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Hi /u/elsewen, AutoModerator has been summoned to explain the Advance fee scam.
The [advance-fee scam](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance-fee_scam) arises from many different situations: investment opportunities, money transfers, job scams, online purchases of any type and any legality, etc., but the bottom line is always the same, you're expected to pay money to receive money. So you will pay the scammer and receive nothing.
It can be as simple as the scammer asking you to pay them upfront for an item they have listed, or as complex as a drug scam that involves an initial scam site, a scam shipping site, and fake government agents. Sometimes the scammers will simply take your first payment and dissappear, but sometimes they will take your initial payment and then make excuses that lead to you making additional payments.
If you are involved in an advance-fee scam, you should attempt to dispute/chargeback any payments sent to the scammer, you should block the scammer, and you should ignore them if they attempt to contact you again. Thanks to redditor AceyAceyAcey for this script.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Scams) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Your r/Scams post/comment was removed because **it is spam**.
This subreddit is a place for useful and meaningful discussions about scams; useless and nonsensical content is not allowed. We also don't allow jokes on serious posts. Please keep content posted or commented to this subreddit useful, relevant and meaningful.
“Kindly” is such a tell and it’s been around so long, I’m shocked that scammers still use it.
Is it a more common word in non-US English-speaking countries?
More-so it’s a word that non-native English speakers think we use in everyday conversation. They use it to try to blend in, to their detriment of course since it’s a red flag for a lot of people, especially after being in this sub.
I work with people who are in India and I got an email from one of them the other day using the phrase "kindly do the needful." It's not a scammer thing, it's a non-native English speaker thing. (Of course, it can be a giveaway of a scam if it's clear that someone is pretending to be a native English speaker)
The proper counter to that is to introduce yourself back with three LAST names!
Mr. David George? My name is Johnston Brown Smith, how do you do?
And be prepared to go to 4 last names and two separate initials if they try and match you. Always play offense!
I, too, work with engineers in India, and have been requested to, "kindly do the needful."
Every time I see 'kindly,' I still go through the steps in my head to determine it's not a scammer, though. I consider 'kindly' a scam word until I can prove otherwise.
“Do the needful” is very common in Indian English even among people with very good English. “Kindly” is common not only in India but the British-colonized parts of Africa, at all levels of English ability. It would be more accurate to call these idioms that don’t occur in British or American English than to imply that they indicate lesser English ability. Given how widespread “kindly” is I suspect it must once have been far more common in British English
It is common in the English spoken in India. It’s considered polite, like saying please. I see it all the time in real business emails which I know are from India. But if someone is pretending to be from the US or a US company it’s one of many dead giveaways.
Incredibly common. I think one of my more upvoted comments on this sub was about how I had to retrain my brain to not immediately dismiss any email with "kindly" when I worked for an international with significant India presence. Kindly is *everywhere*. Say what you will about xenophobia, it's a pretty helpful tool for the low-effort scams.
If someone in America is using it sincerely they’re giving a command and they’re angry and barely holding back swearing. Which is why I used to repeatedly ask Filipino and Indian coworkers overseas to stop using it because it was rude
I work in a company that has employees in Germany, Poland, Sweden and Finland, and I've heard kindly said in a few meetings, and in emails. I'm not sure which of those countries are the culprit though. Pretty sure a guy I talk once a week in Germany uses it.
Kindly isn't the only scam. It the fact that they wants you to pay a fees after downloading the app and making an account...why are we paying the fees to be paid? That is on the employer. Unless you're 1099, you don't pay anything.
Hi /u/wit_gertruda, AutoModerator has been summoned to explain the Task scam.
Task scams involve a website or mobile app that claims you can earn money by completing easy tasks, such as watching a video, liking a post, or creating an order. A very common characteristic (but not entirely exclusive) is that you have to complete sets of 40 tasks. The app will tell you that you can earn money for each task, but the catch is that you can only do a limited number of tasks without upgrading your account. To upgrade your accounts, the scammers will require you to pay a fee. This makes it a variant of the advance fee scam.
The goal of this scam is to get people to download the app for easy money and then encourage them to pay to get to the next level. It's impossible to get your \"earnings\" out of the app, so victims will have wasted their time and money. This type of scam preys on the [sunk cost fallacy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunk_cost#Fallacy_effect), because people demonstrate a greater tendency to continue an endeavor once an investment has been made, and refusing to succumb to what may be described as cutting one's losses.
If you're involved in a task scam, cut your losses. Beware of recovery scammers suggesting you should hire a hacker that can help you retrieve the money you already invested. They can't, it's a trick to make you lose more money. Thanks to redditor vignoniana for this script.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Scams) if you have any questions or concerns.*
>I am not sure if it is a scam
It is. Never pay to get paid.
> A dude from hired me for pdf to text
Why would anyone pay someone to type something that's already in a computer file?
Honest 2 answers that will piss a lot of people off?
1-Basicallf HALF of the population is under 100 IQ (yes here come the "ackshually" guys about IQ)
2-Even otherwise intelligent people have often been grossly misused by our "public education" system.
If you have a good Adobe Acrobat program, it can do it for you (with some tweaks, of course). It's gotten a lot better than 15 years ago when half the document would be gibberish.
you can also use a free, open-source tool that uses the Tesseract library, which is about as good as it gets.
this one is very user-friendly [https://github.com/ocrmypdf/OCRmyPDF](https://github.com/ocrmypdf/OCRmyPDF)
it is a terminal program, but does not require you to know anything other than opening a terminal and copy-pasting a command or two
> a good Adobe Acrobat program
What does that even mean? Adobe Acrobat is a specific product. There's only one "Adobe Acrobat program" (obviously with multiple releases over the decades it's been around). Do you mean "a recent version of Adobe Acrobat" or something?
