Online job turned Paypal scam [email protected]

Allegro Complaint

On 23 May, 2013, I was contacted by Agdam Tugoev, a person who represented themselves as being with the overseas auction company Allegro. He offered me an at home job translating documents that had obviously gone through an online translator from another language that needed to be corrected into normal English.
Here is the job offer email:

Hello Removed (BW)
Thank you for your interest in our company.
PLEASE READ THIS INFORMATION AND LET US KNOW ABOUT YOUR DECISION
http://allegrojob.wordpress.com/
Thank you,
Allegro.
Agdam Tugoev.
23 ??? 2013 ?. 11:48:01 ???????????? ???????:

Good morning,

Give me a company name so I can research it and I would be happy to consider this position. The internet is full of scams and I would be loath to be taken in by one.
Please don't think me too forward when I add that your third sentence reads better like this:
"You will have to review our business correspondence to fix spelling and grammatical errors that were made."

Thanks,
Removed (BW)
________________________________________

From: Agdam T < [email protected] >

Sent: Thursday, May 23, 2013 12:09 AM
Subject: Equal opportunity : (ID : N2498Y25401890)...


Greetings!

I have found your application on job board website and thought you as a prospective employee.

We are looking for new people, who can speak and proofread English very well and will help us communicate with our English speaking clients.

You will have to review our business correspondence and fix spelling and grammar mistakes that we make.

Salary: $5.00 for 1 Kb. (1024 symbols)

This letter to you is about 1Kb in size.

Requirements:

- Location: US
- Age: 21+
- PC user skills, email proficiency


When interested please provide us with information asked below so as to make sure we have your name and other data correctly.

- Your Full Name:
- Your Country, State:
- Age:
- Your Occupation:

I'll wait for your answer.

With Best regards

I accepted and did a total of five translations. I was then informed that the role of translator was being put on hold but that they were looking for representatives to process PayPal payments for them since there were limits on PayPal’s Russian site. I did a phone interview and provided a copy of my driver’s license just like one would with any new job. I accepted the job and opened a Bank of America account to transfer money through so it didn’t interact with my personal accounts.

On 24 June 2013 I received my first of two transactions via PayPal from a supposed buyer named G.C. It was for a Rolex watch in the amount of $6,609.00.



Description Unit price Qty Amount
ROLEX GMT IIc 116710 MENS WATCH NEW NEVER WORN ( 2012, G serial )
Item# 200935364770 $6,609.00 USD 1 $6,609.00 USD
Shipping and handling $0.00 USD
Total $6,609.00 USD
Payment $6,609.00 USD

Payment sent to



After PayPal transaction fees, there was $6,418.99, which I transferred to my Bank of America account. After it hit my account I received instructions via email and telephone to transfer the money to the following account:
>>>>> Bank details is below:

bank name - SBERBANK (SEVERO-ZAPADNY HEAD OFFICE)
swift - SABRRU2P
bank address: Street Krasnogo Tekstilchika 2, city - ST.PETERSBURG, country - RUSSIA


BENEFICIARY (receiver):
Beneficiary name - IGOR NAYDA
Beneficiary account - 40817840555003064248

beneficiary address: Street Yakornaya 3-23, city - ST.PETERSBURG, country - RUSSIA

<<<<<<

Bank correspondent in case of need:

Intermediary Bank — The Bank of New York Mellon, New York, USA
SWIFT Code: IRVTUS3N
Routing: 021000018
Account bank beneficioner in bank correspondent: 8900057610

I sent the money off, received confirmation it had been received and didn’t think anything of it.

On 2 July 2013, I received a second payment for $9,000.00 from a C.G.
Description Unit price Qty Amount
Rolex 116520 SS Daytona Black Dial Z serial, NEW NEVER WORN priced to sell fast
Item# 200939780772 $9,000.00 USD 1 $9,000.00 USD
Shipping and handling $0.00 USD
Total $9,000.00 USD
Payment $9,000.00 USD

Payment sent to



However by this time the first transaction had been reversed and it was explained to me by Sergei (who had done my phone interview) that the watch had been returned and it wouldn’t be a big deal. After that and PayPal’s fees, there was a remainder of $2,129.70 that I transferred to my account. From there I transferred $2,022 to them, per Sergei and Agdam’s instructions on 8 July 2013.

I was notified by PayPal on 10 July 2013 that my account had be “limited” because the second transaction had been reversed due to an eBay buyer dispute. I have since repeatedly emailed my contact and tried to call them but receive no response to the emails and the phone number has been disconnected.

I now owe PayPal $8,954.08 USD for the reversed transaction.

