to "cancel" a Western Union payment (at least, not after the transaction has been processed). So, if you don't pick up the money, it would mean that the sender will lose the money, for real.
Keith Jackson wrote:
The sister insisted on payment by Western Union rather than bank transfer.
If she had used a bank transfer, it would have been a SWIFT transfer. SWIFT transfers from the Ivory Coast to France are possible, but the transaction fees may be quite high. In France you're probably familiar with IBAN transfers, which have very low transaction costs, even for cross-border payments. In addition, making a SWIFT payment may mean a lot of additional hassle. When I still lived in South Africa, I could not do a SWIFT transfer via internet banking and had to visit the bank in person -- also, not my local branch, but a specific branch that deals with SWIFT transfers. There, I had to fill in several forms and sign a government tax declaration. For a Western Union transfer, on the other hand, I would have simply visited the local Western Union branch, handed over the cash, specified the recipient's details, and that's that.
[Edited at 2024-04-10 10:09 GMT]
| | | | Keith Jackson
France
Local time: 19:46
Member (2017)
French to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | Some other details: | Apr 10 |
First @Sam:
Thanks for your reply, but you are wrong. You can get a refund from Western Union if the funds are not claimed.
From the WU website:
"If your transfer hasn't been picked up or deposited, you can cancel it and get a refund
1. To check your transfer status, go to Track a transfer. Log in to westernunion.com or go to our app to see your recent transfers. Choose a transfer to cancel and then select Show details."
... See more First @Sam:
Thanks for your reply, but you are wrong. You can get a refund from Western Union if the funds are not claimed.
From the WU website:
"If your transfer hasn't been picked up or deposited, you can cancel it and get a refund
1. To check your transfer status, go to Track a transfer. Log in to westernunion.com or go to our app to see your recent transfers. Choose a transfer to cancel and then select Show details."
So if the "sister" is in good faith (no chance, sorry), she can take it up with Western Union, which is a bank, and has the funds if they are there, and a refund policy. The scammers spent 250 euros on me, establishing a relationship of trust. That is the cost of doing their scamming operation. The scam consist in convincing me to refund the money before "collecting" it. I am sure that the funds are not actually there.
The 600 euros have not been claimed and under no circumstances will they be claimed. I didn't start the "sister's" translation work, as I always wait to be paid upfront when dealing with a member of the public. I'm not out of pocket financially, but I did block a lot of time to do the sister's translations, which could have led me to refuse other work and create some lost opportunities (as it happened, it didn't)).
Other details that make me 100% certain that it's a scam:
• Broken English and impeccable English = evidence of multiple hands at work (at least three people pretending to be the "sister").
•The web page the "sister" sent announcing the postponement of the 2024 event had no other menus or links. It was in fact an edited copy of the (real) event's (legitimate) 2023 announcement of postponement of their event to 2024. The event is actually going ahead in May this year, and has not been postponed.
•Past experience: A few years ago, another potential client was less elaborate with an over-payment scam, and for a 187 euro quote deposited a cheque for 2,000 euros in my company's account. Then he asked me to refund the difference asap. I contacted the bank. The cheque had been stolen from an elderly lady with dementia in a care home.
This is elaborate, and it is a scam, even though, if it had worked, it only represents 350 euros profit for the scammer. But that goes a long way in some poorer countries, as I am sure you are aware. One could be generous and put this down to poverty. But that is no reason for me to accept that I should be lied to and duped, and played for a fool.
[Edited at 2024-04-10 12:24 GMT]
[Edited at 2024-04-10 13:18 GMT]
[Edited at 2024-04-10 13:19 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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That really is an interesting one, Keith, and thanks very much for sharing. You did some great detective work there! I've read about a lot of scams in this forum over the years, and some years ago wrote a little piece for the Knowledgebase about the psychology of manipulative and scam-like behaviour targeted at translators (shameless plug! www.proz.com/doc/3616), but this one really does stand out for... See more That really is an interesting one, Keith, and thanks very much for sharing. You did some great detective work there! I've read about a lot of scams in this forum over the years, and some years ago wrote a little piece for the Knowledgebase about the psychology of manipulative and scam-like behaviour targeted at translators (shameless plug! www.proz.com/doc/3616), but this one really does stand out for the amount of trouble they went to for what would have been a relatively small gain, such as creating the fake webpage announcing the "cancellation". I hope the "sister" has great difficulty getting her refund
I suppose the relatively modest amount involved is in itself designed to add to the plausibility from our point of view, as a four-figure sum would obviously be more likely to put us on our guard. Reading between the lines, I think scammers are well aware that the classic WU scam is well known to translators by now and are looking for ways to get us to overlook the famous red flags.
I think there's also an element of opportunism here as this lawyer really did need translations for an event, whereas not many scammers generally will ever find themselves in that situation. Although I suspect this particular scenario will be very rare for that reason, someone else could be taken in, so I hope this thread will be read widely by fellow ProZians. It certainly looks like a sophisticated "next-level" twist on our old friend, the WU scam, with the added personal touch of a home visit from a credible professional attending a genuine event.
[Edited at 2024-04-10 12:34 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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Better safe than sorry. Your response was the best one. Even if it's not a scam, you're better off staying clear of it and letting the "sister" take the matter up with Western Union herself.
I'm more baffled that the "sister" was able to send money to Australia via Western Union in the first place. Did the money truly arrive?
I remember having a lot of trouble about ten years ago trying to send money from Accra to Yokohama via WU. Back then it turned out that you can ... See more Better safe than sorry. Your response was the best one. Even if it's not a scam, you're better off staying clear of it and letting the "sister" take the matter up with Western Union herself.
I'm more baffled that the "sister" was able to send money to Australia via Western Union in the first place. Did the money truly arrive?
I remember having a lot of trouble about ten years ago trying to send money from Accra to Yokohama via WU. Back then it turned out that you can receive money very easily through them but it's very difficult - impossible, in fact - to send money outside Ghana through WU. I doubt things have changed much since then, but maybe La Côte d'Ivoire plays by different rules. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 19:46
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
Keith Jackson wrote:
That is the cost of doing their scamming operation. The scam consist in convincing me to refund the money before "collecting" it. I am sure that the funds are not actually there.
I misunderstood you. I thought you were able to use the tracking number and had confirmed that the money is already available.
As far as I know, with Western Union, you would not be able to "refund" the money without collecting it. So, if the person is asking for their money back, then you can (if you're kind) explain to them that you will not be picking up the money and that they should follow the instructions on that web page that you quoted (which has a procedure for both in-app and in-person).
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