The Overpayment Scam That Left Me in Debt

As a freelance graphic designer, I often work with clients from all over the world. I’m used to handling payments through various platforms, and I’ve always been careful when dealing with new clients. But one day, I received an inquiry from what seemed like a promising client who needed a logo, website design, and branding materials. The project sounded legitimate, and I was excited to get started.

The client quickly approved my quote and sent me a payment. However, when the payment arrived, I noticed it was much more than we had agreed upon — several thousand dollars more. I immediately reached out to the client to inform them of the mistake. The client responded, apologizing for the error, and asked if I could refund the overpaid amount through a different payment method, since the original account they used was supposedly now inaccessible.

Although I had never dealt with such a situation before, I wanted to be helpful and avoid any issues. The payment had appeared in my account, so I refunded the excess amount as requested, thinking everything was fine. I continued to work on the project, but a few days later, I was hit with devastating news: the original payment was reversed. It turned out that the payment was fraudulent, and my account had been credited with fake funds.

I had already refunded the "overpayment," so now not only was I out the money I had returned, but the scammer disappeared, and I had no way of recovering what I lost. The bank informed me that I had been the victim of an overpayment scam, where scammers send fake payments and ask for the excess to be refunded before the fraud is detected. By the time the bank caught the scam, it was too late for me.

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