Another scam received today! Thread poster: Martina Kilgo
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Martina Kilgo 
United States
Local time: 23:25
Member (2010)
German to English
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I received the following email from a non-registered user today:
Good morning,
Germany to English job translation - I have a translation job for you .First of all, i will like to know if you can work on this. Article documents of 5,664 words length on OBESITY IN CHILDREN! Are you a part time translator or full time translator. I will attach the documents for you on your request. I have 9 days time line for this job. The article
:- Obesity is medical condition wher... See more I received the following email from a non-registered user today:
Good morning,
Germany to English job translation - I have a translation job for you .First of all, i will like to know if you can work on this. Article documents of 5,664 words length on OBESITY IN CHILDREN! Are you a part time translator or full time translator. I will attach the documents for you on your request. I have 9 days time line for this job. The article
:- Obesity is medical condition where excess body fat accumulates to an extent that it becomes harmful to the body. I'm doing this for Darryl, my beloved 14 yrs old son, who died of Obesity some months back. I'm hard of hearing, single warm hearted mom RN by profession.
I will like to know the cost for the translation and proofreading. I'm located in San Antonio, TX. Feel free to text my line for any question.
Hilary Snelling
(210) 695-0819
The phone number is a Texas phone number; however, I didn't call because the email sounded too much like a scam. The IP address provided by proz. for emails form non-registered users is 173.175.198.144. Whois only provided the information that this ip belongs to road runner lcc, obviously an internet provider in TX
This offer was sent from an AOL email address
Just wanted to let everybody know, in case they received an "offer" with the same context.
[Edited at 2012-10-26 15:33 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Trudy Peters
United States
Local time: 23:25
German to English
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| Received the same email today... | Oct 26, 2012 |
.. except, despite allegedly living in San Antonio, TX, the phone number she gave is a local one here in Columbus, Ohio!
As far as I could figure out, the IP address is in California.
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I got this one yesterday. Spanish into English with a different sender name.
| | | | achisholm
United Kingdom
Local time: 04:25
Italian to English
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| What's the point? | Oct 27, 2012 |
Are they phishing for personal information or trying to get free translations?
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Thayenga
Germany
Local time: 05:25
Member (2009)
English to German
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| Too personal | Oct 29, 2012 |
A translation job offer does not require any tear-jerking stories attached.
It bears the sign of trying to either pish information or get a free translation.
Some scammers will never learn.
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I did receive one like that from english into basque about sexuality in adolescence. Everything sounded really strange because she already has sent a check for an amount higher than we agreed. She told me to take an eye on the check and send her back the money. I googled the text and found it was a chapter of a book by an american psychologist. the IP adress was from Chicago but she wrote from Colorado saying she was a student...
I don't know how, but this should stop. I am sure they are d... See more I did receive one like that from english into basque about sexuality in adolescence. Everything sounded really strange because she already has sent a check for an amount higher than we agreed. She told me to take an eye on the check and send her back the money. I googled the text and found it was a chapter of a book by an american psychologist. the IP adress was from Chicago but she wrote from Colorado saying she was a student...
I don't know how, but this should stop. I am sure they are deceiving people to take their money. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Overpayment scams | Oct 29, 2012 |
As described in the scam alert center, his kind of scams usually fall into the 'overpayment' category, where a 'client' contacts you with a translation request and (normally another person) sends you a fake check for a higher amount, asking you to wire back the difference.
To better protect yourself against scammers you should have a look at Pr... See more As described in the scam alert center, his kind of scams usually fall into the 'overpayment' category, where a 'client' contacts you with a translation request and (normally another person) sends you a fake check for a higher amount, asking you to wire back the difference.
To better protect yourself against scammers you should have a look at ProZ.com's scam alert reports. ProZ.com members can subscribe to this service to receive via email each alert and/or a weekly digest.
Kind regards,
Enrique ▲ Collapse
| | | | Tony M
France
Local time: 05:25
Member
French to English
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SITE LOCALIZER | How to stop it | Oct 29, 2012 |
Amaia Saenz de Viteri wrote:
I don't know how, but this should stop. I am sure they are deceiving people to take their money.
Yes, sadly, there are plenty of people out there who are dishonest and ready to rob innocent victims — that's just a fact of life. But one thing is sure: they wouldn't bother to do it if people didn't fall for it!
There is no way this could ever be stopped at source — for a start, the sources are far too widespread and diffuse, and there's no real use bleating "there ought to be a law against it!"
So it is up to all of us, as a community, to stop (or at least reduce it) simply by making it not work any more — and we can do this by networking, communication, and education.
I am sometimes left astonished by what appears to be the gullibility of some people — are they really so desperate for money, or so foolish to think that such ways to 'get rich quick' really do exist, as to fall for such blatantly obvious scams? The moment I see one of these, all the warning signs are there.
Then again, I suppose if the person receiving this 'job offer' is not a native speaker of EN, then perhaps some of the more subtle points might escape them; but even so, there are still some pretty big red warning signs. I would like to suggest that any non-native EN speakers receiving suspect job offers etc. should perhaps try to get the opinion of a native English speaker before proceeding.
Is there any way all new members signing up could be made to read some basic anti-scam warnings before proceeding? At least that way no-one could say they haven't been forewarned.
Take care, everbody, the world out there is full of crooks!
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Speaking about scam, I received a strange message on Proz.com this morning.
Well... it might not be a scam, but it definitely looks and sounds shady.
A job was posted 18 days ago, requesting services from translators in several fields and in several language pairs.
To be more precise, the job description read:
"Needful skills by:
-legal documents
-E-marketing
-Medical
and more, more"
Did I mention that the job pos... See more Speaking about scam, I received a strange message on Proz.com this morning.
Well... it might not be a scam, but it definitely looks and sounds shady.
A job was posted 18 days ago, requesting services from translators in several fields and in several language pairs.
To be more precise, the job description read:
"Needful skills by:
-legal documents
-E-marketing
-Medical
and more, more"
Did I mention that the job poster was supposed to be from the US? Now, I'm certainly not the best when it comes to writing in English, so, I didn't judge by the cover. This offer got 119 quotes.
I have myself sent a quote, and never heard of it since this morning, when I received the following message in my Proz inbox:
"To all of our candidates, we offer to take our translation exam(test inclusive five questions or text for translation).
This test is to ensure you are able to make a good quality translation.
The exam consists of always translating a small text 110-200 words or test (five questions).
The exam is conducted online at proz.com.
To translate the given time 30 minutes, but we can give more time if the text is more difficult.
For the test is given to 30 minutes on each of the five questions, but usually it is done much faster.
During the test, I post a new question of test only after the decision of the previous question.
Are you ready for our exam today or in the next few days?
Regards. "
According to this person's IP, she actually IS from the US (Tennessee). But jeez... I had to re-read the message several times to understand what the heck it was about.
Then I checked her Proz account and... it was empty. Not a single information apart from the fact that it was a paid membership and that the account was created in October 2012. Out of curiosity, I replied, asking for more information about her company, or anything that could get me out of extreme suspicion, and the answer was:
"Hello, OK)
Tell me please what time (with your timezone) you will be online on proz.com so that I can take your exam?
Regards."
And this is where I gave up.
Now what is your opinion on this? Does it look like a scam? Maybe someone trying to get free translations? How come her IP is actually from the US? I would gladly give the name of that account, but I don't think I'm allowed to do it here.
Anyway, as a new translator in the industry struggling to find a single decent client and trying his best to offer a good service for professional jobs, I have to say it is both depressing and irritating. ▲ Collapse
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