Author Topic: Is this a scam or not? (Read 14633 times)

HP · « **on:** June 07, 2017, 11:23:09 PM »

My wife is a graphic designer and a guy contacted her online for a logo and brochure. She gave him a quote, and he agreed right away to the amounts she said. He asked if she can accept credit card; she told him she prefers Chase Quickpay, but he insisted on credit. So she set up her PayPal to accept credit card and then told him to pay that way. His response was

Quote

My Credit Card account is not compatible to process payment through PayPal, kindly sign up with this link to proceed to payment

with a link to Quickbooks Intuit. She opened up the site (not from his link) and signed up as a self-employed service provider, connected our bank accounts, and sent him an invoice.

Later that day, she got an email from him asking for a favor (estimates redacted, we're talking in the $1-5K range):

Quote

The favor i need from you is concerning this project i will be glad if you can handle that for me because am presently in the hospital for treatment i will want you to add $3800 to the estimate this will be for the Project Consultant so he can send you the text and images of the brochure he does not have the facility to accept credit card as a means of payment also. You are to charge $xxxx from my credit card.

The consultant will like to know the best file for you to receive the text and images also you are to charge the 3% Credit Card and Tax Charges from my credit card.

I will also be adding a tip of $300

Here is the Breakdown:
Service Charge: $xxxx (Deposit Payment of $xxx will be paid)
Tip: $300
Consultant Fee: $3,800
Total: $xxxx

Kindly send me another invoice of $1,400 this will be the first payment due to the limit on my credit card account.

.I will be waiting for your positive response.

We would never pay anyone before getting paid first; and even after getting paid, I don't think we would pay someone else. The question is, should my wife take the job even without paying the Project Consultant, or is it a complete waste of her time? Also, would it be smarter to ask him questions (identifying details, etc) before we say no to paying the consultant?

When my wife told me about this, I was very suspicious. I was trying to think of the best person that would know about this, and decided that this is the best place to ask. Despite my not posting often, I have read a lot of posts here.

Sorry about the lengthy post. Any advice is appreciated.

Denverite · « **Reply #1 on:** June 07, 2017, 11:26:36 PM »

Don't do it...even if you haven't figured out the exact angle of what kind of fraud it is, there is something definitely off here.

sky121 · « **Reply #2 on:** June 07, 2017, 11:27:09 PM »

Quote from: HP on June 07, 2017, 11:23:09 PM

My wife is a graphic designer and a guy contacted her online for a logo and brochure. She gave him a quote, and he agreed right away to the amounts she said. He asked if she can accept credit card; she told him she prefers Chase Quickpay, but he insisted on credit. So she set up her PayPal to accept credit card and then told him to pay that way. His response waswith a link to Quickbooks Intuit. She opened up the site (not from his link) and signed up as a self-employed service provider, connected our bank accounts, and sent him an invoice.

Later that day, she got an email from him asking for a favor (estimates redacted, we're talking in the $1-5K range):
We would never pay anyone before getting paid first; and even after getting paid, I don't think we would pay someone else. The question is, should my wife take the job even without paying the Project Consultant, or is it a complete waste of her time? Also, would it be smarter to ask him questions (identifying details, etc) before we say no to paying the consultant?

When my wife told me about this, I was very suspicious. I was trying to think of the best person that would know about this, and decided that this is the best place to ask. Despite my not posting often, I have read a lot of posts here.

Sorry about the lengthy post. Any advice is appreciated.

Sounds fishy to me.

as2 · « **Reply #3 on:** June 07, 2017, 11:27:13 PM »

Quote from: HP on June 07, 2017, 11:23:09 PM

My wife is a graphic designer and a guy contacted her online for a logo and brochure. She gave him a quote, and he agreed right away to the amounts she said. He asked if she can accept credit card; she told him she prefers Chase Quickpay, but he insisted on credit. So she set up her PayPal to accept credit card and then told him to pay that way. His response waswith a link to Quickbooks Intuit. She opened up the site (not from his link) and signed up as a self-employed service provider, connected our bank accounts, and sent him an invoice.

Later that day, she got an email from him asking for a favor (estimates redacted, we're talking in the $1-5K range):
We would never pay anyone before getting paid first; and even after getting paid, I don't think we would pay someone else. The question is, should my wife take the job even without paying the Project Consultant, or is it a complete waste of her time? Also, would it be smarter to ask him questions (identifying details, etc) before we say no to paying the consultant?

When my wife told me about this, I was very suspicious. I was trying to think of the best person that would know about this, and decided that this is the best place to ask. Despite my not posting often, I have read a lot of posts here.

Sorry about the lengthy post. Any advice is appreciated.

Sounds very fishy. I would request information that would make me feel comfortable with the situation, maybe an ID and picture of the credit card or something of that nature. It may just not be worth the worries, and you can just scrap the job.

BP16 · « **Reply #4 on:** June 07, 2017, 11:30:53 PM »

Yeah way to many signs of fraud if your not 100% certain stay away.

HP · « **Reply #5 on:** June 07, 2017, 11:31:48 PM »

It's a decent amount of money, that we would like to make. So if there's a way we can confirm that it's probably legit we would want to go with it.

Dan · « **Reply #6 on:** June 07, 2017, 11:35:01 PM »

tageed-lee · « **Reply #7 on:** June 07, 2017, 11:37:07 PM »

Ya, its definitely a scam.

how · « **Reply #8 on:** June 07, 2017, 11:42:18 PM »

Quote from: HP on June 07, 2017, 11:23:09 PM

My wife is a graphic designer and a guy contacted her online for a logo and brochure. She gave him a quote, and he agreed right away to the amounts she said. He asked if she can accept credit card; she told him she prefers Chase Quickpay, but he insisted on credit. So she set up her PayPal to accept credit card and then told him to pay that way. His response waswith a link to Quickbooks Intuit. She opened up the site (not from his link) and signed up as a self-employed service provider, connected our bank accounts, and sent him an invoice.

Later that day, she got an email from him asking for a favor (estimates redacted, we're talking in the $1-5K range):
We would never pay anyone before getting paid first; and even after getting paid, I don't think we would pay someone else. The question is, should my wife take the job even without paying the Project Consultant, or is it a complete waste of her time? Also, would it be smarter to ask him questions (identifying details, etc) before we say no to paying the consultant?

When my wife told me about this, I was very suspicious. I was trying to think of the best person that would know about this, and decided that this is the best place to ask. Despite my not posting often, I have read a lot of posts here.

Sorry about the lengthy post. Any advice is appreciated.

stay away

ElectricCPR · « **Reply #9 on:** June 07, 2017, 11:43:05 PM »

Sounds fishy!

I had a similar story in my field of work.

And why is your wife paying a $3800 cosultation fee?

JACKBLUE · « **Reply #10 on:** June 07, 2017, 11:45:44 PM »

Quote from: Dan on June 07, 2017, 11:35:01 PM

Scam

you have a Psak from @Dan! No more questions asked!

Denverite · « **Reply #11 on:** June 07, 2017, 11:49:10 PM »

Quote from: HP on June 07, 2017, 11:31:48 PM

It's a decent amount of money, that we would like to make. So if there's a way we can confirm that it's probably legit we would want to go with it.

Listen, I work with designers and freelancers all the time for hundreds of brochures for my company. If you are searching online like you are describing its to get a super cheap deal, especially someone from overseas knowns he can bid it out to a designer in India and get a logo for less than $100. There is no way this is legit. No one pays a tip to a designer and needs to involve project consultants. This is a scam. Don't ask for verification, ID, copy of the credit card or anything. It's all irrelevant because it's not a real job so don't waste another second on it.