| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | Who are these people sending me random translation requests? Thread poster: Rachel Braff
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Rachel Braff 
United States
Local time: 02:13
French to English
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TOPIC STARTER | I haven't gotten a "scam" impression. | Aug 26, 2015 |
I haven't really gotten the impression the e-mails I get (and it doesn't happen often anyway) are scammers, although obviously any talk of reimbursing them for an excessive check would make any reasonable person run the other way. I hadn't thought about that particular scam happening in a translation context, but I guess if you have imagination you can picture it in any context.
| | | | Rachel Braff
United States
Local time: 02:13
French to English
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TOPIC STARTER | Client Education | Aug 26, 2015 |
Parrot wrote:
I used to go along with "don't bother", but people told me early in the game that anything you can contribute to client education is appreciated.
[Edited at 2015-08-26 09:00 GMT]
That's a convincing reason to respond. I tend to feel like someone offering $0.02 a word for doing 4,000 words overnight doesn't even merit a response, but it's true that if everyone who got these responded stating their reasonable rates, it might do some good. It might not, but I guess it can't hurt. As it is, they're probably getting a few responses stating reasonable rates and a few responses from someone desperate enough to work at their rate. It might be educational if they started getting lots of reasonable rate responses and only a few responses accepting their rate.
Also, as Samuel points out, no response at all won't get any business, logically. I guess it's possible that some of these people might be trying to "bargain" and could come up with a better offer if no one takes their low-value bait.
| | | | Woodstock (X)
Germany
Local time: 09:13
German to English
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| Scamming translators has become "big business" in recent years. | Aug 26, 2015 |
Rachel Braff wrote:
I haven't really gotten the impression the e-mails I get (and it doesn't happen often anyway) are scammers, although obviously any talk of reimbursing them for an excessive check would make any reasonable person run the other way. I hadn't thought about that particular scam happening in a translation context, but I guess if you have imagination you can picture it in any context.
Don't kid yourself - a huge publicly accessible database like this one filled with contact information on tens of thousands of people is pretty much screaming for attention from scammers. You might want to educate yourself a bit and skim the Proz forum on "Scams" and/or the Proz Translator Scam Alert section (http://www.proz.com/about/translator-scam-alerts/). Too many translators are still unaware and become victims, even though most of the information you need to protect yourself is readily accessible here.
Some of those odd emails you get could very well be from people with nefarious intent. Be very clear scammers are criminals, and be wary, as they are pretty much impossible to catch after the fact. I do not let anyone not registered at Proz contact me - it's an opt-out feature you can enable. Perhaps I miss a few offers that way, but the scam offers have completely stopped since I did that. Any legitimate client who can't be bothered registering is not one I think I would want to work with. At the very least, using that little feature has saved me some potentially wasted time on reading unwanted emails.
| | | | Sheila Wilson
Spain
Local time: 08:13
Member (2007)
English
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| Scammers register on ProZ.com too | Aug 27, 2015 |
Woodstock wrote:
I do not let anyone not registered at Proz contact me - it's an opt-out feature you can enable. Perhaps I miss a few offers that way, but the scam offers have completely stopped since I did that. Any legitimate client who can't be bothered registering is not one I think I would want to work with. At the very least, using that little feature has saved me some potentially wasted time on reading unwanted emails.
Many of the reports that I receive from the Scam Centre inform me not only of the current scam, but also of the ProZ.com ID used to send them, an ID that has since been deleted. As you say, it's big business so worth their while tospend a few seconds setting up a basic account. So, although it might well significantly reduce the numbers you receive, don't let yourself believe that all your ProZ.com messages are 'safe' ..
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Woodstock (X)
Germany
Local time: 09:13
German to English
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Sheila Wilson wrote: As you say, it's big business so worth their while tospend a few seconds setting up a basic account. So, although it might well significantly reduce the numbers you receive, don't let yourself believe that all your ProZ.com messages are 'safe' ..
Thanks, Sheila, but I'm quite aware of the pitfalls even from supposed Proz members. I hosted a Proz powwow on scams several years ago as the first ones were cropping up, so I'm pretty clear on what type of messages to ignore and which ones look genuinely promising.
I wish everyone would read the scam information here - much heartbreak and frustration could be avoided by keeping informed...
Edited to add: Opting out of messages sent by unregistered people eliminates most of the riff-raff, as I think actually registering at a website would give most of the potential scammers pause, excepting the most hard-boiled types. It represents one more chance of getting caught, which most would avoid. I could be wrong about this, but based on my personal experience, it has proven very effective in eliminating the scam e-mails I got through Proz.
[Edited at 2015-08-27 14:47 GMT]
| | | | Tina Vonhof (X)
Canada
Local time: 01:13
Dutch to English
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| Something missing from this? | Aug 27, 2015 |
Jessica Noyes wrote: The delete button approach is not available to ProZ.com members who have stated that they endorse the site's Professional Guidelines, one of which is to "answer, courteously, inquiries related to services, fees and available equipment." Here's the link: http://www.proz.com/professional-guidelines?pg_version=1.1[Edited at 2015-08-25 20:10 GMT]
Surely we are not expected to respond to spam or mass mailings that are not specifically addressed to us by name and don't identify the sender? In those cases the delete button works just fine for me.
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