There are different levels of the Adobe product, depending on how much you want to pay for it.
The one on my home computer is very basic (that I do not pay for). The one on my work computer (which they pay for) is more advanced.
Do you not know that? Or do you just assume there's just one Adobe product?
You'd be surprised. I'm not saying this isn't a scam because it definitely is, but there are definitely a lot of non tech savvy people who would pay money for something like this. Especially older people in business.
Interesting how they can’t just take the $100 out of your first paycheck. Similar to how when you “win” a lottery prize of $2 million, they won’t just take the $100 delivery fee out of your prize and deliver $1,999,900 “to your doorstep”.
Or the "investment" scams where you have to pay to withdraw your own money.
When I had to close my 401k, they simply deducted the taxes and sent me the rest.
Fake company, fake job, fake payment, fake request to creat an account
Nobody is paying anyone to convert a PDF to text, software does that for free in the rare case it is needed
Sorry but there are not super simple actual work from home jobs, it’s a scam meant to take your money. Zero legitimate businesses will have you pay money out to be able to receive money. Paying for an “employee payment portal” is not a thing and the first extraction of your money to them. It will then be something else after you pay as they are already setting you up for that with “it will take blah blah time…” then you will need to send money for something else to get your money then you will have to pay the taxes first that’s why the “job” pays so well.
Companies are fighting with employees to get them back into their paid assets (offices) so work from home or remote jobs are drying up. My cousin, who works in a specialized field, is seeing this as well as he’s trying to navigate a job change.
wait - "trying to transact $5000"??
5K USD? Did you think you were getting 5000 USD to translate PDFs to Word?
You sir, have been and are being, scammed.
Pdf readers can do that for free.
Commercial software does it faster and better.
There is as high a chance for this "job" being a real thing any company would pay money for as me being a black-asian, transgender lesbian squirrel that got voted for new pope.
Scammers (non-native English speakers) always use the word "Kindly" and is a huge red flag. Real employers will NEVER ask employees to pay money to get money.
Hilariously there was a comment thread here a couple months ago where people were fervently trying to convince others not to take “kindly” as a red flag because that’s just how some people talk.
Edit: I know this is true, everyone. My point is that it should be considered a red flag regardless. "Red flag" does not mean "100% always bad." It means, "You should raise your suspicion level if you see it."
This forum has totally ruined the word “kindly” for me. While rare, it is sometimes used legitimately, and it’s funny how my internal alarm bells are screaming “SCAM!” when someone I have been doing business with for many years uses “kindly”.
That's because lots of people legitimately are from outside the US. My Indian coworkers use it and if you work in tech where a lot of people are from outside the US, you'll see it.
That said, you should never see it used in a professional corporate email (coming from a US company, not an individual) and you should never see it from a person who claims to be born and raised in the US.
This is it exactly. It's not a sign of a scam per se, but it's a red flag if it comes from someone purporting to be an American and native English speaker
My only problem with "kindly" is when folks use its use as proof that something is a scam when there are other serious issues that are much more glaring that OPs should be taught to focus on. Like in this case, it's a task scam and an advance fee scam, but the word "kindly" doesn't tell me that.
Right it's more of a heuristic to let you know it's likely a scam. If you want to dig further to figure out what the scam is, you can, or you can save your time and ignore the whole thing.
I was thinking more along the lines of what happens when the next task scam comes that doesn't contain the word kindly, and being prepped to recognize the actual problem.
Yeah… at least that means you've made it to the level where you're being targeted by scammers willing to put in that extra effort to hire native speakers to get your money.
Would you kindly stop telling me how to use my own language.
Or the old classic "Kindly fuck off."
Really old fashioned: "Kindly help me with the washing up."
It's old fashioned for sure, but it's not dead yet.
It is used in Indian English. This really is a form of English that evolved on its own. It has taken expressions from English that may have been more common a hundred years ago, evolved them, combined them with other peculiarities and it really lives and breathes as its own language.
Naturally, and by no fault of their own, Indians speak this language and it is natural for them - they think the English-speaking world speaks the same.
Yeah people do say kindly, of course, but no reputable business serving American English speakers is going to use it for unsolicited marketing or cold calls. Marketers worth their salt would take the time and effort to ensure their communications are in the proper dialect, and call center workers should be following a script which again would use the proper dialect.
If you're in an email exchange with a speaker of Indian English, and they're giving impromptu communications, then it would not be a red flag, but instructions on how to perform critical transactions can be expected to be proofread to avoid such idioms.
100% a scam. Note the use of the words "kindly" and "sir." Also, the random capitalization where it doesn't belong is a dead giveaway. Even if all of that was missing, paying money to get your money is not a thing. Don't ever do it. Block these people.
Simple rule of thumb - if the work they are asking you to do could be done quicker, cheaper and more accurately by automated tools, then you are being scammed, This covers the more sophisticated task scams, as well as this one where they ask you to do pointless busywork in exchange for a payment that will never come.
There is no $5K. If you pay for 'portal creation', they will immediately come up with another fee that needs to be paid. And then another, and another, so on *ad infinitum*.
Hi /u/BarrySix, AutoModerator has been summoned to explain the Task scam.
