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SCAM ALERT: Freelancers and agencies, please beware of a scammer impersonating real translators
Thread poster: Lucia Leszinsky
Anastasia Kingsley Kinkusic
Anastasia Kingsley Kinkusic  Identity Verified
Member (2011)
Croatian to English
+ ...
Trust your gut Aug 30, 2020

I had a potential scammer by the name of Dr Livingston (I presume!) send me excess funds for a job I hadn’t even started. We’d agreed on $2000 and he / she sent me $4500.

Beware of Friday afternoon cash transactions!

Dr L asked me to send the money to a third person - someone has made a big mistake. $2000 for me and $2500 for a Jane Doe. Locations were NY, Missouri -

I was constantly pushed to send the money 💰- but I didn’t.

My bank
... See more
I had a potential scammer by the name of Dr Livingston (I presume!) send me excess funds for a job I hadn’t even started. We’d agreed on $2000 and he / she sent me $4500.

Beware of Friday afternoon cash transactions!

Dr L asked me to send the money to a third person - someone has made a big mistake. $2000 for me and $2500 for a Jane Doe. Locations were NY, Missouri -

I was constantly pushed to send the money 💰- but I didn’t.

My bank manager smelled a rat and said let’s wait till Monday to see if this check bounces. Sure enough it did.

The translator ends up sending $2500 from his/her own pocket.

I wrote Dr L a “shame on you” letter and was glad to have escaped the scam.

Translator- beware!
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Miguel Wong
Stephanie Kantorski
Adieu
Tina Wooden
Raymond Azarcon
 
jyuan_us
jyuan_us  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 08:44
Member (2005)
Chinese to English
Who sent $2500 from his/her own pocket? Aug 30, 2020

Anastasia Kingsley Kinkusic wrote:
The translator ends up sending $2500 from his/her own pocket.


Thank you for sharing your story and I'm glad you didn't fall for the trap. However, I'm curious about who ended up sending $2500 from his/her own pocket.


 
Katarzyna Slowikova
Katarzyna Slowikova  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 13:44
English to Czech
+ ...
No title Aug 30, 2020

@Miguel Wong:

https://www.proz.com/forum/scams/302893-did_you_receive_this_invitationit_sounds_strange_to_me.html


 
Katarzyna Slowikova
Katarzyna Slowikova  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 13:44
English to Czech
+ ...
Better no title Aug 30, 2020

jyuan_us wrote:

However, I'm curious about who ended up sending $2500 from his/her own pocket.


Nothing easier then reading just ANYTHING in this forum, to satisfy your "curiosity".


Liviu-Lee Roth
 
Liviu-Lee Roth
Liviu-Lee Roth
United States
Local time: 08:44
Romanian to English
+ ...
Sorry, wrong approach Aug 30, 2020

Anastasia Kingsley Kinkusic wrote:

I had a potential scammer by the name of Dr Livingston (I presume!) send me excess funds for a job I hadn’t even started. We’d agreed on $2000 and he / she sent me $4500.

Beware of Friday afternoon cash transactions!

Dr L asked me to send the money to a third person - someone has made a big mistake. $2000 for me and $2500 for a Jane Doe. Locations were NY, Missouri -

I was constantly pushed to send the money 💰- but I didn’t.

My bank manager smelled a rat and said let’s wait till Monday to see if this check bounces. Sure enough it did.

The translator ends up sending $2500 from his/her own pocket.

I wrote Dr L a “shame on you” letter and was glad to have escaped the scam.

Translator- beware!



1- You should've realized from the very beginning that it is an overpayment scam, if you kept reading this forum;
2- No need to go to the bank to deposit the fake check;
3- The bank manager is an idiot if he suggested to wait until the check bounces - it takes about 7-10 days to clear the check;
4- If the check bounces, YOU pay a fee ($15-30). Is it worth it?
5- You replied a "shame on you letter" - useless. It is a whole industry and the scammer could be from the other end of the world (mentioned in this forum n-times).

Therefore wrong approach. I would suggest to browse through the "Scam" section at least once a week and stay informed.

