Scam notice - Filpakloblich Oil and Gas Inc., Coremaxexpress.com, "Mark Wong" Thread poster: Erick Peterson
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Scam warning:
This one is a bit more dangerous than average.
I was contacted by "Mark Wong", a supposed project manager at "Filpakloblich Oild and Gas" on LinkedIn. He offered a job for a major translation and claimed it would be sent via post (since confidential documents). I was then contacted by "Coremax Express" and asked to provide 500€ in customs fees related to sensitive document types. In the end I researched a bit more and contacted the police and platform op... See more Scam warning:
This one is a bit more dangerous than average.
I was contacted by "Mark Wong", a supposed project manager at "Filpakloblich Oild and Gas" on LinkedIn. He offered a job for a major translation and claimed it would be sent via post (since confidential documents). I was then contacted by "Coremax Express" and asked to provide 500€ in customs fees related to sensitive document types. In the end I researched a bit more and contacted the police and platform operators - both companies were using fake websites pulled from professional ones (the oil company ripped text from Conoco Philips).
I have since seen that there are still some accounts under "Filpakloblich" on LinkedIn and cannot 100% verify these are the same guys, but the profiles shared some characteristics.
Note:
- Scam is multi-tier
- Scam involves at least 2 fake websites and fake LI accounts. On the fake courier site, you can actually track your fake package by package number
- Scam also involves 2-3 fairly harmless looking steps to warm people up (query on rates, fake NDA).
- All fake materials look slick and legit unless you look quite closely. The websites are domains ending in ".com" and not a personal page, etc.
I hope that this can raise awareness about this kind of scam as well as what is mentioned here. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Kevin Fulton 
United States
Local time: 02:06
German to English
| Good due diligence! | Sep 4, 2019 |
Erick Peterson wrote:
I was then contacted by "Coremax Express" and asked to provide 500€ in customs fees related to sensitive document types.
Note:
- Scam is multi-tier
- Scam involves at least 2 fake websites and fake LI accounts. On the fake courier site, you can actually track your fake package by package number
- Scam also involves 2-3 fairly harmless looking steps to warm people up (query on rates, fake NDA).
- All fake materials look slick and legit unless you look quite closely. The websites are domains ending in ".com" and not a personal page, etc.
However, I think that the 500€ requirement might be beyond the means of most translators likely to fall for this scam.
Thanks for the warning nonetheless!
| | | | | It is a very stupid scam. I would immediately refer this person to my customer | Sep 5, 2019 |
as it is not my business to pay such charges.
| | | | katfic
Greece
Local time: 09:06
English to Greek
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| Same incident | Sep 6, 2019 |
It happened to me too. Just today. Thanks for sharing your experience. Helped me undestand what was going on. Even if it wasn't scam, I could never imagine a serious company asking a freelancer to pay custom fees on its behalf.
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Erick Peterson
Germany
Local time: 08:06
German to English
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TOPIC STARTER | Clarification on one point | Sep 8, 2019 |
Paweł Hamerski wrote:
as it is not my business to pay such charges.
Thanks everyone for your feedback. Just one clarification here:
The "customer" was in on the scam. What concerned me most was the level of detail - multiple websites with legitimate addresses and one operator or group working them together.
| | | | | It is obvious - so what. I like my small | Sep 9, 2019 |
pleasures
| | | | Ann Cheah
Malaysia
Member (2017)
English to Malay
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Yes, I received the same offer from the same person and "company". How ridiculous! I told him to bank in the money to me instead.
| | | | Raden Susanti
Indonesia
Local time: 13:06
English to Indonesian
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| I just got scammed too | Aug 18, 2020 |
I almost got scammed too, I have signed an NDA and everything, but the next two days they asked me to pay custom for $1000 to receive the documents. This is outrageous, both websites looked legit
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Erick Peterson
Germany
Local time: 08:06
German to English
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TOPIC STARTER | Same people? | Aug 18, 2020 |
Hi Raden Susanti,
Sorry to hear it. Was it the same "company"? Were they using LinkedIn?
Given how elaborate this scam is, it would be good to have some common knowledge of how it operates.
Best and much success with the real work,
Erick
| | | | IrinaN
United States
Local time: 01:06
English to Russian
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Erick Peterson wrote:
SHe offered a job for a major translation and claimed it would be sent via post (since confidential documents).
Due to the overwhelming stupidity of the approach chosen by the scammers, this one should be considered the least dangerous and the easiest to detect.
International shipment of strictly confidential documents to the private address of an unknown translator. Priceless.
[Edited at 2020-08-19 12:56 GMT]
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