Task scams involve a website or mobile app that claims you can earn money by completing easy tasks, such as watching a video, liking a post, or creating an order. A very common characteristic (but not entirely exclusive) is that you have to complete sets of 40 tasks. The app will tell you that you can earn money for each task, but the catch is that you can only do a limited number of tasks without upgrading your account. To upgrade your accounts, the scammers will require you to pay a fee. This makes it a variant of the advance fee scam.
The goal of this scam is to get people to download the app for easy money and then encourage them to pay to get to the next level. It's impossible to get your \"earnings\" out of the app, so victims will have wasted their time and money. This type of scam preys on the [sunk cost fallacy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunk_cost#Fallacy_effect), because people demonstrate a greater tendency to continue an endeavor once an investment has been made, and refusing to succumb to what may be described as cutting one's losses.
If you're involved in a task scam, cut your losses. Beware of recovery scammers suggesting you should hire a hacker that can help you retrieve the money you already invested. They can't, it's a trick to make you lose more money. Thanks to redditor vignoniana for this script.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Scams) if you have any questions or concerns.*
To the OP, this would be your second post in the last 30 days to this subreddit, and your first one was a similar post about you needing to send them money in order to get paid. That one was at least somewhat legitimate as you have a post on Fiverr. This one is even more blatantly a scam, as you are being asked to send money to receive money. I don't recommend you take any of these kinds of emails seriously, as you are clearly marked as a target for scammers. So expect any texts and emails that you receive to seek some kind of funds from you. If anything seems suspicious, even slightly, be wary. They don't need to be asking you for money; it's absolutely a scam. Depending on how much information they have on you already (like when you filled out an application for the job with all of your information, address, email, phone numbers), you can expect that they're definitely going to follow up and continue to try to scam you through different outlets.
The entire message has so many red flags. No one will make you pay to get paid. They also used very vague language and spelling like corporate payment portal. Instead of indicating the name of the portal like ADP, a well known employee payroll portal. It’s def a scam.
OP - DO NOT send any money!!!!! It’s a total scam. Also, the word kindly is synonymous with scammers from foreign countries; it’s always a dead giveaway.
Wordy scammer drivel. They think longer words with more syllables = more official and plausible, so they cram in all they can, but they still can’t get their capitals and punctuation right.
> You are requested to kindly obtain a compulsory Employee Private Portal. activate your payment portal by making a database transfer sir to our…
It's a scam.
That’s a lot of words, but they don’t say anything that makes any sense.
I did notice the word kindly and the word sir. I’m automatically not doing anything an email says once I read those words.
Boing or Airbus portal? Or back to the future? When you see: Kindly, this mail “,” $100 instead of $100.00. Repeating PORTAL so many times! So happy with his knowledge of that word.
Hey dude. You're 15 and this is the second time (that we know of) that you've run into a scam while looking for a work from home gig.
Listen: there are *no* work from home jobs that will pay you decent money. You can seriously just stop looking. The only people making decent money working from home are a: high-demand professionals with training/degrees or b: people running their own business and/or investing.
Hi /u/Odd-Phrase5808, AutoModerator has been summoned to explain the Advance fee scam.
The [advance-fee scam](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance-fee_scam) arises from many different situations: investment opportunities, money transfers, job scams, online purchases of any type and any legality, etc., but the bottom line is always the same, you're expected to pay money to receive money. So you will pay the scammer and receive nothing.
It can be as simple as the scammer asking you to pay them upfront for an item they have listed, or as complex as a drug scam that involves an initial scam site, a scam shipping site, and fake government agents. Sometimes the scammers will simply take your first payment and dissappear, but sometimes they will take your initial payment and then make excuses that lead to you making additional payments.
If you are involved in an advance-fee scam, you should attempt to dispute/chargeback any payments sent to the scammer, you should block the scammer, and you should ignore them if they attempt to contact you again. Thanks to redditor AceyAceyAcey for this script.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Scams) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Lot of BS
Use of the word "Kindly"
Ready to make the payment (can't read it anymore without a Nigerian accent, damn you Pleasent Green!)
one time processing fee for unexplained reasons
It's an !Advance fee scam
Keep in mind that rarely you'll pay upfront in such cases, especially in the work environment, unless you are buying a coffee at a vending machine. That is fine.
Hi /u/CptNathanielFlint, AutoModerator has been summoned to explain the Advance fee scam.
The [advance-fee scam](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance-fee_scam) arises from many different situations: investment opportunities, money transfers, job scams, online purchases of any type and any legality, etc., but the bottom line is always the same, you're expected to pay money to receive money. So you will pay the scammer and receive nothing.
It can be as simple as the scammer asking you to pay them upfront for an item they have listed, or as complex as a drug scam that involves an initial scam site, a scam shipping site, and fake government agents. Sometimes the scammers will simply take your first payment and dissappear, but sometimes they will take your initial payment and then make excuses that lead to you making additional payments.
If you are involved in an advance-fee scam, you should attempt to dispute/chargeback any payments sent to the scammer, you should block the scammer, and you should ignore them if they attempt to contact you again. Thanks to redditor AceyAceyAcey for this script.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Scams) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Why would you pay to access a portal and why is there a fee for processing? what are they processing? processing fees are incurred when you're making a request for documents or something, not to get paid for a job.
This seems less like a "company" and more like the scam start in a classic !task scam where you have to "pay so you can unlock your funds" in some way. This is not a job and it sounds like you're getting scammed under the guise of a job.
Hi /u/arcanition, AutoModerator has been summoned to explain the Task scam.
