Translation scam by fake id
Thread poster: Kamran Nadeem
Kamran Nadeem
Kamran Nadeem  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 02:29
Member (2005)
English to Urdu
+ ...
Dec 18, 2012

Dear Colleges,

I want to share this scam with other colleagues and professionals to have their expert opinion on this matter. Someone is using my name and profile i.e. Kamran Nadeem to cheat the translators. This person has made a fake id of my name and translation agency on gmail, the email this person uses is [email protected]. This person contacts the linguists with that fake ID and send them with the
... See more
Dear Colleges,

I want to share this scam with other colleagues and professionals to have their expert opinion on this matter. Someone is using my name and profile i.e. Kamran Nadeem to cheat the translators. This person has made a fake id of my name and translation agency on gmail, the email this person uses is [email protected]. This person contacts the linguists with that fake ID and send them with the link of my website www.industranslation.com and my blueboard http://www.proz.com/blueboard/7728 He/she has copied my signature form this website (I use to post the jobs) i.e.
Kamran Nadeem
(Production Manager)
Indus Translation Services
Phone 732-889-1490
Fax 732-204-0662
www.industranslation.com
http://www.proz.com/blueboard/7728

This person offers lucrative rates of translation and gets the translation done from linguists and never pays them. When linguists demand for the payment, he/she never replies to their emails. Then translators contact me from my website or my profile on proZ.com or other forums for the payment. Till now more than 10 incidents have been reported to me in which this person has cheated the linguists. I always advice linguists to be very careful while accepting the jobs and verify that the job forwarding email is sent by company's corporate email like mine is
[email protected]. But most of the linguists are not so much vigilant while accepting the jobs and get cheated. I have all my sympathies to these linguists who work hard and never get paid. I have reported this incident with ATA, proZ.com and other translators’ forums in February 2012. I have mentioned this fact on my profile as well. But this is an unstopping phenomenon; recently I have received two more complaint about this cheater, one from a Russian translator in Russia and other from a Korean translator in Canada. This person has copied the logo and other information of my company from my website and copied it on a word document to use as a sample of Purchase Order.

I want the opinion of experts and profession to suggest the way we can stop this person from all this cheating. Is there any help available to stop these kinds of online crimes? Also where do I need to report this matter? As this is a case which involves Phishing, ID theft and misrepresentation.


Kamran Nadeem
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OG Pete
OG Pete  Identity Verified
United States
Russian to English
+ ...
Confirmation Codes Dec 18, 2012

I am thinking about contingency plans to counteract such unfortunate situations.

For each PO, how about publishing a confirmation code (say a password or number) on a website or profile that you control? Or publically stating that all vendors must call you by phone for oral confirmation?

I am ignorant on this subject, but: could a PGP key system also be a solution? Are any of our colleagues already using such a system?


 
PAUL DUMASS CHINNAPPAN
PAUL DUMASS CHINNAPPAN  Identity Verified
India
Local time: 11:59
Arabic to English
+ ...
Purchase orders Dec 18, 2012

1. It would be wise to issue POs on your letter pad, duly signed and sealed. The PO can be sent as a PDF, so that the scammer doesn't imitate it.

2. Declare that your POs are sent only from your web-mail.

3. Ask the translator you have engaged to generate a six digit pin number and send by sms or mail. Use this pin to generate the Job ID adding another 6 digits to this pin. An sms should show the country of origin of the vendor / supplier.

The cost an an S
... See more
1. It would be wise to issue POs on your letter pad, duly signed and sealed. The PO can be sent as a PDF, so that the scammer doesn't imitate it.

2. Declare that your POs are sent only from your web-mail.

3. Ask the translator you have engaged to generate a six digit pin number and send by sms or mail. Use this pin to generate the Job ID adding another 6 digits to this pin. An sms should show the country of origin of the vendor / supplier.

The cost an an SMS is worth the trouble than losing 100s of $.

Hope it helps!

Paul
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Enrique Cavalitto
Enrique Cavalitto  Identity Verified
Argentina
Local time: 03:29
Member (2006)
English to Spanish
Some basic risk management Dec 18, 2012

Kamran Nadeem wrote:

Someone is using my name and profile i.e. Kamran Nadeem to cheat the translators. This person has made a fake id of my name and translation agency on gmail, the email this person uses is [email protected]. This person contacts the linguists with that fake ID and send them with the link of my website www.industranslation.com and my blueboard http://www.proz.com/blueboard/7728


Some basic risk management would keep translators safe from this particular scam, without the need of any new technology.

Please note that the scammer sends the translators to the blueboard record http://www.proz.com/blueboard/7728 where the following message is on display since March 15, 2012:



Also, it is unwise to trust a corporate client writing from a free email address, as a company with web page http://www.industranslation.com/ should have email addresses with the domain @industranslation.com

The outsourcer could help here by adding this information to the "Contact us" section of the web page, at least with a generic address such as [email protected] (no email address indicated in the web page).

Kind regards,
Enrique


 
Jeff Whittaker
Jeff Whittaker  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 02:29
Member (2002)
Spanish to English
+ ...
For this particular scammer, I suggest you try this: Dec 18, 2012

Create your own free generic-sounding e-mail account (vandalayindustries@... etc.) and use some of the information you have from some of the translators (language pair, company ordering the translation, etc.) to send the scammer an e-mail at their gmail account thanking them for the excellent translation work and asking where you can send payment (you cannot do paypal and need to send a physical check). It is urgent for you get all payments out before the close of the business year because your ... See more
Create your own free generic-sounding e-mail account (vandalayindustries@... etc.) and use some of the information you have from some of the translators (language pair, company ordering the translation, etc.) to send the scammer an e-mail at their gmail account thanking them for the excellent translation work and asking where you can send payment (you cannot do paypal and need to send a physical check). It is urgent for you get all payments out before the close of the business year because your company will be restructuring at the start of next year. Otherwise, payments may be delayed by up to six months.

If you are lucky, you can get this person's real name and address and then write to them again to cease and desist.


[Edited at 2012-12-18 22:12 GMT]
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Thayenga
Thayenga  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 07:29
Member (2009)
English to German
+ ...
Excellent Dec 19, 2012

Jeff Whittaker wrote:

Create your own free generic-sounding e-mail account (vandalayindustries@... etc.) and use some of the information you have from some of the translators (language pair, company ordering the translation, etc.) to send the scammer an e-mail at their gmail account thanking them for the excellent translation work and asking where you can send payment (you cannot do paypal and need to send a physical check). It is urgent for you get all payments out before the close of the business year because your company will be restructuring at the start of next year. Otherwise, payments may be delayed by up to six months.

If you are lucky, you can get this person's real name and address and then write to them again to cease and desist.


[Edited at 2012-12-18 22:12 GMT]


That's a great idea, Jeff. Since scammer is a synonym for greed, they will sure accept this unexpected payment.


 
Ekaterina Kroumova
Ekaterina Kroumova  Identity Verified
French to Bulgarian
+ ...
Unless they are alert enough to read this forum Dec 19, 2012

That's a great idea, Jeff. Since scammer is a synonym for greed, they will sure accept this unexpected payment.


... Unless they are alert enough to read this forum.


 
Kamran Nadeem
Kamran Nadeem  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 02:29
Member (2005)
English to Urdu
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Jeff's Idea Dec 19, 2012

I think Jeff's idea is good and I will try it.

 


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Translation scam by fake id







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