In hindsight, I can’t believe I fell for this but I went in with honest intentions trying to make some money for my family, who sorely needs it. I hope this can help prevent this from happening to anyone else. I'm filing police reports and taking other action but right now, it seems the best I can do is block these thieves from getting to anyone else.

Thanks for posting! I've heard of scams involving forwarding money, but starting out as correcting translations is a new twist to me. What sort of documents were you correcting?

"Agdam Tugoev" appears to be a name in some Turkic language, except for the "-ev" ending ("ev" is Turkish for "house", but it's much more likely a Russian genitive plural or allied ending). But the date line is in Russian. Could you post the document as you got it before correction? We should be able to tell whether it was translated from Russian or Turkic.

I know it's been awhile, but I wanted to report that you are not the only one that fell for this! They prey on those vulnerable job seekers, and I totally understand how you fell for it--my boyfriend did the same. We also have a negative balance at Paypal, I'm wondering if you had to pay it off completely, did you try to contest it, etc? The company was known as "Topshop" to us.

i have received the same email, a post job.

i replied that i was interested.

Their first reply:
Hello !
Thank you for your interest in our company.
We offer you a job on the most favourable terms
with flexible hours (no more than 30 minutes a day)
and a good salary ($ 1000 - $ 2000 per month).

PLEASE READ THIS INFORMATION
AND LET US KNOW ABOUT YOUR DECISION
__________________________________________________________
Internet Auction 24au.ru welcomes you!!!
For more information about us please visit our website
http://www.24au.ru/

BRIEFLY ABOUT OUR COMPANY:
We are one of the largest online auctions in Europe. Purchasing and
selling of various products around the world is our principal
activity. In addition to this for several years we’ve been
cooperating with the major U.S. and Asian online auctions. We are
responsible for the correct registration of lots, monitoring of
trades and transactions and delivery of goods.
For 3 years we have gained the trust of more than 1 million people
all over the world. More than 3 thousand customers contact us
daily. For this purpose we employ a great staff around the world.
You have an opportunity to become a part of our company and start
making money without spending a lot of time.

WHAT IS YOUR DUTY?
We offer you a vacancy of letters assisting. You do not need any
special skills for your work. All you need is honesty,
responsibility and good knowledge of English.
Once a day you will receive our letters to your e-mail.
They will contain our documents and internal correspondence.
You need to check the grammar and correct any inaccuracies that may
distort the meaning of the written. Since you have received them
you have 24 hours for this work. It means that you can do your work
at any time convenient to you.
You can review and send the documents back to us in any format
convenient to you.

SALARY:
1. We pay $ 5 for 1 Kb of text (1 Kb = 1024 symbols).
You will receive about 8-10 Kb daily.
It means that every day you can earn 40$-50$.
Every day we will inform you of your balance.
2. Payment is made once a month, in 30 days after you start
working.
3. We use PAYPAL system for payments. It’s very safe. You do not
need to provide additional personal information. In order to work
with us you need to register at PAYPAL and make your account
VERIFIED PREMIER.

P.S.

Thank you for reading this information.
We offer you a monthly additional income ($ 1000 - $ 2000).
Moreover you will not spend for it more than 30 minutes a day.
You have the opportunity to show your best qualities and rise in
your career.
Be in touch with us every day. Saturday and Sunday are days off.
We hope for a long-term cooperation and look forward to your reply.
Best regards,
24au.ru

Then they replied

Hello!
The first task for reviewing and correcting the mistakes.
Text size – 8Kb
For this text you will accumulate – $40.00
Please, carefully consider the content of all texts as it is important that there are no mistakes regarding both grammar and meaning.
Please, correct the text within 24 hours. Later on we’ll send you the confirmation about receipt of text and also send you another texts for correcting.
Your salary date will be the same in the next month, after we receive from you the first texts corrected.
You can send us the texts back in any format convenient to you and also you may ask any questions!
Thank you,
24au.ru

P.S.: Text is below.
======================================

Letter for the purchaser John. #428302
Hello, Mr. John!
Our congratulations on your purchase of our chest. We are glad that you liked it. We also have other antique chests. Soon we will put them up for sale and give you the item numbers.
Money for the chest is still pending, as the Paypal account of our deal agent was with limits, so now he is trying to remove these limits and to send the money to us. We will let you know immediately we get the payment.
Thank you,
24au.ru

-------------------------------------

Letter for the purchaser Charles. #428190
Hello Mr. Charles!
Please let us know if you received our goods and whether you are satisfied with this purchase. As the tracking shows, the goods are delivered.
If you are satisfied with the purchase and not going to return it, please confirm it, so that we could get the money from Paypal.
Thank you,
24au.ru

