Listed as a Translation Agency! Thread poster: arwam
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arwam 
Egypt
English to Arabic
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Hi,
Has anyone who does not represent a company or an agency been receiving a lot of resumes lately? I have, and I am wondering if the newly released 24.99 GBP Translation Agencies Database from Translation Directory has to do with it, considering it was released on the exact same day t... See more Hi,
Has anyone who does not represent a company or an agency been receiving a lot of resumes lately? I have, and I am wondering if the newly released 24.99 GBP Translation Agencies Database from Translation Directory has to do with it, considering it was released on the exact same day these emails started arriving: http://www.angloeuropeantranslations.com/translation-agencies-database.html. As a matter of fact, the ad for the list was in my inbox by 13:55 and the first resume was there by 13:56! I am not sure how that person could have purchased it and sent out the mass email in one minute but it is fishy.
I am a freelancer, although I have, on two or three occasions over the past couple of years, posted about projects with which I needed help from colleagues. Does that mean they can consider me an agency and sell my contact details?
Of course, they say it does not include email addresses but...
I responded to many of the messages I got explaining the situation and asking how the sender got my contact information and I am waiting for their answers.
Any thoughts? ▲ Collapse
| | | | Thomas Pfann
United Kingdom
Local time: 03:03
Member (2006)
English to German
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| Check out 'Translator Scammers Directory' etc. | Jan 27, 2015 |
I do get a fair amount of CVs from translators as well although I am not usually an 'outsourcer'. Like you, though, I did outsource one or two jobs in the past (and even have a Blueboard entry because of that) so that might be a factor.
Note, though, that not all the CVs (if any) will be from real translators so I'd recommend not to reply to the emails you receive. Have a look at the 'Scams' section of the ProZ forum and websites such as the 'Translator Scammers Directory'; see this... See more I do get a fair amount of CVs from translators as well although I am not usually an 'outsourcer'. Like you, though, I did outsource one or two jobs in the past (and even have a Blueboard entry because of that) so that might be a factor.
Note, though, that not all the CVs (if any) will be from real translators so I'd recommend not to reply to the emails you receive. Have a look at the 'Scams' section of the ProZ forum and websites such as the 'Translator Scammers Directory'; see this thread for details: http://www.proz.com/forum/scams/264628-translator_scammers_directory.html
Many of the emails I receive contain mostly identical text (one popular line is something like "my normal rate is $x per word, but I prefer to work for $y per word") and go straight to the bin.
[Edited at 2015-01-27 13:06 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Get them too everyday | Jan 27, 2015 |
However, I am not an outsourcer, neither am I in any database of that kind...
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I get them too and asked a translator why. She just had had a look on the blueboard. I am not an agency but I also offer project management and have a blueboard therefore...
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Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 03:03
Member (2008)
Italian to English
arwam wrote:
Hi,
Has anyone who does not represent a company or an agency been receiving a lot of resumes lately?
I got one today. I thought it must have been a mistake, but now I'm thinking it might be something else.
| | | | Balasubramaniam L.
India
Local time: 08:33
Member (2006)
English to Hindi
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SITE LOCALIZER
I get half a dozen resumes every month from translators in all permutations and combinations of source and target languages, although I have no where mentioned in my profile that I am an outsourcer. I am a fulltime freelancer in the EnglishHindi pair and do all my translations myself.
[Edited at 2015-01-27 13:56 GMT]
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Get a Spamcop account and report any unwanted freelance offers you receive. This way you will contribute to stop all that spam sent to people who have never asked for any CVs, as is my case.
| | | | | Educate them | Jan 27, 2015 |
I don't think I am listed in any agency directory, yet I do occasionally receive such messages. I usually respond with a request not to do it anymore, explaining that carpet-bombing potential clients with resumes is more likely to get the sender blacklisted than to bring him new jobs.
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arwam
Egypt
English to Arabic
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TOPIC STARTER
Thank you all for your input.
The fact that I've never received so many resumes out of the clear blue sky and now I'm getting over a dozen a week led me to believe I was listed in some database.
But after some of you suggested that they might be scams or stolen CVs, I picked one randomly and responded asking for rates for a fake project (sorry!) Guess what? Delivery failed. The address does not exist! I had responded to each message I got explaining the situation and as... See more Thank you all for your input.
The fact that I've never received so many resumes out of the clear blue sky and now I'm getting over a dozen a week led me to believe I was listed in some database.
