GOT SCAMMED WORKING AS AS TRASLATOR

So I just started an account on freelancer.com. I registered as a freelancer translator. I start throwing out proposals and got a reply shortly after. The guy asked me to contact him via telegram. I added him, and he started the conversation by asking where am I located. I told him I'm in Ohio, US. He then finally started to talk about the project. He claims to be from Halifax Public Library (the biggest library in Nova Scotia, Canada) and he wrote long text introducing the library. He sends me a 30-page book to translate into Chinese. I finished the work within 3 days. Now comes the scam:

He sent me a link asking me to register and he will pay me via that link. The link seems to be an online banking platform call Real Rise Commercial Bank. I registered, and the payment was received shortly after. However, the money in the account seems to be unable to withdraw. I contacted their customer service, and they asked me to pay $100 dollars to upgrade my account first. And the funny thing is that they don't take debit card, they only take Zelle and Venmo. I felt very sketchy at this point, but I wanted to get paid so badly, and I zelle him that $100. After that, I check the portal, my withdrawal is still pending. However, there was a $100 addition into my Real Rise Bank Protal. It was listed as refundable fee. I asked the customer service again, and they said I need to pay another $250 for KYC Verification. Again, so sketchy, but I want to get pay.... And again, there was a $250 addition to my Real Rise Account listed as refundable fee. After that, he said my account requires maintenance, fee $750. I finally stopped....

I looked up Halifax Public Library last night, and realized that the long text he sent me introducing the library was copy and pasted from Wikipedia. I called the library this morning, and they said they never posted translation jobs online. They only work with translators within the company. Obviously, I got scammed hard, worked my ass off for three days, didn't get paid and loss $350.

I am just dead inside rn, someone plz give me some advise.

submitted by /u/Official_KangChe
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source https://www.reddit.com/r/beermoney/comments/11vz16f/got_scammed_working_as_as_traslator/