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Asking for bank details?
Thread poster: Kristen Canavan
Kristen Canavan
Kristen Canavan
French to English
+ ...
May 27, 2020

Hi everyone,

Sorry if this is a very elementary question. If a client asks to send you a 50% deposit up front and then complete the balance at the end of a job via bank transfer and asks for acct number, routing number, address, etc. Is that fishy?

Why wouldn't they just opt for PayPal like most clients seem to do?


 
Eva Stoppa
Eva Stoppa  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 15:05
English to German
+ ...
"Most" is relative May 27, 2020

Most Clients in Europe -- or should I say In Germany -- do send bank Transfers. For having the possibility to do so, they obviously Need your bank Details, otherwise, Money can't get to you.

Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Joe France
Zakaria Zarour (X)
Liviu-Lee Roth
Ivana UK
Joshua Pachner
 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 14:05
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Not fishy May 27, 2020

Kristen Canavan wrote:

Hi everyone,

Sorry if this is a very elementary question. If a client asks to send you a 50% deposit up front and then complete the balance at the end of a job via bank transfer and asks for acct number, routing number, address, etc. Is that fishy?

Why wouldn't they just opt for PayPal like most clients seem to do?



Direct bank transfer is better than PayPal but to do it (between European countries) the payer needs:

Bank name and address
Account no.
Sort Code
name of account holder

IBAN (international bank account number)
IBAN BIC (SWIFT)


Kristen Canavan
Zakaria Zarour (X)
Liviu-Lee Roth
Ivana UK
Alla_K
 
Kristen Canavan
Kristen Canavan
French to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Thank you for spelling out what bank details are relatively safe to give out! May 27, 2020

Tom in London wrote:


Direct bank transfer is better than PayPal but to do it (between European countries) the payer needs:

Bank name and address
Account no.
Sort Code
name of account holder

IBAN (international bank account number)
IBAN BIC (SWIFT)


 
Sarper Aman
Sarper Aman  Identity Verified
Türkiye
Local time: 17:05
Member (2019)
English to Turkish
+ ...
background check May 27, 2020

Hi Kristen,

You can check the client's name or e-mail adress in the forums. There are scams alerts posted by other users. I receive bank transfers too but anyone so eager to pay me upfront makes me think for a while. I vote for scam.

Best,


Tom in London
Kristen Canavan
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Sheila Wilson
Alla_K
 
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 14:05
Member (2007)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
@Kristen May 27, 2020

In this case what makes me rather suspicious is not that the client is asking for your bank details but the fact that he/she is sending you a 50% deposit upfront. Just to be clear: did you require this or is the client proposing it?

Tom in London
Kristen Canavan
Alla_K
 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 14:05
Member (2008)
Italian to English
YOu need their details as much as they need yours May 27, 2020

Make sure you have the payer's name and registered business address, and check out those details yourself before agreeing to anything.

Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Thomas T. Frost
Liviu-Lee Roth
 
Adam Smith
Adam Smith
United States
Local time: 10:05
French to English
+ ...
Same job...? May 27, 2020

Hi Kristen! I’m a new translator and also a bit wary about giving out all the information required for a bank transfer. Just because I saw you also do French to English and were receiving 50% upfront I was wondering if you could share a bit more about what the job is because a non-registered user messaged me with a French-to-English job and offered to pay 50% upfront and can’t think of how to verify that the person is legit. (Maybe I’m being paranoid.)

