How Can New Writers Guard Against Level 2 Scammers? A Scam Story
I know. The market is competitive and it is always enticing to get a potential client’s attention, so, when someone responds to your proposal, you feel a surge of excitement and anticipation. You need to remember, that while there are a lot of legitimate businesses looking to hire genuine freelancers and contract workers, there are also some evil scammers whose business is to just dupe you. And I am not talking about just those people who take your work and never pay. There is a fair share of such cons too, and there are ways and precautions that you need to follow to protect yourself against them.
#Who are Level 2 Scammers?
But today, I am calling out on the Level 2 scammers — those that entice you to work with lucrative offers, make you follow steps and instructions, all the time exhibiting a semblance of professionalism as they lure you toward their trap.
Unlike the Level 1 con who just wants to get the work done and doesn’t want to pay you, the Level 2 scammer is out there to get some of your skin as well.
These are more dangerous, because they leech your time and effort, and they also potentially take your money, too. They operate in a sleek manner, and you may not even realize that you have been scammed until it is too late. I want to warn the new freelancers, the freshers, about such people.
#What are the Red Flags that You Need to Notice?
So, I applied for a job on Upwork and received a message from the client asking me about my rates and deadline. After a bit of chat, they asked me to move to Telegram so that they can show me the large file that needed to be worked on. This should be your Red Flag Number 1, but it does not always mean that the client is bogus. Asking you to go off-platform could be for a genuine reason, like the exchange of larger files, or it could be to avoid the platform fee. If you want to play too cautious, you should back off at this point. From experience, I know that not all those who ask you to come off-platform are cons. So, I proceeded to Telegram.
Here, they sent me a large PDF with images and asked me to type it into a Word file, within the next 24 hours. This looked odd to me, as this job can be done by a PDF to Word convertor easily; nevertheless, since it was images that were saved as PDF, the convertor was likely to through up a lot of errors and so a human touch was needed.
-Red Flag Number 2 was considered and the benefit of the doubt was awarded to the client.
But then he told me he will pay $1500 for just this typing cum conversion work. It was grunt work, but surely, nowhere near that value! At this point, I was very sure that there is some other game happening.
-Red Flag Number 3 is real. This is the point I recommend new freelancers to immediately back off. If anyone offers you something that is too good to be true, it is too good to be true. Run.
But, I wanted to explore this further, I wanted to know how and when this guy was going to ask me for money or try to access my bank account. This is what happened:
#The Scam Story
So, I said, OK, I will do it.
#Act 1 — The Game of Proof
“Can you give me an advance upfront to establish trust?” I asked him on Telegram, just to test the waters.
He showed me a few screenshots of his past Telegram chats where successful payments had been made to other satisfied writers — who all could be seen praising the client for his prompt payment. This in itself is unusual — why would a company have to give me evidence of happy freelancers when all I had asked was for some small percentage in advance? In my experience, a genuine client almost always agrees to a 10% upfront payment or says he will pay after the first milestone.
But, instead, this one showed me proof that he pays. Remember, I did not ask for this proof. It was voluntarily served to me.
Anyway, I sit on the file for 24 hours, convert the images into Word using an online free converter, and then convert it back into a PDF. Remember, he wanted me to submit a Word file, and I was going to give him a PDF. I wanted to see if the client would notice.
After the 24 hours had elapsed, I informed him that I have completed it. He asked me if I should submit it via email — hitechbpocompany@gmail.com.
I went and checked out this Hitechbpo company, and it looked like there was a real company in this name, with offices in the UK, USA, and India (See the Pictures Below). This company was also into data entry and content outsourcing work for other clients. It had a well-established presence on LinkedIn as well. At this point, the scammer was betting that anyone who checks out the company would feel the setup was genuine.
But I dug a bit more. The catch was that all Hitechbpo emails were official, with hitechbpo.com as the domain, and not Gmail. For example, info@hitechbpo.com.