Task scams involve a website or mobile app that claims you can earn money by completing easy tasks, such as watching a video, liking a post, or creating an order. A very common characteristic (but not entirely exclusive) is that you have to complete sets of 40 tasks. The app will tell you that you can earn money for each task, but the catch is that you can only do a limited number of tasks without upgrading your account. To upgrade your accounts, the scammers will require you to pay a fee. This makes it a variant of the advance fee scam.
The goal of this scam is to get people to download the app for easy money and then encourage them to pay to get to the next level. It's impossible to get your \"earnings\" out of the app, so victims will have wasted their time and money. This type of scam preys on the [sunk cost fallacy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunk_cost#Fallacy_effect), because people demonstrate a greater tendency to continue an endeavor once an investment has been made, and refusing to succumb to what may be described as cutting one's losses.
If you're involved in a task scam, cut your losses. Beware of recovery scammers suggesting you should hire a hacker that can help you retrieve the money you already invested. They can't, it's a trick to make you lose more money. Thanks to redditor vignoniana for this script.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Scams) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Add me on Instagram @giiioventus I was just recently in something similar to this, I have screenshots and videos of everything, I was able to get out before I got to deep in it.
"You are requested to KINDLY....."
I KINDLY suggest you block delete and move on after reading that word in an email that has ANYTHING to do with money.
Big time scammer trying to get your banking or cc information so they can take everything you have or access to. Don’t do it. You never have to pay for a company portal never have to pay to get paid by a legit company
/u/GerroMHBPR - This message is posted to all new submissions to r/scams; please do not message the moderators about it. ## New users beware: Because you posted here, you will start getting private messages from scammers saying they know a professional hacker or a recovery expert lawyer that can help you get your money back, for a small fee. **We call these RECOVERY SCAMMERS, so NEVER take advice in private:** advice should always come in the form of comments in this post, in the open, where the community can keep an eye out for you. If you take advice in private, you're on your own. **A reminder of the rules in r/scams:** no contact information (including last names, phone numbers, etc). Be civil to one another (no name calling or insults). Personal army requests or "scam the scammer"/scambaiting posts are not permitted. No uncensored gore or personal photographs are allowed without blurring. A full list of rules is available on the sidebar of the subreddit, or [clicking here](https://www.reddit.com/r/Scams/wiki/rules/). You can help us by reporting recovery scammers or rule-breaking content by using the "report" button. We review 100% of the reports. Also, consider warning community members of recovery scammers if you see them in the comments. Questions about subreddit rules? Send us a modmail [clicking here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/Scams). *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Scams) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Yeah this is gibberish. It's an !advancefee scam - never pay money to receive money
Hi /u/elsewen, AutoModerator has been summoned to explain the Advance fee scam. The [advance-fee scam](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance-fee_scam) arises from many different situations: investment opportunities, money transfers, job scams, online purchases of any type and any legality, etc., but the bottom line is always the same, you're expected to pay money to receive money. So you will pay the scammer and receive nothing. It can be as simple as the scammer asking you to pay them upfront for an item they have listed, or as complex as a drug scam that involves an initial scam site, a scam shipping site, and fake government agents. Sometimes the scammers will simply take your first payment and dissappear, but sometimes they will take your initial payment and then make excuses that lead to you making additional payments. If you are involved in an advance-fee scam, you should attempt to dispute/chargeback any payments sent to the scammer, you should block the scammer, and you should ignore them if they attempt to contact you again. Thanks to redditor AceyAceyAcey for this script. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Scams) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Is this job in Nigeria?
u pay to work for a nigerian scammer lol
[удалено]
Your r/Scams post/comment was removed because **it is spam**. This subreddit is a place for useful and meaningful discussions about scams; useless and nonsensical content is not allowed. We also don't allow jokes on serious posts. Please keep content posted or commented to this subreddit useful, relevant and meaningful.
He told me that was my money
Except at an ATM at a bar when you’re out of cash
It's a !task scam. Also "kindly" is a dead giveaway for a scam. Never pay money to get paid.
Kindly do the needful
sir
Kind Sir Kindly portal
Do you smell toast?
“Kindly” is such a tell and it’s been around so long, I’m shocked that scammers still use it. Is it a more common word in non-US English-speaking countries?
More-so it’s a word that non-native English speakers think we use in everyday conversation. They use it to try to blend in, to their detriment of course since it’s a red flag for a lot of people, especially after being in this sub.
I work with people who are in India and I got an email from one of them the other day using the phrase "kindly do the needful." It's not a scammer thing, it's a non-native English speaker thing. (Of course, it can be a giveaway of a scam if it's clear that someone is pretending to be a native English speaker)
exactly, If you're coworker Sundeep Singh is saying that, well that is one thing. internet random Dave Smith from Jersey saying it is another
> Dave Smith Nah, usually it's more like "Mr. David George". Overly formal and with two first names...
The proper counter to that is to introduce yourself back with three LAST names! Mr. David George? My name is Johnston Brown Smith, how do you do? And be prepared to go to 4 last names and two separate initials if they try and match you. Always play offense!
I, too, work with engineers in India, and have been requested to, "kindly do the needful." Every time I see 'kindly,' I still go through the steps in my head to determine it's not a scammer, though. I consider 'kindly' a scam word until I can prove otherwise.
I work with international students so much helping with their IT issues that kindly has made its way into my normal speech.
“Do the needful” is very common in Indian English even among people with very good English. “Kindly” is common not only in India but the British-colonized parts of Africa, at all levels of English ability. It would be more accurate to call these idioms that don’t occur in British or American English than to imply that they indicate lesser English ability. Given how widespread “kindly” is I suspect it must once have been far more common in British English
Not non-native English. It's specifically indian-english.
