Poll: Have you ever fallen victim to a translation-related scam? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Have you ever fallen victim to a translation-related scam?".
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| | | | DZiW (X)
Ukraine
English to Russian
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| special questions | Nov 21, 2018 |
I started locally, personally knowing people, and we always had our terms agreed specifically. Frankly, I was lucky to team up with colleagues, who trained me, explaining the ABC.
While swindlers improve their cunning tricks, I learned* to make sure WHO, HOW, WHY, WHEN, WHERE, WHAT and on WHAT terms we're going to deal, let alone common sense, due diligence, "No!" and "Caveat emptor!" approaches.
However, I also do consider that infamous "free tests" abuse to be but a "... See more I started locally, personally knowing people, and we always had our terms agreed specifically. Frankly, I was lucky to team up with colleagues, who trained me, explaining the ABC.
While swindlers improve their cunning tricks, I learned* to make sure WHO, HOW, WHY, WHEN, WHERE, WHAT and on WHAT terms we're going to deal, let alone common sense, due diligence, "No!" and "Caveat emptor!" approaches.
However, I also do consider that infamous "free tests" abuse to be but a "white-collar" fraud ▲ Collapse
| | | | neilmac
Spain
Local time: 19:52
Spanish to English
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Not to the best of my knowledge. But for all I know, someone could have stolen my ID and details and be using them right now....
| | | | Muriel Vasconcellos (X) 
United States
Local time: 10:52
Spanish to English
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| An attempted scam | Nov 21, 2018 |
It was complicated:
"She" wrote me a sob story about why she wanted the document translated. I agreed to do it. "She" sent me a check in advance (by FedEx no less), which I received the next day, asking me to deduct my fee and send the balance to a particular travel agency to pay for "her" trip to the conference to deliver the paper I was supposed to translate.
The check looked suspicious. Luckily, I hadn't started to work of the text. When the check came, I thought it... See more It was complicated:
"She" wrote me a sob story about why she wanted the document translated. I agreed to do it. "She" sent me a check in advance (by FedEx no less), which I received the next day, asking me to deduct my fee and send the balance to a particular travel agency to pay for "her" trip to the conference to deliver the paper I was supposed to translate.
The check looked suspicious. Luckily, I hadn't started to work of the text. When the check came, I thought it looked suspicious. I took it to my bank to cash it, and they agreed that something was fishy. They told me to go to the bank the check was drawn against, which was a couple of blocks away. At "her" bank, they confirmed that the account existed but said the check was no good.
I posted the story here on another ProZ forum and found that other colleagues had been targeted with similar scams--different names, different sob stories, different languages, different subject matter. Whoever it was must have wasted a bunch of money on FedEx charges.
What a convoluted imagination! ▲ Collapse
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DianeGM
Local time: 20:52
Member (2006)
Dutch to English
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I was contacted once by an agency which I have worked for for years who told me someone else contacted them with my CV.
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I was targeted recently for the first time ever (probably it wouldn’t be the last, though I’m very cautious). I was contacted directly (not through Proz, though the email said “I got your email from the website as a translator”. Which one?) by someone asking for a quote for a Spanish-Portuguese translation. All the flashing red flags were there: very poor English (though his name sounded British or American), no introduction whatsoever, no contact details (even after I asked for an addre... See more I was targeted recently for the first time ever (probably it wouldn’t be the last, though I’m very cautious). I was contacted directly (not through Proz, though the email said “I got your email from the website as a translator”. Which one?) by someone asking for a quote for a Spanish-Portuguese translation. All the flashing red flags were there: very poor English (though his name sounded British or American), no introduction whatsoever, no contact details (even after I asked for an address he just said that he was presently in Spain). It took me some time searching the Internet to find the text to be translated: "The Promise of World Peace", a document produced by the Universal House of Justice of the Bahá'í Faith and published in… October 1985!
P.S. I’m always flooded with CVs, most of them are deleted immediately, but I’ve discovered a few were stolen and warned the real translators. I must admit that I was puzzled by their attitude as they seemed much more suspicious of me…
[Edited at 2018-11-21 10:26 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | | played along, my first ever fake cheque :D | Nov 21, 2018 |
Some years ago from a "student" - there were warning bells. The person wanted to send money ahead of time, and I promised nothing. When the cheque arrived it was in the wrong amount (of course) by thousands of dollars, and for some reason they had tagged on 15 cents to make it more authentic. At the bank they took one look and pronounced it fake and we had a good laugh. I wrote the person that I was on to them and of course they denied it.