This guy had just made up an email id that made new freelancers think that it is the official Hitechbpo company’s email.
Hitechbpo is most likely totally unaware of this scam. [I have nevertheless, sent them an email with all the screenshots just to tie up all loose ends — I do not know what they did about it, though]
So, now I also knew that this guy’s scam was rather well thought out. He used a well-known company’s name and created an email id that was likely to make most new writers believe that they were dealing with a genuine company that the client had a contract with to get the writers’ work checked and assessed.
#Act 2 — The Fast and Not So Meticulous
So, next, I submit the work through that email, and within a few minutes, I get the reply that my work was approved. 100 pages checked and approved in minutes!
Anyways, so, I went to this guy on Telegram and asked. “ What’s next? When will I get paid?”. At this point, he directed me to his payments company — and said they will release the amount. Another similar setup, where a real company’s name was used with a Gmail domain to show authenticity.
This was getting fun.
The con was maintaining all appearances of being a professional — using the services of a BPO company to get the work assessed and using another well-known account and payroll company for payments. All professional looking.
Only, the red flags were always there — the immediate approval of a file that I had deliberately not done as per instructions; the fact that the BPO and the Payments companies' emails were on Gmail.
#Act 3— The Emotional Rollercoaster Finale
But the cream of the joke was yet to come. At this point. I told my colleague that this payments company is going to try and con me. Let’s see how.
So, I connected with their payment Telegram chat. Now these people started asking me for my details — name, address, ID proof, and then eventually my bank details. I gave them a mix and match of data — some from myself, some fake, some from my friend. The bank details we gave were from an account with zero balance.
I was wondering if maybe he would send us some sort of a link to click on and then ask for an OTP — so that he can withdraw money from our bank.
But he wasn’t going to do that.
Maybe that level of skills was not yet acquired by those crooks. They were depending on human emotions and desperation instead.
So, this guy showed me a screenshot of the ‘transfer initiated’ in my name, then a screenshot of the same ‘transfer pending’. All of $1500. Very very enticing and mouth-watering for almost no work done.
We waited. We half wished for some miracle to happen. But, of course, we knew better.
That’s when he said, “In order for the transfer to go through, you need to purchase his company’s ID card. Worth $50. You should immediately pay this and the $1500 would come through.”
Now that I fully understood how they operate, I asked him, “Why don’t you just deduct the $50 from the $1500, and send me the rest?”, and he said, “Your transfer is already in process, so we can’t stop and deduct from it.
I played a bit more.
I asked him for his details so that I can send him $50. He was expecting the money from me, he was anticipating the joy of pulling off a con — and I wanted him to feel the same pain that he may have given 100s of other freelancers. Of broken expectations, of a jolt to self-confidence, and of tasting how desperation feels.
I said, hold on, I will make the payment. I told him to wait while I am fixing my payment app. After half hour, I manufactured a payment transfer and payment pending screenshot and showed him.
He kept urging me to do it faster else my $1500 payment will get canceled.
I remember as a new freelancer several years back, like many other freelancers of this world, I had hired out my time, sweat, and time away from my infant in the hope of making some money. We freelancers often work overnights, don’t sleep, and try and please clients by even delivering beyond the scope of work — just so they end up paying us happily.
Level 2 Scammers prey on our vulnerabilities. On our need to find work that pays.
I kept him on hold for some more time — to feel his eagerness and desperation to get hold of someone else’s hard-earned money. He keeps pinging me the $1500 payment transfer screenshot — hoping to play on my need.
At this point, I decided to end the conversation and just typed, “bl**dy ba***rd. FU.”
I believe I derived some pleasure.
Ghazala Rizvi
I am the author of a crime fiction novel — Majid’s Diary, which is a thriller set in the backdrop of communal tensions in India and the friendship between two guys from different religions.
I also own a Social Media Agency and am actively looking for creative designers and writers to join my team.
