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Enormous increase in translator applications from translators with a hotmail address Thread poster: XX789 (X)
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XX789 (X) 
Netherlands
Local time: 16:57
English to Dutch
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Anyone else noticing this? I'm getting swamped by applications from translators lately. What strikes me is that almost all of them have a hotmail address and are using the same font and writing style in their e-mail.
All applications are addressed to "undisclosed-recipients:" (which, in my case, makes sure your application goes straight to the trash bin).
I smell fish when I see it.
[Edited at 2012-06-18 07:07 GMT]
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It also happened to me...and I could not really understand the cause.
At least, now I know that I am not the only one with this problem...
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| Beware of Greg Lordan, Britain | Jun 18, 2012 |
I want to beware all of my colleaugues not to work for Greg Lordan ([email protected]) who addressed me with an offer for translation of Henry Miller’s "Daisy Miller" from English into Slovak language and did not pay for it - here is his address in London: Greg Lordan, 55 Warwick road, Walthamstow, E17 5NP, London, Uk
Telephone : 44 7024024641., email: [email protected]. He is lier, and probably even runne... See more I want to beware all of my colleaugues not to work for Greg Lordan ([email protected]) who addressed me with an offer for translation of Henry Miller’s "Daisy Miller" from English into Slovak language and did not pay for it - here is his address in London: Greg Lordan, 55 Warwick road, Walthamstow, E17 5NP, London, Uk
Telephone : 44 7024024641., email: [email protected]. He is lier, and probably even runner.
Dušan Ján Hlísta alias skopko.
Žilina 18. June 2012
Slovak Republic
Central Europe ▲ Collapse
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| Same here,and I just received one of them | Jun 18, 2012 |
Loek van Kooten wrote:
Anyone else noticing this? I'm getting swamped by applications from translators lately. What strikes me is that almost all of them have a hotmail address and are using the same font and writing style in their e-mail.
All applications are addressed to "undisclosed-recipients:" (which, in my case, makes sure your application goes straight to the trash bin).
I smell fish when I see it.
it is already in my trash bin
[Edited at 2012-06-18 08:27 GMT]
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Natalie
Poland
Local time: 16:57
Member (2002)
English to Russian
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MODERATOR SITE LOCALIZER |
| Yes, but from gmail accounts | Jun 18, 2012 |
The ones I've been receiving lately have all come from gmail accounts and all have "Translation Services" as the subject line.
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langnet
Italy
Local time: 16:57
Italian to German
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I received 5 "applications" today. All from Hotmail accounts.
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jyuan_us
United States
Local time: 10:57
Member (2005)
English to Chinese
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| I have been receiving applications from gmail accounts | Jun 18, 2012 |
LP Schumacher wrote:
The ones I've been receiving lately have all come from gmail accounts and all have "Translation Services" as the subject line.
almost everyweek for about a year, for many language pairs. And sometimes I can tell a particular resume is a fake one because the person's Chinese name was incorrectly spelled.
Some colleagues have invesitgated this issue on their own and they found all these emails came from the same IP address in Middle East.
I once replied to one applicant saying "are you addicted faking up resumes?". Supprizingly he replied by asking " why did you thing I fakeup up my resume?"
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langnet
Italy
Local time: 16:57
Italian to German
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| Well known scammer | Jun 18, 2012 |
Natalie,
I had a look at the list of these other known aliases. But I wonder why ProZ doesn't simply delete those profiles instead of putting a warning on them? They're clearly violating their terms of use. Or is this to keep further track?
Besides, I'm wondering what's the purpose of these scam applications. It's not contemplated by the overview on Translators scam alert center, and the link http://www.proz.com/blueboard/36175 you quoted is about the secret shopper and Western Union scam. No "I want to steal your work" either. What are these people up to? Hoping to reel in job assignments by massive spamming? Trying to harvest translator contact data for making up subsequent frauds? I'm really wondering, as this is the first time something like this has happened to me.
[Edited at 2012-06-18 16:30 GMT]
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XX789 (X)
Netherlands
Local time: 16:57
English to Dutch
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TOPIC STARTER
Maybe it's an obscure agency trying to get work for multiple language pairs by posing as freelance translators instead of actual agencies, knowing that many agencies only want to work with freelancers due to pricing and other issues.
Or maybe some obscure freelancers portal is now offering its members the possibility to apply to thousands of agencies at once.
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Inga Petkelyte
Portugal
Local time: 15:57
Lithuanian to Portuguese
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| A Hotmail account is not an evil itself | Jun 18, 2012 |
Maybe I am missing something here, but pointing out at Hotmail or other generic accounts always puts me a bit uncomfortable.
I don't remember last time when I offered my services, last autumn perhaps. I've been a freelance translator for more than twenty years already and my email is a Hotmail account for the past twelve years. Those that care about email accounts, dismiss my offers, those about complicated translations delivered in (and often before) time find me year after year.
Su... See more Maybe I am missing something here, but pointing out at Hotmail or other generic accounts always puts me a bit uncomfortable.
I don't remember last time when I offered my services, last autumn perhaps. I've been a freelance translator for more than twenty years already and my email is a Hotmail account for the past twelve years. Those that care about email accounts, dismiss my offers, those about complicated translations delivered in (and often before) time find me year after year.
