Scam. I worked for this person who told me the job was for a translation company.
Thread poster: Mary Carroll Richer LaFlèche
Mary Carroll Richer LaFlèche
Mary Carroll Richer LaFlèche  Identity Verified
Italy
Local time: 15:32
Italian to English
+ ...
Nov 19, 2020

I was totally ripped off in August when I was asked to translate a large technical document from Italian to French. The person said he worked for a translation comapny and used their information on the email, with all the details.
I did the work and after 60 days asked when the payment would arrive. I finally contacted the company who said he didn't work there. It's as easy as that to rip people off!!! He even sent me a PO.
He used the name John Lord but that can change every time. <
... See more
I was totally ripped off in August when I was asked to translate a large technical document from Italian to French. The person said he worked for a translation comapny and used their information on the email, with all the details.
I did the work and after 60 days asked when the payment would arrive. I finally contacted the company who said he didn't work there. It's as easy as that to rip people off!!! He even sent me a PO.
He used the name John Lord but that can change every time.

[Edited at 2020-11-19 18:27 GMT]
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Mohamad Alayoubi
Mohamad Alayoubi
Lebanon
Local time: 16:32
English to Arabic
There should be some thing to prevent this Nov 19, 2020

Mary Carroll Richer LaFlèche wrote:

I was totally ripped off in August when I was asked to translate a large technical document from Italian to French. The person said he worked for a translation comapny and used their information on the email, with all the details.
I did the work and after 60 days asked when the payment would arrive. I finally contacted the company who said he didn't work there. It's as easy as that to rip people off!!! He even sent me a PO

Like P.O should be legally taken as a document for courts , and should have imprisonment as punishment , and you should check company email and try to call the company or the person first and get their signature .
Sorry to hear that happened to you .


 
Dan Lucas
Dan Lucas  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 14:32
Member (2014)
Japanese to English
Contact details Nov 19, 2020

Mary Carroll Richer LaFlèche wrote:
The person said he worked for a translation comapny and used their information on the email, with all the details.

Yes, but what was his actual email? If the company has (say) a domain of transagency.com then his email would have been his user name @ that domain, something like [email protected].

Now, he could specify whatever return email he likes - that's easy - but if he doesn't work for that agency he shouldn't be able to get any kind of access to the email. So specifying [email protected] wouldn't make sense.

Was that the email to which you responded, or was it something else?

Dan


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Mervyn Henderson (X)
Mervyn Henderson (X)  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 15:32
Spanish to English
+ ...
Maybe he does work for them ... Nov 20, 2020

... or maybe he never worked for them. I know it sounds unlikely, but what if somebody at the company, who may or may not be called John Lord, set up the translation? Then this unscrupulous company received the translation sent to John Lord, but said nothing. Then, when you asked, they said, "Who's this John Lord?" Maybe there never was a John Lord.

What you can do is a bit of detective work, by googling key parts of your translation, and maybe find out if it's being used anywhere b
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... or maybe he never worked for them. I know it sounds unlikely, but what if somebody at the company, who may or may not be called John Lord, set up the translation? Then this unscrupulous company received the translation sent to John Lord, but said nothing. Then, when you asked, they said, "Who's this John Lord?" Maybe there never was a John Lord.

What you can do is a bit of detective work, by googling key parts of your translation, and maybe find out if it's being used anywhere by anyone, contact those people, and ask them how they came by the translation.

I did that a long time ago, after a company had complained about my translation and tried to lower the rate (I refused, and they paid me the full rate), and then I found the whole thing online, word for word, including the bits they'd complained about, which were fine, really.

[Edited at 2020-11-20 11:31 GMT]

[Edited at 2020-11-20 12:14 GMT]
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Harvetta Asamoah
Harvetta Asamoah  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 10:32
French to English
+ ...
IP Address Nov 21, 2020

Have you found the IP address of the original sender? it's in the source text header of the email. Check the address with whois to find out the Internet provider where it originated.

I faced a scam that came from someone using Indeed.com to advertise for work (not translation) and they even did a long fake online interview. They used the name of a major Internet company. They almost had taken me in before I cut them off. It was a major scam, they even sent me a huge check that I nev
... See more
Have you found the IP address of the original sender? it's in the source text header of the email. Check the address with whois to find out the Internet provider where it originated.

I faced a scam that came from someone using Indeed.com to advertise for work (not translation) and they even did a long fake online interview. They used the name of a major Internet company. They almost had taken me in before I cut them off. It was a major scam, they even sent me a huge check that I never cashed. When I tracked the original e-mail, it came from a place known for scammers.

Another scam was probably used to steal money from corporations by using 13 real translators and translations and a real translation agency with real invoices. The scammer ended up pleading guilty to fraud because one of the real translators was a former police officer!

In that case, I was the only translator who got paid because I demanded it and I treated the scammer like we were in a street fight. But one of checks bounced. At that point, it was time to cut my losses and to move on.

I stayed out of the criminal case because I did detective work and realized that the name of the person listed on whois as the webmaster of that translation agency was also in the translation, a member of the accounting office of a large corporation. So, I believed it was organized crime -- not simply a deadbeat agency.
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Sadek_A
Sadek_A  Identity Verified
Local time: 18:32
English to Arabic
+ ...
..... Nov 21, 2020

There was this proz job, by a non-paying, non-verified, new member, who was posing as a certain church and looking to have "hundreds" of global-content religious songs translated.

I looked up the church's name, and it existed, but not in the same country indicated on proz.

I contacted them (their generic, free email) and they sent a legit word file containing the English song lyrics (plus notes and a couple of key, mandatory terminology in Arabic) they needed translated
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There was this proz job, by a non-paying, non-verified, new member, who was posing as a certain church and looking to have "hundreds" of global-content religious songs translated.

I looked up the church's name, and it existed, but not in the same country indicated on proz.

I contacted them (their generic, free email) and they sent a legit word file containing the English song lyrics (plus notes and a couple of key, mandatory terminology in Arabic) they needed translated along with a legit mp3 file containing the same song being sung with music and everything.

Since this kind of creative translations can't be framed into a fixed words/time bracket, and I was then having some down-time on my hands, I aced the song with rhymes and everything, the same day.

Then, I contacted them telling them the song was ready for delivery but I needed a PO via their church's domain-based email address. They never replied.

I wasn't disappointed, because the song was more (successful) practice and an additional point on my track-record.

Asking for a PO via client's domain-based email helps alleviate some of the risk.

You view their communicated website, assess its developer, contents and year, to get to know the client a little.

If they have no website, then credit facility may not be the best choice.

Getting translation services shouldn't be as easy as boiling an egg, like it's being now; we, the translators, need to impose our own regulations to protect ourselves.
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Scam. I worked for this person who told me the job was for a translation company.







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