But after some of you suggested that they might be scams or stolen CVs, I picked one randomly and responded asking for rates for a fake project (sorry!) Guess what? Delivery failed. The address does not exist! I had responded to each message I got explaining the situation and asking the sender to help me figure it out but none of them responded. And now this one is even a randomly generated address. Seriously, what's the point? Here I am, allegedly falling for the scam and asking to work with the sender and they can't hear from me.
This is really getting on my nerves. I can't even mark them as spam; they use so many addresses. And there's no keyword I can filter out without filtering out almost every email I get. Arrrgh! ▲ Collapse
| | | | | uh, this is not good! | Feb 1, 2015 |
Scammed, that's scary. And not being able to filter them? Just one thing, if you remotely suspect that it is a scam, don't click on anything. So sorry this is happening...
| | | | | Get a spam filtering software that allows you to report spam | Feb 1, 2015 |
arwam wrote:
This is really getting on my nerves. I can't even mark them as spam; they use so many addresses. And there's no keyword I can filter out without filtering out almost every email I get. Arrrgh!
I definitely recommend to get a spam filtering software that works before your email client. I have been using Firetrust Mailwasher Pro for many years and it works beautifully for me.
This software pre-downloads email from your server and automatically identifies it as spam or legitimate. It uses spam blacklists to identify spam and also lets you train it about what is legitimate and what is spam by simply marking spam as such etc. You can also have your own white lists (lists of legitimate people) for domain names and individual addresses and can choose what spam blacklists you prefer.
One important feature is that you can link it to a Spamcop account (which is very easy to get) and once you have identified something as spam, you can report it to Spamcop and very easily contribute to fighting these spammers. You will soon develop an eye for this kind of spam: impersonal emails, very similar discourse, languages you never work with, vague compliments about your excellent company...
What Spamcop does is that it reports spam to the ISPs and marks the whole ISP as a source of spam until the matter is resolved. This way ISPs really take care of things and cancel spammer accounts very quickly. When Spamcop receives a report, it sends you an email with a link to confirm the report. In the confirmation webpage you can see the spammer's email again, just to make sure it was not legitimate email. If it was legitimate and you reported it by mistake, you can cancel the report and nothing happens.
Once you have set it up, what you do is work with MailWasher Pro and read your email there as a preview, protected from virus etc. You can safely delete your spam and then go to your email client and download email to use it or answer it. The software is really cost-effective (some 30 euros) and works beautifully. I could not live without it.
| | | | | Virus - Beware of attached CVs | Feb 1, 2015 |
In spite of not being a translation outsourcer, I get my share of unrequested translator CVs through the e-mail address on my web site.
However I have been receiving a flock of CVs lately with a message in Portuguese, from people (not allegedly translators) who are "returning to the labor market", asking me to see their attached CV. I tested a few of them, AVG says they are infected.
So watch out! ... even if you ARE an outsourcer in desperate need for translators. It w... See more In spite of not being a translation outsourcer, I get my share of unrequested translator CVs through the e-mail address on my web site.
However I have been receiving a flock of CVs lately with a message in Portuguese, from people (not allegedly translators) who are "returning to the labor market", asking me to see their attached CV. I tested a few of them, AVG says they are infected.
So watch out! ... even if you ARE an outsourcer in desperate need for translators. It won't take long before this message is machine-translated and spreads to other countries. ▲ Collapse
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arwam
Egypt
English to Arabic
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TOPIC STARTER
Thank you all for your thoughts and contributions! And, Tomás, I will look into getting that software.
| | | | arwam
Egypt
English to Arabic
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TOPIC STARTER | Translator Scammers Directory | Mar 1, 2015 |
Thomas, I had looked up a couple of emails in the Translator Scammers Directory as per your suggestion but didn't find them. Today, I started compiling a list to send it to the directory. One of the names sounded familiar to me. I searched for it in my inbox to find that that person had contacted me about a project a few years ago and I looked her up before accepting it and found her in the directory. I went back and looked up a few more and I found them. The last 39 ones (that are still in my s... See more Thomas, I had looked up a couple of emails in the Translator Scammers Directory as per your suggestion but didn't find them. Today, I started compiling a list to send it to the directory. One of the names sounded familiar to me. I searched for it in my inbox to find that that person had contacted me about a project a few years ago and I looked her up before accepting it and found her in the directory. I went back and looked up a few more and I found them. The last 39 ones (that are still in my spam folder) are all listed there. It's a real shame that I permanently deleted those first two before listing the names and addresses they came from! ▲ Collapse
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