Stay safe,
Lee


Kevin Fulton
Yolanda Broad
IrinaN
Tina Wooden
Robert Rietvelt
 
Miguel Wong
Miguel Wong
Peru
English to Spanish
+ ...
Contunuation ... E-MAILS INSISTENCE, FROM THE DIRTY SCAMMERS LAYAL ROS AND Co. Aug 30, 2020

Miguel
29 ago. 2020 21:39 (hace 13 horas)
Dear Mr Layal The proposed rate you send me looks fine. But this is not an hourly rate job. This is a full audio transcription, and my fees for this job complet

Layal Ros
1:13 (hace 10 horas)
But why you didnt tell me that from the beginning? You put in a big problem and the client is waiting for the file!!We canot pay in advace, but you will get you

Miguel
8:54 (hace 2 horas)
The thing is, I
... See more
Miguel
29 ago. 2020 21:39 (hace 13 horas)
Dear Mr Layal The proposed rate you send me looks fine. But this is not an hourly rate job. This is a full audio transcription, and my fees for this job complet

Layal Ros
1:13 (hace 10 horas)
But why you didnt tell me that from the beginning? You put in a big problem and the client is waiting for the file!!We canot pay in advace, but you will get you

Miguel
8:54 (hace 2 horas)
The thing is, I found out some negative comments about the net during the afternoon, after I started the file, (file's almost done, don't worry pls) ... just wa

Layal Ros
9:21 (hace 2 horas)
Please dont worry about the payment, for more guarantee I can send a list of translators who I worked with so you can check.Please let me know

Miguel
9:29 (hace 1 hora)
Please send me the list of collaborators to check. Thanks.

Layal Ros
10:06 (hace 1 hora)
please check ASAP [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] leire.amuateg

Layal Ros
10:23 (hace 1 hora)
Still waiting Sender notified by Mailtrack 30‏/08‏/20 06:22:30 م‎

Miguel
10:46 (hace 41 minutos)
para layal.ros

I am checking, I'll get back to you as soon as I get a response. Thanks a lot.

Miguel

AS YOU COULD IMAGINE, I RECEIVED TWO RESPONSES FROM THESE "TRANSLATORS" I WROTE TO, AND FOUND OUT THEY WERE JUST THE SAME SCAMMERS, WITH FALSE EMAIL ACCOUNTS... JUST BE AWARE OF THESE SCUMBAGS AND DENOUNCE THEM ASAP... Thanks !
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Liviu-Lee Roth
 
jyuan_us
jyuan_us  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 08:44
Member (2005)
Chinese to English
Yea but Aug 31, 2020

Katarzyna Slowikova wrote:

jyuan_us wrote:

However, I'm curious about who ended up sending $2500 from his/her own pocket.


Nothing easier then reading just ANYTHING in this forum, to satisfy your "curiosity".


I still don't understand who this translator was that had lost $2500.


 
Irving Reyes
Irving Reyes  Identity Verified
Dominican Republic
Local time: 08:44
English to Spanish
+ ...
Received an email today Feb 11, 2021

I just received an email today from this individual

Maher Sady from email "[email protected]"

from "Word Target"
http://www.wordtarget.net/
phone: 00972-592762260


Dear Translator,

 I am Maher Sady, a project manager at Word Target . Our company can offer a lot of projects, and I'm happy to invite you to be a member of our te... See more
I just received an email today from this individual

Maher Sady from email "[email protected]"

from "Word Target"
http://www.wordtarget.net/
phone: 00972-592762260


Dear Translator,

 I am Maher Sady, a project manager at Word Target . Our company can offer a lot of projects, and I'm happy to invite you to be a member of our team, we'd be glad of you can send us the permission and agreement to send your CV to our clients.

We would be grateful if you would allow us to make some adjustments to your respectful CV and I promise you'd receive a lot of profit .

If you agree, we invite you to read our contract, sign it, and send it along with your CV and cover letter.

 Thank you for your time!
 
 Greetings to you,


Ran a search on google, found nothing, used his phone number on the website to run another search and found magic-trans.net, and then searched here and found all these scam alert posts.

The email had an attachment that reads as follows:


Authorization and Agreement

Can you give us permission, authorization and agreement in order for us to send your CV to our clients?
If yes, we will remove your contact details to avoid direct contacts with clients. In this case, we will use a free email which will be put inside your CV in order to receive projects and therefore we will reply on your behalf.

We can also email your certificates if needed to clients on your behalf. We will give you the projects and in cases when you are not available, we will give the projects to other translators.