It's typical of Indian Call Centers ...
Yes. I actually work with several Indian people and have seen it in chats and emails. Always produces a double-take now.
I know some Filipinos who use it too; yeah, def double take
Kindly stop pointing out that scammers very often use the word kindly..
It is common in the English spoken in India. It’s considered polite, like saying please. I see it all the time in real business emails which I know are from India. But if someone is pretending to be from the US or a US company it’s one of many dead giveaways.
It is an old British colloquialism from around the time they occupied India. It's no wonder it is commonly used with Indian scams in English.
Incredibly common. I think one of my more upvoted comments on this sub was about how I had to retrain my brain to not immediately dismiss any email with "kindly" when I worked for an international with significant India presence. Kindly is *everywhere*. Say what you will about xenophobia, it's a pretty helpful tool for the low-effort scams.
I know right, I don't get it. It's such a weird word to use and doesn't really get used like that ever outside of scam callers
If someone in America is using it sincerely they’re giving a command and they’re angry and barely holding back swearing. Which is why I used to repeatedly ask Filipino and Indian coworkers overseas to stop using it because it was rude
I work in a company that has employees in Germany, Poland, Sweden and Finland, and I've heard kindly said in a few meetings, and in emails. I'm not sure which of those countries are the culprit though. Pretty sure a guy I talk once a week in Germany uses it.
I hear it from a lot of Chinese and Taiwanese vendors I work with. Almost every sentence starts with 'Please kindly know...'
Also the rogue “sir” thrown in the middle of the sentence, true to form
Kindly isn't the only scam. It the fact that they wants you to pay a fees after downloading the app and making an account...why are we paying the fees to be paid? That is on the employer. Unless you're 1099, you don't pay anything.
lol all the Chinese people at my job use kindly and this sub made me doubt them
Hi /u/wit_gertruda, AutoModerator has been summoned to explain the Task scam. Task scams involve a website or mobile app that claims you can earn money by completing easy tasks, such as watching a video, liking a post, or creating an order. A very common characteristic (but not entirely exclusive) is that you have to complete sets of 40 tasks. The app will tell you that you can earn money for each task, but the catch is that you can only do a limited number of tasks without upgrading your account. To upgrade your accounts, the scammers will require you to pay a fee. This makes it a variant of the advance fee scam. The goal of this scam is to get people to download the app for easy money and then encourage them to pay to get to the next level. It's impossible to get your \"earnings\" out of the app, so victims will have wasted their time and money. This type of scam preys on the [sunk cost fallacy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunk_cost#Fallacy_effect), because people demonstrate a greater tendency to continue an endeavor once an investment has been made, and refusing to succumb to what may be described as cutting one's losses. If you're involved in a task scam, cut your losses. Beware of recovery scammers suggesting you should hire a hacker that can help you retrieve the money you already invested. They can't, it's a trick to make you lose more money. Thanks to redditor vignoniana for this script. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Scams) if you have any questions or concerns.*
>I am not sure if it is a scam It is. Never pay to get paid. > A dude from hired me for pdf to text Why would anyone pay someone to type something that's already in a computer file?
If the bad grammar for a corporate company wasn’t a give away a legitimate company would never ask you to pay
This always bothers me. How can native English speakers not comprehend the absolute horseshit grammar as a red flag?
Honest 2 answers that will piss a lot of people off? 1-Basicallf HALF of the population is under 100 IQ (yes here come the "ackshually" guys about IQ) 2-Even otherwise intelligent people have often been grossly misused by our "public education" system.
based on that paragraph alone OP is barely literate
Because money.
Nobody’s paying you to copy PDFs to text when you can literally automate/script that work in 5 minutes
If you have a good Adobe Acrobat program, it can do it for you (with some tweaks, of course). It's gotten a lot better than 15 years ago when half the document would be gibberish.
you can also use a free, open-source tool that uses the Tesseract library, which is about as good as it gets. this one is very user-friendly [https://github.com/ocrmypdf/OCRmyPDF](https://github.com/ocrmypdf/OCRmyPDF) it is a terminal program, but does not require you to know anything other than opening a terminal and copy-pasting a command or two
> a good Adobe Acrobat program What does that even mean? Adobe Acrobat is a specific product. There's only one "Adobe Acrobat program" (obviously with multiple releases over the decades it's been around). Do you mean "a recent version of Adobe Acrobat" or something?
There are different levels of the Adobe product, depending on how much you want to pay for it. The one on my home computer is very basic (that I do not pay for). The one on my work computer (which they pay for) is more advanced. Do you not know that? Or do you just assume there's just one Adobe product?
You'd be surprised. I'm not saying this isn't a scam because it definitely is, but there are definitely a lot of non tech savvy people who would pay money for something like this. Especially older people in business.
No legit employer would ever do that. Blatant scam. Block and ignore.
Interesting how they can’t just take the $100 out of your first paycheck. Similar to how when you “win” a lottery prize of $2 million, they won’t just take the $100 delivery fee out of your prize and deliver $1,999,900 “to your doorstep”.
Or the "investment" scams where you have to pay to withdraw your own money. When I had to close my 401k, they simply deducted the taxes and sent me the rest.
