Invitation to share scam stories
Thread poster: Joanna Oseman
Joanna Oseman
Joanna Oseman  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 21:34
French to English
Jul 26, 2015

I am putting together materials with a view to developing an advice tool for people new to the freelance translation business. As someone who was scammed in the early days of my freelance career, I wish to address this issues in an informative and interesting manner. While my initial intended audience is newcomers to this field, we all know that this can affect anyone who does not do the necessary checks on potential clients...and even sometimes those that do.

I am interesting in he
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I am putting together materials with a view to developing an advice tool for people new to the freelance translation business. As someone who was scammed in the early days of my freelance career, I wish to address this issues in an informative and interesting manner. While my initial intended audience is newcomers to this field, we all know that this can affect anyone who does not do the necessary checks on potential clients...and even sometimes those that do.

I am interesting in hearing from people who have experienced some sort of translation scam or who have had narrow escapes due to diligent verification processes. Each concrete example I give will then be followed by suggested tips for avoiding such an occurrence.

Not everyone is willing to share such stories. I know that I was embarrassed when it happened to me and that's one of the reasons I want to do this. To show people that they are not alone and mustn't blame themselves. Sharing stories and advice is the best way make people aware of the telltale signs and to reduce scamming incidents.

I would appreciate hearing from anyone either in this forum thread or directly through email: [email protected]

I am happy to sharing selected stories anonymously if you prefer.

Thank you in advance!
Joanna Oseman
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Lincoln Hui
Lincoln Hui  Identity Verified
Hong Kong
Local time: 12:34
Member
Chinese to English
+ ...
Completely irrelevant, but Jul 26, 2015

I would just like to point out that your readers might not exactly parse your domain name the way you want them to.

[Edited at 2015-07-26 18:07 GMT]


 
Tony M
Tony M
France
Local time: 05:34
Member
French to English
+ ...
SITE LOCALIZER
Oh dear me yes! Jul 26, 2015

Lincoln Hui wrote:

I would just like to point out that your readers might not exactly parse your domain name the way you want them to.


Indeed... Oops!


 
Tony M
Tony M
France
Local time: 05:34
Member
French to English
+ ...
SITE LOCALIZER
Existing resources Jul 26, 2015

Joanna Oseman wrote:

I am putting together materials with a view to developing an advice tool for people new to the freelance translation business.


Congratulations on your initiative! It is always difficult to know just how to get this information to people early enough on, when there is already a great deal of information to take in. I have suggested in the past (but as far as I know it has never been implemented?) that all new members, when they sign up to ProZ.com, should be automatically directed to a scam-awareness page; maybe you could write a "How to...?" article along those lines that ProZ.com might be able to use.

Just wanted to say that there is a guy who has an off-ProZ.com list of known scammers, which i feel sure would be a useful resource, both for your own research, and also for linking to. I'm sorry, I can't remember his name (I think it was José soemthing...° but I feel sure a quick search in the forums ought to quickly throw it up.

Good luck, and do let us know how you get on!


 
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 04:34
Member (2007)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
Scammers directory Jul 26, 2015

There's already an excellent scammers directory, why create a new one?

http://www.translator-scammers.com/


 
Joanna Oseman
Joanna Oseman  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 21:34
French to English
TOPIC STARTER
one of many tools Jul 26, 2015

Teresa Borges wrote:

There's already an excellent scammers directory, why create a new one?

http://www.translator-scammers.com/


The intention isn't to create a new one but to point tools like this one out to new translators who may not realize they exist. There are lots of basic things a translator can do to vet a potential client, as I'm sure you know, but often new freelancers are so eager to get jobs that they may become easy targets for scammers.

I like Tony's idea about such a page being available on Proz for people as they join...


 
Natalie
Natalie  Identity Verified
Poland
Local time: 05:34
Member (2002)
English to Russian
+ ...

MODERATOR
SITE LOCALIZER
The page IS available Jul 26, 2015

Joanna Oseman wrote:
I like Tony's idea about such a page being available on Proz for people as they join...


http://www.proz.com/about/translator-scam-alerts/


 
Michael Beijer
Michael Beijer  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 04:34
Member (2009)
Dutch to English
+ ...
paymentpractices.net Jul 26, 2015

Teresa Borges wrote:

There's already an excellent scammers directory, why create a new one?

http://www.translator-scammers.com/


And don't forget this one: http://www.paymentpractices.net/ (which is also very, very good)

Michael


 
Liviu-Lee Roth
Liviu-Lee Roth
United States
Local time: 00:34
Romanian to English
+ ...
for fun Jul 26, 2015

X-Ray of a scam targeting translators.

I played along, and even received a fake check. (over-payment scam!)

See more
X-Ray of a scam targeting translators.

I played along, and even received a fake check. (over-payment scam!)

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/53344051/Dan%20Reyes%20Scam/Dan%20%20Reyes%20Scam.doc

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/53344051/Dan%20Reyes%20Scam/Reyes%20Scam-check.pdf
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João Roque Dias
João Roque Dias
Portugal
Local time: 04:34
English to Portuguese
Translator Scammers Directory Jul 27, 2015

«I am putting together materials with a view to developing an advice tool for people new to the freelance translation business.»

Like Teresa Borges pointed out: «There's already an excellent scammers directory, why create a new one?»

http://www.translator-scammers.com/

The Translator Scammers Directory isn't just a list of scammers' names and emails.

The "Info on Scamme
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«I am putting together materials with a view to developing an advice tool for people new to the freelance translation business.»

Like Teresa Borges pointed out: «There's already an excellent scammers directory, why create a new one?»

http://www.translator-scammers.com/

The Translator Scammers Directory isn't just a list of scammers' names and emails.

The "Info on Scammers", "FAQ" and "Tools" pages contain valuable info for translators willing to learn about the scammers operation and the ways to protect themselves from these criminals.
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Invitation to share scam stories







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