If you agree, you will be considered as a close team member and consequently you will be eligible for any developmental plan. This is part of group work based on mutual cooperation because the translation market is full of competition.

Please let me know so that we start work. If you agree, sign this authorization and agreement document.

Your name

Your signature




Thank you guys por posting this information, I would have been victim of something here.

[Editado a las 2021-02-11 17:48 GMT]

[Editado a las 2021-02-11 17:53 GMT]
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Tina Wooden
Tina Wooden
United States
Local time: 08:44
Japanese to English
+ ...
Thank you, Miguel Wong Apr 8, 2021

I just received the following email:

Let me introduce myself, I am Layal Ros, the vendor management from MagicTrans Company.

I have a large translation project with 45000 words.

Please see attached document files for translation.

Rate: 700USD
delivery date 18/4/21 3pm UK time

I decided to check here on ProZ before responding and I'm glad I did. The rate was really too low to consider, anyway, but what self-r
... See more
I just received the following email:

Let me introduce myself, I am Layal Ros, the vendor management from MagicTrans Company.

I have a large translation project with 45000 words.

Please see attached document files for translation.

Rate: 700USD
delivery date 18/4/21 3pm UK time

I decided to check here on ProZ before responding and I'm glad I did. The rate was really too low to consider, anyway, but what self-respecting translation company names themself "MagicTrans"? Glad I didn't waste my time!
And I'm really appreciative for ProZ providing forums like this so we can warn others.
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Tina Wooden
Tina Wooden
United States
Local time: 08:44
Japanese to English
+ ...
I almost fell for this too! Apr 8, 2021

Liviu-Lee Roth wrote:

Anastasia Kingsley Kinkusic wrote:

I had a potential scammer by the name of Dr Livingston (I presume!) send me excess funds for a job I hadn’t even started. We’d agreed on $2000 and he / she sent me $4500.

Beware of Friday afternoon cash transactions!

Dr L asked me to send the money to a third person - someone has made a big mistake. $2000 for me and $2500 for a Jane Doe. Locations were NY, Missouri -

I was constantly pushed to send the money 💰- but I didn’t.

My bank manager smelled a rat and said let’s wait till Monday to see if this check bounces. Sure enough it did.

The translator ends up sending $2500 from his/her own pocket.

I wrote Dr L a “shame on you” letter and was glad to have escaped the scam.

Translator- beware!



1- You should've realized from the very beginning that it is an overpayment scam, if you kept reading this forum;
2- No need to go to the bank to deposit the fake check;
3- The bank manager is an idiot if he suggested to wait until the check bounces - it takes about 7-10 days to clear the check;
4- If the check bounces, YOU pay a fee ($15-30). Is it worth it?
5- You replied a "shame on you letter" - useless. It is a whole industry and the scammer could be from the other end of the world (mentioned in this forum n-times).

Therefore wrong approach. I would suggest to browse through the "Scam" section at least once a week and stay informed.

Stay safe,
Lee


My banker took one look at the check and knew it was a fraud -- different fonts were used on one check, the company name did not match the account number's company name, etc. -- and told me NOT to try to deposit or cash it, because if it's a fake check, MY account could get frozen as a suspected accomplice to the check fraud scam! That could take over a week to sort out, and meanwhile if I can't pay my bills, I'd be hit with late fees as well as ruining my credit score.

We reported it to the bank's fraud management team so they could contact the bank that had supposedly issued the check. We also sent the check and the envelope it had come in to the FBI, not so much for fingerprints as for the date stamp on the envelope because it had been hand canceled at that post office -- so the Feds could probably get pictures from the post office's security cams. Of course, even if they made an arrest, more of these scammers just keep cropping up...

FYI, there is no other translator -- just another scammer waiting to get your money. I lost $600 worth of translation work that they didn't want anyway. Lesson learned.


 
Bajram Djambazi
Bajram Djambazi
United States
Local time: 07:44
English to Albanian
+ ...
Farm project scam "Sara", back doing more rounds Jun 16, 2021

Hi, everyone. I was contacted by "Sara", for a high-volume farm project.

I googled its title "FREE RANGE ORGANIC FARM PRODUCTION FOR THE PURPOSE OF COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT PROGRAM/LECTURE ON FARM PRODUCTION", and at least two threads of the ProZ spam forum were of the results on the first page. It is great to be here, for each other.