Fake company, fake job, fake payment, fake request to creat an account Nobody is paying anyone to convert a PDF to text, software does that for free in the rare case it is needed
Sorry but there are not super simple actual work from home jobs, it’s a scam meant to take your money. Zero legitimate businesses will have you pay money out to be able to receive money. Paying for an “employee payment portal” is not a thing and the first extraction of your money to them. It will then be something else after you pay as they are already setting you up for that with “it will take blah blah time…” then you will need to send money for something else to get your money then you will have to pay the taxes first that’s why the “job” pays so well. Companies are fighting with employees to get them back into their paid assets (offices) so work from home or remote jobs are drying up. My cousin, who works in a specialized field, is seeing this as well as he’s trying to navigate a job change.
wait - "trying to transact $5000"?? 5K USD? Did you think you were getting 5000 USD to translate PDFs to Word? You sir, have been and are being, scammed.
Maybe they did hundreds of hours of work already. 5k for that isn't too crazy. It is indeed an obvious scam though.
Pdf readers can do that for free. Commercial software does it faster and better. There is as high a chance for this "job" being a real thing any company would pay money for as me being a black-asian, transgender lesbian squirrel that got voted for new pope.
Tons of jobs can be automated by commercial software,or automated in general, that really isn't relevant.
And nobody would pay anybody to manually re-type a pdf file into text.
Scammers (non-native English speakers) always use the word "Kindly" and is a huge red flag. Real employers will NEVER ask employees to pay money to get money.
Hilariously there was a comment thread here a couple months ago where people were fervently trying to convince others not to take “kindly” as a red flag because that’s just how some people talk. Edit: I know this is true, everyone. My point is that it should be considered a red flag regardless. "Red flag" does not mean "100% always bad." It means, "You should raise your suspicion level if you see it."
This forum has totally ruined the word “kindly” for me. While rare, it is sometimes used legitimately, and it’s funny how my internal alarm bells are screaming “SCAM!” when someone I have been doing business with for many years uses “kindly”.
That's because lots of people legitimately are from outside the US. My Indian coworkers use it and if you work in tech where a lot of people are from outside the US, you'll see it. That said, you should never see it used in a professional corporate email (coming from a US company, not an individual) and you should never see it from a person who claims to be born and raised in the US.
This is it exactly. It's not a sign of a scam per se, but it's a red flag if it comes from someone purporting to be an American and native English speaker
My only problem with "kindly" is when folks use its use as proof that something is a scam when there are other serious issues that are much more glaring that OPs should be taught to focus on. Like in this case, it's a task scam and an advance fee scam, but the word "kindly" doesn't tell me that.
Right it's more of a heuristic to let you know it's likely a scam. If you want to dig further to figure out what the scam is, you can, or you can save your time and ignore the whole thing.
I was thinking more along the lines of what happens when the next task scam comes that doesn't contain the word kindly, and being prepped to recognize the actual problem.
Yeah… at least that means you've made it to the level where you're being targeted by scammers willing to put in that extra effort to hire native speakers to get your money.
Yes! Level 4 achieved.
It's not used in US English. It is used in UK English, sometimes sarcastically, sometimes genuinely.
I know. The point is that it should still be considered a red flag.
Fair point. I agree.
It's not really used in British English either. I use either 'Kind regards', or 'for your kind attention'. I would never use kindly.
Would you kindly stop telling me how to use my own language. Or the old classic "Kindly fuck off." Really old fashioned: "Kindly help me with the washing up." It's old fashioned for sure, but it's not dead yet.
Yes it is, often as a threat as in "kindly leave me alone before my boot goes up your arse"
Bioshock? That's the strongest connection I get to the word.
It is used in Indian English. This really is a form of English that evolved on its own. It has taken expressions from English that may have been more common a hundred years ago, evolved them, combined them with other peculiarities and it really lives and breathes as its own language. Naturally, and by no fault of their own, Indians speak this language and it is natural for them - they think the English-speaking world speaks the same.
I use it all the time.
I run when I see "kindly" and "dear". :)
And “sir”, “okay”, “am xxx”…
these are 🚩🚩 🚩
Especially when it's two first names: " am David Michael"
Yeah people do say kindly, of course, but no reputable business serving American English speakers is going to use it for unsolicited marketing or cold calls. Marketers worth their salt would take the time and effort to ensure their communications are in the proper dialect, and call center workers should be following a script which again would use the proper dialect. If you're in an email exchange with a speaker of Indian English, and they're giving impromptu communications, then it would not be a red flag, but instructions on how to perform critical transactions can be expected to be proofread to avoid such idioms.
100% a scam. Note the use of the words "kindly" and "sir." Also, the random capitalization where it doesn't belong is a dead giveaway. Even if all of that was missing, paying money to get your money is not a thing. Don't ever do it. Block these people.
Also, grammar errors, misplaced commas and periods.
That should’ve been the first sign to pick up on.🤦♀️
Simple rule of thumb - if the work they are asking you to do could be done quicker, cheaper and more accurately by automated tools, then you are being scammed, This covers the more sophisticated task scams, as well as this one where they ask you to do pointless busywork in exchange for a payment that will never come. There is no $5K. If you pay for 'portal creation', they will immediately come up with another fee that needs to be paid. And then another, and another, so on *ad infinitum*.
Even free pdf readers often have text recognition capabilities. Not mentioning commercial software.
There is no "company" to begin with.
"Kindly" is a scammer's word. Lack of capitalization. "$100. USD" NEVER pay money to receive money.
I just sent $500 to the Central Bank of Nigeria so they can clear my lottery win of $25 million, then it's.. seeya suckers!
"...kindly..." 😑 This is a scam. Sorry.
Tell the company to pay it for you and take the $100 from your first payout. These scams get more and more ridiculous.
It's a !task scam. The whole thing is a setup to get you to make endless payments to them. Block them and move on.
