I found this writing company on craigslist advertising they needed writers/researchers to do translations, research papers, business papers, etc. I repsonded and they called me that day to begin writing.
The first project I did was a korean translations test. I also wrote a 20 page research paper, created a pdf business presentation, as well as several other papers. I did $500 worth of writing that week before Christmas to try and make rent money before heading home for the holidays. When I asked about pay, the contact person aka "Tommy Catrillo" told me it was procedure to wait one month until the first paycheck.
After that, each time I called asking for "Tommy Catrilo" I was automatically hung up on, my emails were never responded to, and the one time I did get through to "Tommy" by using another person's phone, he told me he would be pay me that day. (I recorded this call since I had the feeling this person was a fraud and that I may need to use this as evidence later on). I never heard from this person again, nor was I ever payed a dime.
I decided to do some investigating and figure out who "Tommy Catrillo" really was.
I was able to get the phone number of a client I had written for through the faxsheet that was emailed to me along with the writing project I originally did for this client.
The client himself was shocked that there was even a third party involved, but said that this person he spoke with had different names on the email he sent and the email that he used for his paypal account. The email name used was Bill Trihn, which matches the name associated with Touch Translations below: (http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/touch-translations-services-c319974.html)
The paypal name used was different, so I plugged it in on facebook and was able to find a 20 yr. old student named Brandon whom informed me that he too was a former-employee of the same person. He says the guy uses aliases like Tommy Catrillo, but that his real name is DAVID CHANG and he runs Touch Translations Services, Plan 202, and Creative Publishing House (which was the original business name I was given, but of course there is no info for this business online since he uses the real business name, Touch Translations, with his clients).
This is Brandon's response to me:
 Brandon Yee to me |
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show details Mar 15 (8 days ago) |
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Hi, I understand your concern, but I believe you are contacting the wrong person. I am not in charge of paying you. The person you should be contacting is David Chang. He is the owner and boss of whichever service you provided for him. His three businesses are Touch Translation Services, Plan 202 and Creative Publishing House based out of San Francisco. His address is 422 17th Ave., SF CA 94118. I am a former employee of his as well and he was using my paypal account. I figured he was going to deposit money into this account for my pay but he was using this account as if it was his own. I will try with the best of my abilities to have your problem and my problem resolved because he hasn't paid me yet as well. When he has, the check bounced. If you want to contact him directly you can find him at the numbers 415-525-0338 or 415-867-3755. Thank you and all further e-mails regarding your pay should be directed towards
contact@plan202.com,
contact@touchtranslations.com Again, my name is Brandon, yes I am listed on the Paypal account but you should be contacting David Chang. "
Brandon also directed me to YELP.com (http://www.yelp.com/biz/touch-translation-services-san-francisco-2) where I came across several other disgruntled past "employees" that were scammed on the internet by this person of many names, each with the same story, found this job on the internet and when time came to be payed they could not get through or they were treated like they were crazy for asking to be payed.
I contacted the email addresses Brandon provided me. One email to david chang's personal account responded to me with, "who the hell is this?!
you aren't even emailing the right person. if you have a problem call me or meet me"
The touch translations contact I was given, which matches the information below that I found on the internet, responded with, "
Re: attn: David Chang?
Hello Sarah,
Is this some sort of prank?
This business has no affiliation to any of the said people in the response below.
The only business we are affiliated to is World Touch Translations. This is a translation company.
Please check your sources again before e-mailing us.
Again, we are sorry to hear about your troubles. However, you are contacting the wrong business."
In their repsonse, they claim that the business has "no affiliation with any of the said people in my reponse" aka David Chang, but clearly through this bit of information I found online about Touch Translations, it was clearly started by David Chang:
"Touch Translations David Chang, Business Owner
Touch Translations was established in 2007 by owner, David Chang and specializes in Legal and Court Documents, Web Content, Business Documents, Government Documents, In-person Interpreters, Localization, ATA Certified Translations. What started out as merely a way to provide a service and steady work to international friends has since then expanded into a national service that aims to help business people cut cost while effectively communicating and marketing to the global market. Touch Translations currently employs native translators and interpreters nationwide in cities such as SF, LA, NY, SA, CH, SD, and more.
For inquiries, please e-mail: contact@touchtranslations.com
Or visit: http://www.touchtranslations.com/"
this info above was found at: http://www.sparkprogram.org/browse/see_who_is_involved_this_semester
I still have all of my email conversations with David. I also have emails from the client I contacted which link "Bill Trinh" and Touch Translations to this person David who is posing as Tommy Catrillo.
I also have emails from other disgruntled ex-employees who were scammed by David Chang. One person is a mother of two in South America who is helpless since she is overseas and all. Another person actually filed a small claims court case against David Chang and WON, which shows his history of scamming writers out of money.
There is also an article I found on him on this ripoffreport site: http://www.ripoffreport.com/Colleges-and-Universities/David-Chang/david-chang-scammed-students-b-m8727.htm
My biggest mistake in this situation is that I did not sign a business contract. This being my first professional writing job since graduating college, I did not know to do so, not to mention it all happened so quickly. I spent 2 weeks cramming in as many writing assignments as I could before Christmas that a contract was the last thing on my mind. BUT, I do strongly believe that I have an extensive amount of proof, research, contacts, and information to win my case in the court of law, not to mention the links to David Chang's known history for this sort of fraud and failure to pay employees.
There are also several of David Chang's linkedin accounts below. Of course I can not be certain that every one is associated with this particular David Chang, but when you use common sense, they all seem to coincide together consider that each of these accounts is linked to san francisco translations, writing, and research "businesses"
Ripoff Report on CBS 19
Ripoff Report on CBS 19 - Global Marketing Alliance
Ripoff Report on ABC 15 - Smart Shopper
Ripoff Report - Girls Gone Wild
Ripoff Report on Fox 11 - Car Repair
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