-------------------------------------

Letter for the purchaser Jessica. #428192
Dear Jessica,
We cannot accept any payment from you to our bank account because you are in USA, and we are in Russia. Otherwise you will have to go to the bank personally and fill the form for the wire transfer. You cannot send us the money by phone or through on-line banking. Therefore, please accept our payment option and send the money to our deal agent on Paypal. It's a safe and secure way. We always carefully check our deal agent before employing them.
Let us know about your decision as soon as possible.
Thank you,
24au.ru

-------------------------------------

Letter for our deal agent Richard. #10216
Hi Richard!
We have accepted a payment on your PayPal for the sold watch.
The amount is $ 8660.34
Please confirm you have got the information about it. We'll give you the tracking tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, as soon as the goods will be delivered to the purchaser and we get his confirmation that he will not return the product.
Please, be available by phone during the day tomorrow, our operator will contact you if necessary.
You will receive the further instructions from us immediately, as soon as the money is available and the item is received.
Thank you,
24au.ru


I did some corrections, but really basic, only the first line, and they replied that i was hired and won my first 40 dollar... this made me ringing a bell. I only translated one sentence, not enough for 5 dollar and i had already 40 dollar.

I came here on Scamwarners.
So what is behind... I do not know if the site is legitimite or not. Perhaps it is, and only other people use it to scam. The translation text is almost a kind of brainwashing, that paypal is an issue where the website has to deal with. From the moment you dont have to translate anymore, you got your paypal account (for your job) and then they use your account to do money ping pong,in disfavor of the owner of paypal.
Next time: keep the first payment

Top Shelf . Recruitment Site :

http://topshop2013.wordpress.com/author/topshop2013/


Hello !
Thank you for your interest in our company.
We offer you a job on the most favourable terms
with flexible hours (no more than 30 minutes a day)
and a good salary ($ 1000 – $ 2000 per month).
PLEASE READ THIS INFORMATION AND LET US KNOW ABOUT YOUR DECISION
__________________________________________________________

TOP SHOP welcomes you!!!
For more information about us please visit our website
http://www.top-shop.ru/


BRIEFLY ABOUT OUR COMPANY:
We are one of the largest online auctions in Europe. Purchasing and
selling of various products around the world is our principal
activity. In addition to this for several years we’ve been
cooperating with the major U.S. and Asian online auctions. We are
responsible for the correct registration of lots, monitoring of
trades and transactions and delivery of goods.
For 3 years we have gained the trust of more than 1 million people
all over the world. More than 3 thousand customers contact us
daily. For this purpose we employ a great staff around the world.
You have an opportunity to become a part of our company and start
making money without spending a lot of time.


WHAT IS YOUR DUTY?
We offer you a vacancy of letters assisting. You do not need any
special skills for your work. All you need is honesty,
responsibility and good knowledge of English.
Once a day you will receive our letters to your e-mail.
They will contain our documents and internal correspondence.
You need to check the grammar and correct any inaccuracies that may
distort the meaning of the written. Since you have received them
you have 24 hours for this work. It means that you can do your work
at any time convenient to you.
You can edit and send the documents back to us in any format
convenient to you.


SALARY:
1. We pay $ 5 for 1 Kb of text (1 Kb = 1024 symbols).
You will receive about 8-10 Kb daily.
It means that every day you can earn 40$-50$. Every day we will inform you of your balance.

2. Payment is made once a month, in 30 days after you start working.

3. We use PAYPAL system for payments. It’s very safe. You do not
need to provide additional personal information. In order to work
with us you need to register at PAYPAL and make your account
VERIFIED PREMIER.


P.S.
Thank you for reading this information.
We offer you a monthly additional income ($ 1000 – $ 2000).
Moreover you will not spend for it more than 30 minutes a day.
You have the opportunity to show your best qualities and rise in
your career.
Be in touch with us every day. Saturday and Sunday are days off.
We hope for a long-term cooperation and look forward to your reply.

Best regards,
TopShop.

I'm so glad that I decided to google search and find that who I have been talking to through email is trying to scam me. Same identical scam as above. WOW. I am going to find a way to get these crooks.

I almost fell for this too... the only difference is that I've been communicating with a "Petra", who allegedly represents a site in Poland called Swistak.pl. The website itself looks legitimate, so I doubt that "Petra" is actually associated with the site. But yes, I have been asked, once I reached the $155 mark for my proofreads, to become their representative and start accepting/forwarding money to them. My spidey sense had been tingling for some time, due to the nature of the text I was editing, but I was unable to get any results from my online research until I was given the details of the "representative" job - and as soon as I Googled the contact phone number I was given, I ran into this site and several others, with the confirmation that this is indeed a scam. That's a huge bummer - my family and I really needed that money! But of course, as they say, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

I wonder if there's a way to "win" at this game? LOL! I wouldn't feel one bit bad about it if I were clever enough to scam the scammers.

