ANTI MONEY LAUNDERING FEE OF 200 EU (Mod: Tom Foerster - Nigerian scammer) Thread poster: Anastasia Kingsley Kinkusic
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Dear Colleagues,
I was scammed, unfortunately, by a fellow named Tom Foerster from Denmark (if that is his real name). Hired for a "typing job" (obscure terminology) to type text from 200 JPGs (a chemistry book) into Word documents.
The flat fee being offered for this job was 2500€. Worst of all, the text was generously seasoned with complicated chemical formulas with exponents, Greek and chemical symbols, lengthy fractions, and so on.
The payment wa... See more Dear Colleagues,
I was scammed, unfortunately, by a fellow named Tom Foerster from Denmark (if that is his real name). Hired for a "typing job" (obscure terminology) to type text from 200 JPGs (a chemistry book) into Word documents.
The flat fee being offered for this job was 2500€. Worst of all, the text was generously seasoned with complicated chemical formulas with exponents, Greek and chemical symbols, lengthy fractions, and so on.
The payment was to be issued after submitting 120 of these JPEGs (now Word files), which I did this morning.
After spending at least 20 hours of work on this job, I was told that his bank, "STELLAR HORIZON", http://stellarhorizon.org, requires a 196 euro processing fee to determine that I am not engaged in money laundering activities. (The AML fee, for short.) Of course, no one has ever heard of such a thing.
The bank is probably legit, I suppose, with lots of online information, but my programmer discovered that the website itself has been open only 72 days. Odd, since the bank began its operations in 2018.
The chat person is also very pushy to "pay the fee".
Of course, I did not pay it.
Please be aware of this scam.
Kind Regards ▲ Collapse
| | | | Matthieu Ledoré
France
Local time: 14:34
Member (2022)
English to French
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| Thank you Anastasia | Oct 3, 2023 |
And sorry that you were the victim of this scam. You are helping all of us by reporting it here.
| | | | Zea_Mays 
Italy
Local time: 14:34
Member (2009)
English to German
+ ...
| Natalie
Poland
Local time: 14:34
Member (2002)
English to Russian
+ ...
MODERATOR SITE LOCALIZER
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| Fake website. Fake bank | Oct 3, 2023 |
The British company named Stellar Horizon Ltd (https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/11645167 ) carries out 'Management consultancy activities other than financial management', so they are clearly not a bank. In all likelihood, they have nothing to do with this website.
No bank would use an .org domain and without an SSL... See more The British company named Stellar Horizon Ltd (https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/11645167 ) carries out 'Management consultancy activities other than financial management', so they are clearly not a bank. In all likelihood, they have nothing to do with this website.
No bank would use an .org domain and without an SSL certificate. There is no company registration information and no information about any financial authority supervising this 'bank'. There is no trace of this 'bank' online, except this fake website. The links don't work. Quite obviously a fake.
We need to establish the identity of the client before entering into any agreements or carrying out any work. Due diligence. If we skip this important step, we end up wasting our resources. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Sammy Dowidar
France
Local time: 14:34
Member (2022)
English to French
| Thank you for warning us, and don't blame yourself, to be scammed is part of one's learning curves | Oct 3, 2023 |
Thank you, Anastasia, for warning us. Sometimes, I think that freelancers and their associations are a huge magnet for scammers.
Don't blame yourself, we all have been cheated at least once in our life by a scammer, bad payer, late payer or exploiter. It is part of our learning curve to recognize these people and safeguard against them.
Anyhow, it's not a mortal wound, so keep it up !
| | | | Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 13:34
Member (2008)
Italian to English
That's a good one: an anti-scam scam charging a fee in exchange for not scamming you!
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I am sorry, that you have been scammed, too.
I was also asked to translate a large document for a fixed rate of 2,500 euros and to transfer 196 euros to this suspicious bank. I also didn't do it and today, I just went to the police to report an offence. They might not be able to achieve much if anything at all, but in my opinion these people shouldn't have an easy going.
I just really hope that the police can achieve something with the information I provided. ... See more I am sorry, that you have been scammed, too.
I was also asked to translate a large document for a fixed rate of 2,500 euros and to transfer 196 euros to this suspicious bank. I also didn't do it and today, I just went to the police to report an offence. They might not be able to achieve much if anything at all, but in my opinion these people shouldn't have an easy going.
I just really hope that the police can achieve something with the information I provided.
Take care everybody! ▲ Collapse
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Thomas T. Frost wrote:
No bank would use an .org domain and without an SSL certificate. There is no company registration information and no information about any financial authority supervising this 'bank'. There is no trace of this 'bank' online, except this fake website. The links don't work. Quite obviously a fake.
Very good observation! Virtually nothing on that website works, except the registration form.
Additionally, the descriptions appear to be stolen from the M&T Bank website (https://www3.mtb.com/about-mt).
| | | | To report site rules violations or get help, contact a site moderator: You can also contact site staff by submitting a support request » ANTI MONEY LAUNDERING FEE OF 200 EU (Mod: Tom Foerster - Nigerian scammer) | Anycount & Translation Office 3000 | Translation Office 3000
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