Warning signs were that the text was so... See more Some years ago from a "student" - there were warning bells. The person wanted to send money ahead of time, and I promised nothing. When the cheque arrived it was in the wrong amount (of course) by thousands of dollars, and for some reason they had tagged on 15 cents to make it more authentic. At the bank they took one look and pronounced it fake and we had a good laugh. I wrote the person that I was on to them and of course they denied it.
Warning signs were that the text was something banal straight from the Internet; that a student would be willing to pay the fee I quoted (a few hundred dollars), and non-native clues in the English of this "native English speaker's" English. The cheque from France was actually mailed from France. There has never been a Toronto Dominion Bank in France (I was told) and the cheque style looked like something from the 1960's. The dollar amount looked like it was printed with an old dot matrix printer. No security features, and cheap thin paper. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Michael Harris
Germany
Local time: 19:52
Member (2006)
German to English
Muriel Vasconcellos wrote:
It was complicated:
"She" wrote me a sob story about why she wanted the document translated. I agreed to do it. "She" sent me a check in advance (by FedEx no less), which I received the next day, asking me to deduct my fee and send the balance to a particular travel agency to pay for "her" trip to the conference to deliver the paper I was supposed to translate.
The check looked suspicious. Luckily, I hadn't started to work of the text. When the check came, I thought it looked suspicious. I took it to my bank to cash it, and they agreed that something was fishy. They told me to go to the bank the check was drawn against, which was a couple of blocks away. At "her" bank, they confirmed that the account existed but said the check was no good.
I posted the story here on another ProZ forum and found that other colleagues had been targeted with similar scams--different names, different sob stories, different languages, different subject matter. Whoever it was must have wasted a bunch of money on FedEx charges.
What a convoluted imagination!
thing about this is that people still fal lfor this sort of scam. This is the first time that I have heard of in your case, but in a different topic, something similar was tried on me when I was selling my car 15 years ago - car was being sold for €15k, cheque was sent from london - €20k with the request to make a bank tansfer of the difference. Fortunately I knew about this but also played along. Obviously the cheque bounced and was sent to the police directly, but with no outcome.
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Tina Wooden
United States
Local time: 13:52
Japanese to English
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| Beware of anyone eager to send you money! | Nov 22, 2018 |
I have an all-too-familiar story, where someone asked me to do a translation, then sent me a check that was $2,000 more than the agreed amount -- said it was a clerical mistake and please send the balance on to their Italian/Spanish translator (it changed each time they emailed). My bank looked at the check and could tell it was bogus in a minute -- the account number didn't match the company name printed on it, they'd used different fonts from different printers, etc., etc. Too bad I'd wasted s... See more I have an all-too-familiar story, where someone asked me to do a translation, then sent me a check that was $2,000 more than the agreed amount -- said it was a clerical mistake and please send the balance on to their Italian/Spanish translator (it changed each time they emailed). My bank looked at the check and could tell it was bogus in a minute -- the account number didn't match the company name printed on it, they'd used different fonts from different printers, etc., etc. Too bad I'd wasted several hours already translating that stupid thing, but lesson learned.
I just got contacted by another user on here that's probably running the same scam. It's pretty obvious when he first contacted me to translate for the WRONG LANGUAGE, then when I told him so, he STILL sent the document and is all eager to pay me 50% up-front. I'm looking to report his account next, although he could cancel it and make a different one with another name in a few minutes... ▲ Collapse
| | | | Mario Freitas
Brazil
Local time: 15:52
Member (2014)
English to Portuguese
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| Yes, a great lesson learned | Nov 22, 2018 |
Yes, a long time ago, and it was actually a great thing. I worked for free and got mad, but that was when I leaned how to evaluate potential clientes before accepting jobs. I immediately looked for tips and forums on the topic, and learned many good tricks. I never fell for any scams after that. So I can only thank the scammer. Let's say he was compensated for that lesson, and it ended up being an investment on my side.
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