{"id":6161,"date":"2025-03-09T15:31:02","date_gmt":"2025-03-09T14:31:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alertinsight.ch\/?p=6161"},"modified":"2025-11-27T11:22:36","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T10:22:36","slug":"scammed-me-online","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alertinsight.ch\/en\/2025\/03\/scammed-me-online\/","title":{"rendered":"Scammed. Me. Online."},"content":{"rendered":"

Or: A scam in the world of online work<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

\u201cYou\u2019re only interested in impossible things,\u201d
my sweet father always used to say.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

That\u2019s how I started telling my story in December 2024 on LinkedIn. The story of how I got scammed. Tons of people read it. I got a lot of feedback, messages, comments\u2014 most of them, of course, in private.<\/p>\n

Now, I could say how amazing it was to make such a powerful return to LinkedIn\u2026 but the truth isn\u2019t that simple.<\/p>\n

Because first, there\u2019s the shame. The anger. The frustration. The disbelief that I, too, could be deceived. Fooled. Played.
And of course, the question: why did it happen\u2014and what can I learn from it?
(But before the \u201clessons<\/em>,\u201d let\u2019s be honest: comes the shock. The rage. The disappointment. The grief. And all the messy combinations in between.)<\/p>\n

Humans are funny. Until something hits us personally<\/em>\u2014painfully<\/em> personally\u2014 we don\u2019t really believe it can happen.<\/p>\n

But it can.<\/p>\n

And it can happen to you, too.<\/p>\n

Anytime.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why I wrote down what happened to me.<\/p>\n

My story<\/h3>\n

At the beginning of December, I had a wild idea. I accepted a translation job from an American (?) company that contacted me via Facebook Messenger<\/em>.
Let that sink in\u2014first red flag<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The task? Translate a brutally long professional text from English, reformat it to match the original layout\u2014all over a weekend.<\/p>\n

Yes, they promised money. A lot of it. Second red flag<\/strong><\/span>: an almost unreal amount of money for an insanely tight deadline.<\/p>\n

Now, we\u2019re all human. And when money is tight (and let\u2019s face it\u2014it usually is), you\u2019re more vulnerable. And in my case\u2014as a bit of a perfectionist\u2014I also saw it as a chance to prove myself.<\/p>\n

And I did. I translated almost 80 pages. Used AI tools, yes\u2014but carefully, and I proofread every bit. The final version? Spotless Hungarian, professionally edited, all formatting in place. I hardly slept from Friday to Sunday\u2014but I delivered.<\/p>\n

Then the story really<\/em> began.<\/p>\n

Five minutes\u2014yes, five\u2014after I submitted the work, they wrote back: Accepted! Great job! Thank you!<\/p>\n

Third massive red flag<\/strong>:<\/span> How does anyone check 80 pages in five minutes?<\/p>\n

And then came the real kicker: They asked me to pay them<\/em>, instead of paying me.<\/p>\n

Fourth red flag<\/strong><\/span>, and possibly the most outrageous one.<\/p>\n

So yes. I, someone who\u2019s worked online for years, paid up like a good little soldier.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re probably wondering: Why?!
Why, if I saw all those red flags, did I ignore them?<\/p>\n

Because I didn\u2019t want<\/em> to see them. I didn\u2019t want to admit it might be fake. I convinced myself that I\u2019d be the exception. That this wouldn\u2019t happen to me.<\/p>\n

But of course, it did.<\/p>\n

They said the money was transferred to a \u201cbank\u201d (allegedly an American one): \ud83d\udc49 https:\/\/citycb.org<\/a> \u2013 fake site, obviously.
They even created a bank account for me there.<\/p>\n

Then they asked for fees\u2014two separate transactions\u2014just so I could \u201caccess\u201d the funds. Each fee required a special \u201ccode<\/em>.\u201d Which of course, led nowhere.<\/p>\n

Eventually, I snapped out of it. The final straw was when they asked for another outrageous payment\u2014for a supposed broker\u2019s annual fee.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when I said no.<\/p>\n

I reported all transactions to PayPal, my bank, blocked my card. Something finally kicked in\u2014something beyond reason. Instinct, maybe. Self-preservation.<\/p>\n

I stopped. But by then, it was too late.<\/p>\n

I had been scammed.<\/p>\n

Lessons \u2013 and what came next<\/h3>\n

So\u2026 what now?<\/p>\n

Well, I wrote about it. People started following me. I\u2019ve had countless conversations since. I started researching, learning, connecting the dots.<\/p>\n

PayPal refunded 2 of the 4 transactions. One they couldn\u2019t reverse. The other they rejected, and I have no right to appeal.
\n(I might write a blog post about that, too.)<\/p>\n

The other big thing?
Two of my friends sent me Ada\u2019s site\u2014AlertInsight.ch<\/em>\u2014within days of each other.<\/p>\n

I looked. I commented. Ada messaged me. And the rest, as they say\u2026 is history.<\/p>\n

I was scammed.
I lost money.
But here I am.<\/p>\n

And I\u2019m now one of the ambassadors of AlertInsight.ch<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll do everything I can to reach more people,
to offer more support,
to make sure this never happens to you<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\n

\ud83d\udea9 RED FLAGS \u2013 IN CASE YOU MISSED THEM:<\/h3>\n
    \n
  • \n

    Job offer through Facebook Messenger<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  • \n

    Unrealistic amount of money + extremely short deadline<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  • \n

    They \u201creviewed\u201d 80 pages in 5 minutes<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  • \n

    You\u2019re the one sending them<\/em> money to \u201creceive\u201d your payment<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    \ud83d\udea9 AND MORE RED FLAGS:<\/h3>\n
      \n
    • \n

      Official-looking emails coming from a gmail<\/em> address (yes, even me, I fell for that)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

    • \n

      They always have a quick solution for everything<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

    • \n

      They’re overly friendly and helpful\u2014almost too much so<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

    • \n

      When it comes time to pay, they pressure you, push you, demand urgency<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      <\/blockquote>\n

      Dorka<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5836,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[477,236,242,416,227,219],"tags":[279,283,288,278,233,213,478,238,240,237],"class_list":["post-6161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dorka-magyar","category-online-awareness","category-online-security","category-red-flag-2","category-scam","category-self-knowledge","tag-digitalsecurity","tag-internetsafety","tag-mentalhealts","tag-onlinescams","tag-alertinsight-en","tag-danger","tag-dorka-magyar","tag-fraud","tag-online-en","tag-scam"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alertinsight.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alertinsight.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alertinsight.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alertinsight.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alertinsight.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6161"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/alertinsight.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6166,"href":"https:\/\/alertinsight.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6161\/revisions\/6166"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alertinsight.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alertinsight.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alertinsight.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alertinsight.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}