The problem with trying to "scam" the scammers is that if you were to collect and keep money, it would not come from the scammers--it would come from the innocent victims they are scamming, essentially making you the criminal.

With that said, if you have a little free time and would like to make life a bit more difficult for scammers, check out our sister site, 419eater.com. You may not make any money yourself, but you can help keep the scammers from making so much!

Please also post the email address(es) "Petra" used in this scam--often people google email addresses, and having them posted here will help others to avoid falling into the same trap.

Yeah I almost fell for this to. I compared some of the texts that I had to correct to the ones posted here and they were exactly the same I just got them in a different order. I also got asked to be a representative when I reached the $155 mark for translating texts. I did not call them though as I had asked my mom to look over the job they were offering me as I tend to miss things and she thought that they might be offering that job as a way to launder money and so I decided to try and find out more about how I would go about transferring money to them and as long as I seemed open to the idea of becoming a representative (at least seemed open to them) then they were all for providing me information but as soon as I said that I could not become a representative for them they stopped all contact. I do not know if they do pay you as it has been less than a month since this whole things started but I do not have high hopes that they will considering some of the things that I have read.

Welcome to Scamwarners NatashaE,

It is a scam. Scammers/thieves do not pay victims. By chance they did, the money would come from other victims the scammer is running. He will allow you to keep a small percentage and forward the remaining balance to him

He is using all fake information. You are using real information.

Law Enforcement will only find you.

He say's that he will pay you in a month. This is false. He has no intention to pay you. The scammer knows it will take a month for you to figure out it is a scam or for some else to report it.

Please post the email address and any website he pointed you to.

Stop all contact with the scammer.

Meet all future employers face to face.

Allegro Complaint

On 23 May, 2013, I was contacted by Agdam Tugoev, a person who represented themselves as being with the overseas auction company Allegro. He offered me an at home job translating documents that had obviously gone through an online translator from another language that needed to be corrected into normal English.
Here is the job offer email:

Hello Removed (BW)
Thank you for your interest in our company.
PLEASE READ THIS INFORMATION AND LET US KNOW ABOUT YOUR DECISION
http://allegrojob.wordpress.com/
Thank you,
Allegro.
Agdam Tugoev.
23 ??? 2013 ?. 11:48:01 ???????????? ???????:

Good morning,

Give me a company name so I can research it and I would be happy to consider this position. The internet is full of scams and I would be loath to be taken in by one.
Please don't think me too forward when I add that your third sentence reads better like this:
"You will have to review our business correspondence to fix spelling and grammatical errors that were made."

Thanks,
Removed (BW)
________________________________________

From: Agdam T < [email protected] >

Sent: Thursday, May 23, 2013 12:09 AM
Subject: Equal opportunity : (ID : N2498Y25401890)...


Greetings!

I have found your application on job board website and thought you as a prospective employee.

We are looking for new people, who can speak and proofread English very well and will help us communicate with our English speaking clients.

You will have to review our business correspondence and fix spelling and grammar mistakes that we make.

Salary: $5.00 for 1 Kb. (1024 symbols)

This letter to you is about 1Kb in size.

Requirements:

- Location: US
- Age: 21+
- PC user skills, email proficiency


When interested please provide us with information asked below so as to make sure we have your name and other data correctly.

- Your Full Name:
- Your Country, State:
- Age:
- Your Occupation:

I'll wait for your answer.

With Best regards

I accepted and did a total of five translations. I was then informed that the role of translator was being put on hold but that they were looking for representatives to process PayPal payments for them since there were limits on PayPal’s Russian site. I did a phone interview and provided a copy of my driver’s license just like one would with any new job. I accepted the job and opened a Bank of America account to transfer money through so it didn’t interact with my personal accounts.

On 24 June 2013 I received my first of two transactions via PayPal from a supposed buyer named G.C. It was for a Rolex watch in the amount of $6,609.00.



