Scam alert! ⚠️
Hi, teachers. If you get a message from someone looking for a translator for a translation project worth 3000$, don't fall for it.
There is someone/some individuals posing as a company called Ballast Books. It's an elaborate scam with contract and actual work that I spent 4 days completing. 😵💫
When I completed the work I was instructed to get the Telegram app and communicated with someone posing as one of Ballast Books team members.
"She" told me I had to cover the transaction fee of 50$ (which I agreed to after googling that some companies do that to keep their own costs down). I paid it to a third-party contact which I thought was a bit odd but she assured me the company was simply following their IMF standards. 🤷🏼♀️
Next, an online wallet was created for me on a website called TEEP FINANCE and this is where I finally woke up and saw that it was a scam. This website has terrible reviews online and it's apparent that it is less than a year old as well.
My "payment" was transferred to this account but then I was told I needed to "activate" my account.
The website required a picture of my ID, bank account details and a "refundable" payment of 350$. 🤨
I didn't fall for this and fought with at least 4 people posing to all be a part of the website, payment team, project supervisor, etc.
Like I said, it was a very elaborate scam but I'm quite embarrassed to have fallen so far into the trap before finally realising. 🕸️
After reaching out to Ballast Books directly through their contact form on their website, I finally got a very refreshing message saying they've been having this problem for months as someone is posing as them looking to scam online translators.
Be careful and don't fall for it the way I did. I spent about 3 weeks thinking I could actually get paid for some translating work I did for a scammer! 🤦🏼♀️