Rozmi Tamin
 
Phrase9
Phrase9  Identity Verified
South Africa
Arabic to English
Impersonation Oct 18, 2021

Someone is impersonating our company using our logo and address in their emails and offering translation jobs to linguists. The email they are using is "[email protected]". If an email address claiming to be from us does not end in the domain name "@phrase9.com" then it is fake and should be ignored and/or reported to Google.

Mr. Satan (X)
 
Oliver Simões
Oliver Simões  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 05:44
English to Portuguese
+ ...
Scam Alert: Scammers posing as Scribd recruiters Dec 4, 2021

I was contacted via text message by a "Jessica Dotch", who identified herself as a "temporary recruiter for Scribd Inc. Company". She said she was contacting me in regard to my resume posted through Indeed and made an upfront offer of $35 USD an hour to work for them as a translator. In her next message, she explained that this was a "remote position" and that the job interview would be via Skype, Telegram, or WhasApp. Once I told her I had Skype, she gave me the user id for "interviewer Peckard... See more
I was contacted via text message by a "Jessica Dotch", who identified herself as a "temporary recruiter for Scribd Inc. Company". She said she was contacting me in regard to my resume posted through Indeed and made an upfront offer of $35 USD an hour to work for them as a translator. In her next message, she explained that this was a "remote position" and that the job interview would be via Skype, Telegram, or WhasApp. Once I told her I had Skype, she gave me the user id for "interviewer Peckard Aaron" and encouraged me to contact him ASAP for "the comprehensive job details". I sent the guy a message expressing my interest in the position, but he didn't reply. The next thing he skypes me at 5 in the morning (when I happened to be online), asking me if I was ready for the interview. I told him yes. He asked me a few preliminary questions then simply disappeared. After waiting for a while, I sent him a message asking to contact me when he had dedicated time for the interview. I came back later and there was a message from him apologizing for his "slow internet connection". We resumed the interview, he asked me a set of 10 questions, the last of which was asking who I banked with. Apparently, he wanted to know if my bank was compatible with their payment platform. I didn't see any problem and naively answered the question. Then there was another long wait. Right when I was ready to leave, he came back, apologized, and gave me another set of questions. One of them contained a list of the different kinds of software that supposedly were required for the job. He wanted to know if I was familiar with any of them. I told him "only one" (i.e. Grammarly). After reading my answers (I suppose), he came back and asked if I was sure that I really wanted this job, more specifically whether I would be able to "catch up" with the unfamiliar software. I asked if the company would provide the software or if I would have to buy them. He said the company would provide the software, but then he said something that triggered a red light: "I will help you when you are ready to place the order" or something along those lines. Really? "If the company will provide the software, why do I have to use my credit card?", I thought. You have to feel sorry for these scammers, they think they are too smart. Another red light was his offering meager $9/hour for the training. No reputable company in the US, I hope, would offer anything below the minimum wage, it's illegal (or maybe I should take it back; yesterday I saw a job ad on ProZ from a company offering 0.01-0.03 per word. Good grief, what are we going to do with so much money?) Anyway, after the red light went on, I did a quick search on Google and found out there's a scam going on in which they pose as Scribd recruiters (see link below). According to the company, a legitimate recruiter will always contact applicants from a scribd.com email address, never by texting or telephone. It's no wonder that when I asked Mr. "Peckard" to email me the scheduled time for the interview, he never replied. Once I found out about this scam, I sent both "recruiters" a message warning them that I would not hesitate to report them to the FBI. Then I blocked both from all my communication channels. Later I search Skype for "Pckard Aaron's" id, but his profile was gone. Bottom line: don't be intimidated by these stupid scammers and always make sure to report them in as many channels as you possibly can. https://support.scribd.com/hc/es/articles/4411778326932-Avoiding-Fake-Scribd-Recruiters

[Edited at 2021-12-04 19:20 GMT]

[Edited at 2021-12-04 19:23 GMT]

[Edited at 2021-12-04 19:24 GMT]

[Edited at 2021-12-04 19:32 GMT]

[Edited at 2021-12-04 19:35 GMT]

[Edited at 2021-12-04 19:39 GMT]

[Edited at 2021-12-04 19:41 GMT]

[Edited at 2021-12-04 19:43 GMT]
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