Poll: Have you been the victim of a scam targeting language professionals in the last year? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
|
|---|
This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Have you been the victim of a scam targeting language professionals in the last year?".
View the poll results »
| | | | Kay Denney 
France
Local time: 21:10
French to English
Having read up on the most common scams here, I didn't fall for it. The job sounded too good to be true.
| | | |
I was scammed only once, some 15 years ago. I was contacted by a direct client (an accountant) who needed a few small translations FR-PT. I did the first one and was paid immediately. So, I trusted him for the others and I shouldn’t as I never got payment despite many reminders. Later on, I found out that he was a notorious non-payer. As the total was less than 100€ I decided that it wasn’t worth my time and effort. I guess I’ve been extremely careful and… lucky. I can’t ignore thoug... See more I was scammed only once, some 15 years ago. I was contacted by a direct client (an accountant) who needed a few small translations FR-PT. I did the first one and was paid immediately. So, I trusted him for the others and I shouldn’t as I never got payment despite many reminders. Later on, I found out that he was a notorious non-payer. As the total was less than 100€ I decided that it wasn’t worth my time and effort. I guess I’ve been extremely careful and… lucky. I can’t ignore though the endless posts I’ve been seeing here about scammers and non-payers. ▲ Collapse
| | | |
...and a very tricky attempt:
Three or four weeks ago I received an email with the standard proz phrase in the header when an LSP answers your application (like " [ProZ.com-E-Mail] Translation NL - DE", together with the name of the LSP company). The mail contained exactly the quote of my application text (as usual), followed by the message (in German): "Hi Matthias, click immediately on the link attached!". The link contained an HTML file consisting of a sequence of characters only... See more ...and a very tricky attempt:
Three or four weeks ago I received an email with the standard proz phrase in the header when an LSP answers your application (like " [ProZ.com-E-Mail] Translation NL - DE", together with the name of the LSP company). The mail contained exactly the quote of my application text (as usual), followed by the message (in German): "Hi Matthias, click immediately on the link attached!". The link contained an HTML file consisting of a sequence of characters only (like e3sk95nxööskc.html). Of course, I did not open that file, but I was tempted to. The sender´s address was one of these one-way addresses often used for scams and not the address you should expect from that LSP which I knew anyway because we were in business already a couple of years ago. I assume somebody has hacked either the server of the LSP or the proz server. Unfortunately, I erased that email almost immediately and did not inform proz, which I now regret a bit. I still wonder whether that hack was directed to me personally (because the text contained my name) or whether it was a general attempt to hack any computer from where that link would be opened. ▲ Collapse
| | |
|
|
|
Ario Wirawan
Indonesia
Local time: 02:10
English to Indonesian
+ ...
| Voice over and document translation scams | Aug 13, 2022 |
I have two possible scam effort that I can share with you guys. Be careful.
First experience: A few months ago, a company claiming to publish audio books offered me a children audio book voice over project, with a lot of money involved, with some advance payment. Asked for a sample and stuff, and said that my sample was excellent. They had some strict equipment requirements, one of which was that I had to use a certain type of microphone, I forgot what it was and I've deleted the em... See more I have two possible scam effort that I can share with you guys. Be careful.
First experience: A few months ago, a company claiming to publish audio books offered me a children audio book voice over project, with a lot of money involved, with some advance payment. Asked for a sample and stuff, and said that my sample was excellent. They had some strict equipment requirements, one of which was that I had to use a certain type of microphone, I forgot what it was and I've deleted the emails, so I couldn't look it up. So I looked it up online, and apparently, not only was this particular mic crazy expensive, it was very hard to find. It was a vintage collector's item microphone.
This was the first time I had my suspicion about this offer. Why would they need to use such vintage hard to find mic, when technology had come that far? It's not like we're recording the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra or Sir Paul McCartney here. It's just my very much unspecial voice. So I told them that I couldn't find this mic to buy it, and they offered to refer me to a sound technician who happened to have that particular mic, if I was interested to buy it from him. I said, sure, just pay me the advance you promised and I'll buy it from the guy. Then they said they couldn't pay me the advance until they received proof of ownership.
And that's when I decided this was bullcrap and cut all ties. After that, I looked up their company name and it turned out to be a long dead indie publishing company for comic books.
Second experience: This was just a few days ago, this guy would probably still try to contact me. This was in his email and WhatsApp message:
"I am Xxxxx, Translation Project Coordinator. We have an English to Indonesian translation project.
I know you are a professional translator for the proz website.
We are looking for translations and edits for our scripts. We have hundreds of scripts so this is a long term project. We would appreciate it if you could help us and help us translate the material. Of course, this is a paid job. We can negotiate a reasonable price before cooperation.
looking forward to hearing from you.
bless,
Xxxxx
Translation Project Coordinator
Linkedin Facebook (these are links to his linkedin and facebook pages)"
This time, I suspected it from the get go and did not respond at all. I may be wrong here and he might be legit, but here are some of my reasonings:
1. He never said what company he was working for.
2. I checked his facebook page which was also a personal page, not stating what company he was working at.
3. His email address was a gmail address.
4. Every legitimate offer I received always came as a mass email (directed to several people with similar skills and capabilities) through Proz.com with a reply-to address of the company seeking the talents. Never once directed to me personally from their personal email address. And he did say he knew me from Proz.com.
5. Nobody initially contacted me through WhatsApp. Nobody. After I worked for them and got to know the staff, then we might have some communication through WhatsApp for convenience, but initially? Never.
After a few days of not responding (but I did read his WhatsApp messages) then he sent me some more messages through WhatsApp, asking if I were interested to know more about the project. I did not respond.
So, yeah. You might get some of these in the future, so be careful, guys. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Kevin Fulton
United States
Local time: 15:10
German to English
I haven't been contacted in years. Given the number of scam artists reported here, I'm starting to feel left out. Maybe it's because I'm not a paying member and not worthy of a scam.
| | | | Dércio Bene
Mozambique
Local time: 21:10
English to Portuguese
+ ...
I applied for a project on Upwork for Portuguese-English translation. The client said he needed a very quick translation of some files and then asked me to enter a telegram chat. I think he was using some sort of bot, because his answers were very quick. After some talk, he said "send me 5USD to make sure you get selected for the job". That's when I realised this was a scam and left the chat.
| | | | To report site rules violations or get help, contact a site moderator: You can also contact site staff by submitting a support request » Poll: Have you been the victim of a scam targeting language professionals in the last year? | Trados Business Manager Lite | Create customer quotes and invoices from within Trados Studio
Trados Business Manager Lite helps to simplify and speed up some of the daily tasks, such as invoicing and reporting, associated with running your freelance translation business.
More info » |
| | CafeTran Espresso | You've never met a CAT tool this clever!
Translate faster & easier, using a sophisticated CAT tool built by a translator / developer.
Accept jobs from clients who use Trados, MemoQ, Wordfast & major CAT tools.
Download and start using CafeTran Espresso -- for free
Buy now! » |
|
| | | | X Sign in to your ProZ.com account... | | | | | |
Login to reply/comment 