Kristen Canavan
Cydonie Miles
 
Adam Smith
Adam Smith
United States
Local time: 10:05
French to English
+ ...
RE: Same job May 27, 2020

Before you even reply, I have a reply for myself. If it happens that we actually have been approached by the “same person” it is actually a scam: https://www.proz.com/forum/scams/340208-research_project_on_agricultural_reforms_in_eu_translation_scam_marie_stephens.html

In the other forum post, the
... See more
Before you even reply, I have a reply for myself. If it happens that we actually have been approached by the “same person” it is actually a scam: https://www.proz.com/forum/scams/340208-research_project_on_agricultural_reforms_in_eu_translation_scam_marie_stephens.html

In the other forum post, the scammer went by Marie something, but when they contacted me they went by Ludovic M. Segura. (Perhaps this is all irrelevant to you, but the few details you gave seemed oddly similar to my experience just now.)
Collapse


Kristen Canavan
Liviu-Lee Roth
 
Kristen Canavan
Kristen Canavan
French to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
This is why I really appreciate the Proz community May 27, 2020

Sarper Aman wrote:

Hi Kristen,

You can check the client's name or e-mail adress in the forums. There are scams alerts posted by other users. I receive bank transfers too but anyone so eager to pay me upfront makes me think for a while. I vote for scam.

Best,



I did exactly this and thank goodness I didn't assume things were good to go and sent over my details. It is indeed a scam that recently surfaced.


 
Kristen Canavan
Kristen Canavan
French to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Good point - rookie's mistake May 27, 2020

Tom in London wrote:

Make sure you have the payer's name and registered business address, and check out those details yourself before agreeing to anything.


Never thought of this! I will keep this also in mind. Thanks so much Tom!


 
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 14:05
Member (2007)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
@Adam + Kristen May 27, 2020

I have been working for over 40 years and no legit client has ever proposed to pay 50% upfront. When a project is rather long (over 10,000 words) and I’m working with a first time client I usually require a down payment (in general, 25%). As far as I know, scammers are targeting inexperienced translators and if you visit the Translator scam alert... See more
I have been working for over 40 years and no legit client has ever proposed to pay 50% upfront. When a project is rather long (over 10,000 words) and I’m working with a first time client I usually require a down payment (in general, 25%). As far as I know, scammers are targeting inexperienced translators and if you visit the Translator scam alert center (https://www.proz.com/about/translator-scam-alerts#advance_payment_overpayment_scam) you’ll see that the advance payment is one of the tricks they use.Collapse


Kristen Canavan
 
Kristen Canavan
Kristen Canavan
French to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
EU Agriculture 19k words? May 27, 2020

Adam Smith wrote:

Hi Kristen! I’m a new translator and also a bit wary about giving out all the information required for a bank transfer. Just because I saw you also do French to English and were receiving 50% upfront I was wondering if you could share a bit more about what the job is because a non-registered user messaged me with a French-to-English job and offered to pay 50% upfront and can’t think of how to verify that the person is legit. (Maybe I’m being paranoid.)



Ludovic M. Segura from a Gmail address contacted me from a NYC IP address as a non-Proz registered account.

I looked in the forums and this has been going around for the past few days under other names as well. A "Marie" something or other is what I believe I read.


Cydonie Miles
 
Kristen Canavan
Kristen Canavan
French to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
You're absolutely right May 27, 2020

Teresa Borges wrote:

In this case what makes me rather suspicious is not that the client is asking for your bank details but the fact that he/she is sending you a 50% deposit upfront. Just to be clear: did you require this or is the client proposing it?


They in fact offered the 50% upfront. As a rookie working with end clients online, I didn't think it was too odd. But you are showing me that I need to be weary of this in the future.

Thank goodness I didn't send over any of my banking information!


 
Kristen Canavan
Kristen Canavan
French to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Down payment sounds fair May 27, 2020

Teresa Borges wrote:

I have been working for over 40 years and no legit client has ever proposed to pay 50% upfront. When a project is rather long (over 10,000 words) and I’m working with a first time client I usually require a down payment (in general, 25%). As far as I know, scammers are targeting inexperienced translators and if you visit the Translator scam alert center (https://www.proz.com/about/translator-scam-alerts#advance_payment_overpayment_scam) you’ll see that the advance payment is one of the tricks they use.


Thanks so much for this link, it has been placed in my bookmarks


 
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