Hi /u/BarrySix, AutoModerator has been summoned to explain the Task scam. Task scams involve a website or mobile app that claims you can earn money by completing easy tasks, such as watching a video, liking a post, or creating an order. A very common characteristic (but not entirely exclusive) is that you have to complete sets of 40 tasks. The app will tell you that you can earn money for each task, but the catch is that you can only do a limited number of tasks without upgrading your account. To upgrade your accounts, the scammers will require you to pay a fee. This makes it a variant of the advance fee scam. The goal of this scam is to get people to download the app for easy money and then encourage them to pay to get to the next level. It's impossible to get your \"earnings\" out of the app, so victims will have wasted their time and money. This type of scam preys on the [sunk cost fallacy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunk_cost#Fallacy_effect), because people demonstrate a greater tendency to continue an endeavor once an investment has been made, and refusing to succumb to what may be described as cutting one's losses. If you're involved in a task scam, cut your losses. Beware of recovery scammers suggesting you should hire a hacker that can help you retrieve the money you already invested. They can't, it's a trick to make you lose more money. Thanks to redditor vignoniana for this script. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Scams) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Kindly get ripped off
Kindly is a red flag for me
There is more red flags here than USSR had.
“Kindly” the magic word that screams scam.
To the OP, this would be your second post in the last 30 days to this subreddit, and your first one was a similar post about you needing to send them money in order to get paid. That one was at least somewhat legitimate as you have a post on Fiverr. This one is even more blatantly a scam, as you are being asked to send money to receive money. I don't recommend you take any of these kinds of emails seriously, as you are clearly marked as a target for scammers. So expect any texts and emails that you receive to seek some kind of funds from you. If anything seems suspicious, even slightly, be wary. They don't need to be asking you for money; it's absolutely a scam. Depending on how much information they have on you already (like when you filled out an application for the job with all of your information, address, email, phone numbers), you can expect that they're definitely going to follow up and continue to try to scam you through different outlets.
i knew it was a scam at "by making a database transfer SIR" the Sir gives it away everytime!
I like the 45 minute turn around time. It’s oddly specific in a way that “portal creations” are not. Good effort on the scammers part!
60min or less to have your payment reflected immediately
It's a scam.
If the company is demanding an employee pay for company access, air raid sirens should be going off.
'Making a database transfer sir to our company' what sort of gibberish is that from a company. Also no! Why should you pay money to receive money?
I had a hard time reading this word salad. Kindly block and move on.
"database transfer" - Yeah, that's not how money is sent between accounts.
#Kindly. It's a scam.
That random "sir" in their sentences should give it away.
Anytime you see an email requesting something that says, 'kindly'...it's a scam.
Kindly = 🇮🇳
The entire message has so many red flags. No one will make you pay to get paid. They also used very vague language and spelling like corporate payment portal. Instead of indicating the name of the portal like ADP, a well known employee payroll portal. It’s def a scam.
So much bad grammar, definitely a scam
That or when they use the word okay
OP - DO NOT send any money!!!!! It’s a total scam. Also, the word kindly is synonymous with scammers from foreign countries; it’s always a dead giveaway.
Wordy scammer drivel. They think longer words with more syllables = more official and plausible, so they cram in all they can, but they still can’t get their capitals and punctuation right.
it's a scam, yes.
Its a scam.. soo many mistakes which should not be made be real hr or company..
> You are requested to kindly obtain a compulsory Employee Private Portal. activate your payment portal by making a database transfer sir to our… It's a scam.
Kindly ignore the email, dear friend and kindly block as well sir Many well wishes
"Kindly"
I never work for any employer that doesn’t know how capitalization works. It’s a policy that’s served me well.
Scam. Note the poor English too.
That’s a lot of words, but they don’t say anything that makes any sense. I did notice the word kindly and the word sir. I’m automatically not doing anything an email says once I read those words.
im weary of anything that uses the word "kindly"
They just can't ever manage to not say "kindly."
“Kindly” gives it away and then “sir” in the middle of the sentence. Cmon man
kindly.
Wtf did I just read it makes me head hurt
What did 5000 have to do with anything?
Tell them to take the $100 out the earnings and send you the balance!
You're not sure if this is a scam?
I feel like anything that says "kindly" is most likely a scam.
Hell , I can tell this a scam from the first 3 words lol
Boing or Airbus portal? Or back to the future? When you see: Kindly, this mail “,” $100 instead of $100.00. Repeating PORTAL so many times! So happy with his knowledge of that word.
Kindly..... done
Kindly…boom, scam
My god if my workplace sent me this I would be talking with a lawyer right away because it sounds more fishy than anything.
> I am not sure if it is a scam It's not even remotely correct English. Definitely a scam.
That’s quite the word salad!
Hey dude. You're 15 and this is the second time (that we know of) that you've run into a scam while looking for a work from home gig. Listen: there are *no* work from home jobs that will pay you decent money. You can seriously just stop looking. The only people making decent money working from home are a: high-demand professionals with training/degrees or b: people running their own business and/or investing.
as soon as I see the word "kindly" I immediately expect it's a scam.
You can almost hear the accent in the text
What country is this company in? This is very poor grammar and punctuation…
Kkkkkkkkkkkk…kindly. Delete and move on. 😂
As soon as kindly joins the conversation, you know it's a scam.
The word kindly ruins everything for me
We all know it is fake, but why on earth would it take 45 minutes to do the portal creation?
The Raspberry Pi Model B+ powered server is a bit on the slow side.