Surely, where a clear pattern is obvious of the same sender (group of senders) for nobody-knows-what purpose the it's a different story. But once the question of Hotmail accounts is raised, I wonder whether other translators have their own sites just to provide a non-Hotmail account? Am I alone so obsolete? ▲ Collapse
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| Several issues here | Jun 18, 2012 |
There are many different issues in this thread:
many jobs offers from Hotmail accounts. Some time ago the same was reported with Gmail accounts. This is unusual but I am not sure if this is a scam, a virus or something else.
A concrete scam report that has been already included in today's scam alert report from o... See more There are many different issues in this thread:
many jobs offers from Hotmail accounts. Some time ago the same was reported with Gmail accounts. This is unusual but I am not sure if this is a scam, a virus or something else.
A concrete scam report that has been already included in today's scam alert report from our translators scam alert center
Hotmail, Gmail and other free email addresses are normal when used by freelancers but they should raise alarms when used by outsourcers claiming to be working on behalf of a company.
Regards,
Enrique ▲ Collapse
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Tony M
France
Local time: 16:57
Member
French to English
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SITE LOCALIZER | Hotmail, gmail, and other free e-mail services... | Jun 18, 2012 |
No, not "an evil in itself" — but the dubious practice of using these free services for professional purposes has been debated at some length in the forums before, with two camps clearly emerging: those who use these services and see no harm in it; and those who regard such use as a sign of some lack of professionalism — either a user not prepared to invest in the nowadays pretty paltry cost of their own domain name, or with something to hide, hence why they don't use an e-mail address provi... See more No, not "an evil in itself" — but the dubious practice of using these free services for professional purposes has been debated at some length in the forums before, with two camps clearly emerging: those who use these services and see no harm in it; and those who regard such use as a sign of some lack of professionalism — either a user not prepared to invest in the nowadays pretty paltry cost of their own domain name, or with something to hide, hence why they don't use an e-mail address provided by their ISP.
I must say, I am myself in the latter camp: anyone writing to me from one of these free services immediately goes down in my estimaton as "not serious"; I myself have Hotmail, Yahoo!, and gmail addresses — but I only use these for personal stuff, and as an emergency backup if my two main ISPs are having problems.
However, I think this whole issue needs to be re-thought, as in recent years, things have changed dramatically — in particular, the massive proliferation of scammers using principally this sort of free (and above all anonymous and easily set up!) e-mail address.
Now the fact that the majority of scammers uses these services doesn't of course lead to the conclusion that therefore the majority of people using these services must be scammers! However, in the collective consciousness, repeated bad associations like this inevitably tarnish the image of anyone associated with / using such services.
Personally, I am much less likely to take seriously someone whose first contact comes from such an anonymous source, and tend to ignore translation requests that seem to me 'dodgy' or not properly communicative.
There is, of course, also the ease and frequency with which Hotmail addresses in particular seem to get 'hacked' — a friend of mine, using a pretty impenetrable password, found his Hotmail account had been hacked, and over 2,000 spam mails were sent out from it before Hotmail blocked it.
[Edited at 2012-06-18 15:35 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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langnet
Italy
Local time: 16:57
Italian to German
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Inga Petkelyte wrote:
Maybe I am missing something here, but pointing out at Hotmail or other generic accounts always puts me a bit uncomfortable.
I don't remember last time when I offered my services, last autumn perhaps. I've been a freelance translator for more than twenty years already and my email is a Hotmail account for the past twelve years. Those that care about email accounts, dismiss my offers, those about complicated translations delivered in (and often before) time find me year after year.
Surely, where a clear pattern is obvious of the same sender (group of senders) for nobody-knows-what purpose the it's a different story. But once the question of Hotmail accounts is raised, I wonder whether other translators have their own sites just to provide a non-Hotmail account? Am I alone so obsolete?
Inga,
it's not about having an Hotmail account, it's about the pattern here, as you said.
I think though that having a "non-free" e-mail account gives some more assurance to potential clients - or would you place much trust in someone new who contacts you about a potential job via an Hotmail, GMail, Yahoo, etc. account? Well, I don't, frankly speaking, there are too many cheats out there.
Therefore I've always used a "non-free" e-mail account for business, without setting up an own site, no need for that. Your Internet provider usually gives you at least one included in your contract, which is sufficient,
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Inga Petkelyte
Portugal
Local time: 15:57
Lithuanian to Portuguese
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| That's interesting | Jun 18, 2012 |
I've been so happy and relaxed with my Hotmail account for years now that I even didn't suspect the existance of a possibility to use an email of my internet provider. Honestly, I haven't seen yet anyone with @zon.pt nor I've ever heared about email accounts in the service package but I guess, it's better to check before telling anything for sure. One lives and learns, as they say in my coountry.
The biggest lier and scammer that I've met, though, Miguel Rodrigues from Vigo, Spain, had a "... See more I've been so happy and relaxed with my Hotmail account for years now that I even didn't suspect the existance of a possibility to use an email of my internet provider. Honestly, I haven't seen yet anyone with @zon.pt nor I've ever heared about email accounts in the service package but I guess, it's better to check before telling anything for sure. One lives and learns, as they say in my coountry.
The biggest lier and scammer that I've met, though, Miguel Rodrigues from Vigo, Spain, had a "real" email, actually two registered companies of him, but after multiple lies never paid and continued shopping around for the remaining parts of the project. ▲ Collapse
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