Around February 2025, I started reaching out as a freelancer in video editing or anything related to design. I was actively looking for work on freelance websites, Fiverr, and even on several Discord channels where people post creative gigs.
How It All Started
One night, maybe around 11:45, I got a DM on Discord. Some guy randomly offered me a “translation job” — English to Spanish. I didn’t even ask where he was from or for any proper details, but he asked about me and then told me to proceed by messaging someone on Telegram. I was like, why Telegram though? So I told him straight, ok bro, I can’t do that. Can you tell me if there’s any video editing or graphic design work instead?
After some time he sent me a number saying hey ask her, she has a video editing job and might offer it. I was like okay, and then he asked me to message her on WhatsApp. When I checked the number, the code was from a different country, not mine. That’s when something clicked in my head like wait, something’s off. So I asked him from which country, and he casually said it. Since he wasn’t from the same country as I am, I honestly felt like not proceeding at that point.
Just Not to Feel Regret
But just thinking for a few minutes I was like okay let’s proceed, if something feels off later we’ll back off. At least not to feel regret later thinking why I didn’t accept it. So I started proceeding and messaged her. She replied with a hey hi how are you and asked me for some basic details like name, country, age, all normal stuff. I told her, and then she sent me a raw video along with a few instructions to follow. All this went on till around 12:20 maybe. I asked her a few more things to understand what exactly she wanted, and then I started working on it. So now it’s 12:20 AM, not PM by the way.
I downloaded that raw video and edited it continuously, literally for 4 hours straight until 4 AM. I added music, voice over, everything she asked for. The whole time I had this thing in my mind that this is probably a scam. And yeah obviously I wasn’t expecting it to work, but like I said earlier, just did it not to feel regret later. I completed everything by around 4 AM and sent her the edited video.
After a few minutes maybe, she said that’s a great job. But still, in my head I was like yeah I know this is a scam. Then even before I asked about the payment, she brought it up herself. And now you know what happened next — she sent me another number, and this one was again from another country. I was like what the hell is going on now.
It Just Kept Getting Weirder
I messaged her and now she asked me to send all the details again. And then at the end she asked me for a photo. I sent all the details but obviously not the photo. Then I immediately asked her if I need to send my PayPal, but there was no reply for like 10 to 20 minutes. So I just slept at 4:30.
Woke up at 7:20 because I had an 8 AM class. Then I saw there was a message from her. She had sent me a link and said for payment you can proceed with this. That’s when I was like yes this is a freaking scam. I even checked if the link was vulnerable and all that stuff, and then I blocked and reported everyone — on Discord and on WhatsApp.
Video Editing Tips That Make You Edit Like Pro
So…
You might think I was dumb for accepting something like that, but at the end of the day we need money, right? So please be careful when you’re approaching people on different platforms. You know how these things work. If I had gone through that link, a fake Google login window would have popped up. It looks like a normal Google login, and you enter your email and password thinking it’s safe. But that password won’t be hashed, it’ll just be seen by them directly. And this is just one example — these scams are getting even smarter. So yeah, just be careful.