Description Unit price Qty Amount
ROLEX GMT IIc 116710 MENS WATCH NEW NEVER WORN ( 2012, G serial )
Item# 200935364770 $6,609.00 USD 1 $6,609.00 USD
Shipping and handling $0.00 USD
Total $6,609.00 USD
Payment $6,609.00 USD

Payment sent to



After PayPal transaction fees, there was $6,418.99, which I transferred to my Bank of America account. After it hit my account I received instructions via email and telephone to transfer the money to the following account:
>>>>> Bank details is below:

bank name - SBERBANK (SEVERO-ZAPADNY HEAD OFFICE)
swift - SABRRU2P
bank address: Street Krasnogo Tekstilchika 2, city - ST.PETERSBURG, country - RUSSIA


BENEFICIARY (receiver):
Beneficiary name - IGOR NAYDA
Beneficiary account - 40817840555003064248

beneficiary address: Street Yakornaya 3-23, city - ST.PETERSBURG, country - RUSSIA

<<<<<<

Bank correspondent in case of need:

Intermediary Bank — The Bank of New York Mellon, New York, USA
SWIFT Code: IRVTUS3N
Routing: 021000018
Account bank beneficioner in bank correspondent: 8900057610

I sent the money off, received confirmation it had been received and didn’t think anything of it.

On 2 July 2013, I received a second payment for $9,000.00 from a C.G.
Description Unit price Qty Amount
Rolex 116520 SS Daytona Black Dial Z serial, NEW NEVER WORN priced to sell fast
Item# 200939780772 $9,000.00 USD 1 $9,000.00 USD
Shipping and handling $0.00 USD
Total $9,000.00 USD
Payment $9,000.00 USD

Payment sent to



However by this time the first transaction had been reversed and it was explained to me by Sergei (who had done my phone interview) that the watch had been returned and it wouldn’t be a big deal. After that and PayPal’s fees, there was a remainder of $2,129.70 that I transferred to my account. From there I transferred $2,022 to them, per Sergei and Agdam’s instructions on 8 July 2013.

I was notified by PayPal on 10 July 2013 that my account had be “limited” because the second transaction had been reversed due to an eBay buyer dispute. I have since repeatedly emailed my contact and tried to call them but receive no response to the emails and the phone number has been disconnected.

I now owe PayPal $8,954.08 USD for the reversed transaction.

In hindsight, I can’t believe I fell for this but I went in with honest intentions trying to make some money for my family, who sorely needs it. I hope this can help prevent this from happening to anyone else. I'm filing police reports and taking other action but right now, it seems the best I can do is block these thieves from getting to anyone else.

hello! Does anybody have an update about what happens after you file a police report and things like that. I unfortunately did my research a little too late and now I'm just waiting for them to pull the scam on me. I transferred the money this morning and by time I found out who they were I couldn't cancel the wire transfer.

I have recently received a similar "offer," as follows:

"My name is Agata Larsson.
I am a specialist of the TRADERA company and I will be your personal consultant.
First of all I would like you to study the details below and to make a decision about our partnership.
I am ready to answer all your questions if you have any.

Please learn each part of the position carefully:



1. ABOUT OUR COMPANY:
__________________

We represent the American agency of a major European company TRADERA.
For more information please visit our website: http://www.tradera.com

For many years we have become the largest online-auction in Europe.
The number of our users has exceeded 15 million. Every day there are more than
1 million transactions made.

Currently we develop the North American market . The US economy is the most powerful
economy worldwide and their banking and payment systems work comfortably and stably .
All these factors provide a basis for profitable cooperation of American and European customers.

There is only one problem that must be resolved - the language barrier.

Every day we are in correspondence with our employees and customers from the United States.
English is not our native language. Furthermore, American English and European English
have a number of differences that can bring some inaccuracy in our communication.

Our correspondence has a business character and it is often associated with finances.
Any inaccuracies may distort the text and eventually bring to the complete misunderstanding
of the meaning worded.

We hope that you are a responsible person who can proofread our business correspondence."

This was the second email from "Agata"; the first was just an unsolicited general offer, to which I replied with my name and email address.

I replied to this last email just today with an expression of interest, but have not heard back. After a few hours, I decided I better check out whether anyone else has had similar encounters because the more I thought about it, the more it smelled of a scam.

Now I see I was right. Thanks to you all who maintain this site.

What is Agata's email address?

I have also been getting emails from Agata @ Tradera. The address it comes from is, [email protected]. Same scam, editing until the $155 mark, then notice that the editing jobs are on hold, then an offer to be a representative processing payments through PayPal. I have done the editing, but not the payment processing. I knew anything related to processing payments overseas for a large company was a scam.

Ugggggh!!!! I hate to think I wasted a couple hours doing freakin' NOTHING for Tradera!! Here's the email address they used to hook me: [email protected]. I sent in my first completed "job" yesterday. I won't respond any more. And yeah, it sucks that people with every intention of working (and being willing to not get paid much at all, but HEY, it was a subsidy to my meager salary...) get taken advantage of.