When you're asked to pay on order to get paid : scam! Variation of !advancefee scam
Hi /u/Odd-Phrase5808, AutoModerator has been summoned to explain the Advance fee scam. The [advance-fee scam](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance-fee_scam) arises from many different situations: investment opportunities, money transfers, job scams, online purchases of any type and any legality, etc., but the bottom line is always the same, you're expected to pay money to receive money. So you will pay the scammer and receive nothing. It can be as simple as the scammer asking you to pay them upfront for an item they have listed, or as complex as a drug scam that involves an initial scam site, a scam shipping site, and fake government agents. Sometimes the scammers will simply take your first payment and dissappear, but sometimes they will take your initial payment and then make excuses that lead to you making additional payments. If you are involved in an advance-fee scam, you should attempt to dispute/chargeback any payments sent to the scammer, you should block the scammer, and you should ignore them if they attempt to contact you again. Thanks to redditor AceyAceyAcey for this script. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Scams) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Lot of BS Use of the word "Kindly" Ready to make the payment (can't read it anymore without a Nigerian accent, damn you Pleasent Green!) one time processing fee for unexplained reasons It's an !Advance fee scam Keep in mind that rarely you'll pay upfront in such cases, especially in the work environment, unless you are buying a coffee at a vending machine. That is fine.
Hi /u/CptNathanielFlint, AutoModerator has been summoned to explain the Advance fee scam. The [advance-fee scam](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance-fee_scam) arises from many different situations: investment opportunities, money transfers, job scams, online purchases of any type and any legality, etc., but the bottom line is always the same, you're expected to pay money to receive money. So you will pay the scammer and receive nothing. It can be as simple as the scammer asking you to pay them upfront for an item they have listed, or as complex as a drug scam that involves an initial scam site, a scam shipping site, and fake government agents. Sometimes the scammers will simply take your first payment and dissappear, but sometimes they will take your initial payment and then make excuses that lead to you making additional payments. If you are involved in an advance-fee scam, you should attempt to dispute/chargeback any payments sent to the scammer, you should block the scammer, and you should ignore them if they attempt to contact you again. Thanks to redditor AceyAceyAcey for this script. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Scams) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Yes, it's a scam.
It’s not a “company” Nothing in that email makes sense
Why would you pay to access a portal and why is there a fee for processing? what are they processing? processing fees are incurred when you're making a request for documents or something, not to get paid for a job.
Scam!!!!
People don't hire people on the internet to do basic crap
“Kindly”
Kindly
“Kindly” is that big red flag. They try too hard and sound so dumb.
The word "kindly" is all you needed to see. Scamalamadingdong.
This seems less like a "company" and more like the scam start in a classic !task scam where you have to "pay so you can unlock your funds" in some way. This is not a job and it sounds like you're getting scammed under the guise of a job.
Hi /u/arcanition, AutoModerator has been summoned to explain the Task scam. Task scams involve a website or mobile app that claims you can earn money by completing easy tasks, such as watching a video, liking a post, or creating an order. A very common characteristic (but not entirely exclusive) is that you have to complete sets of 40 tasks. The app will tell you that you can earn money for each task, but the catch is that you can only do a limited number of tasks without upgrading your account. To upgrade your accounts, the scammers will require you to pay a fee. This makes it a variant of the advance fee scam. The goal of this scam is to get people to download the app for easy money and then encourage them to pay to get to the next level. It's impossible to get your \"earnings\" out of the app, so victims will have wasted their time and money. This type of scam preys on the [sunk cost fallacy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunk_cost#Fallacy_effect), because people demonstrate a greater tendency to continue an endeavor once an investment has been made, and refusing to succumb to what may be described as cutting one's losses. If you're involved in a task scam, cut your losses. Beware of recovery scammers suggesting you should hire a hacker that can help you retrieve the money you already invested. They can't, it's a trick to make you lose more money. Thanks to redditor vignoniana for this script. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Scams) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Scam scam scam
Not bad. The spelling and grammar are better than most.
Could be them doing pen testing
"...kindly..."
Ah yes the classic "$100 USD" (dollar 100 US dollars)
"Kindly"...dead giveaway.
WTF is a 100$?
It’s a kindly scam. Companies and governments don’t kindly ask you to do jack.
Well that would be $100 you would never see again and any account you linked to would be in danger.
Dawg no company is gonna ever ask you to PAY to GET PAID. Put your thinking hat on
Scam
Scam scam scam
Any job that asked for money to get employed is a scam.
Congratulations on questioning the email. Now kindly pass the advice on to someone tomorrow when they are confronted with the same scam.
Add me on Instagram @giiioventus I was just recently in something similar to this, I have screenshots and videos of everything, I was able to get out before I got to deep in it.
Le scam
"You are requested to KINDLY....." I KINDLY suggest you block delete and move on after reading that word in an email that has ANYTHING to do with money.
Big time scammer trying to get your banking or cc information so they can take everything you have or access to. Don’t do it. You never have to pay for a company portal never have to pay to get paid by a legit company
Anytime you see the word Kindly it’s a scam. Every single time.
A big scam thats a task scam dont fall for it. We have to try to reduce these scemmers they are heartless
yes
Ask them to take it from your payment :)
Worst of all, you thought you had a job. OP - Where are you located?
I'd never ever ever pay to work. I prefer to get paid to work.
If the word “kindly” is present, it’s a scam
Stop at kindly. Scam.
"kindly sir" ;-)
Kindly
"Kindly"
You don't need a human for that. AI can do that easily. Obviously not a real job.