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SCAM ALERT: Freelancers and agencies, please beware of a scammer impersonating real translators
Thread poster: Lucia Leszinsky
APT Ltd
APT Ltd
United Kingdom
Local time: 04:30
English
how freelancers can avoid ending up in the spam bin Aug 22, 2012

In response to the comment "This really is a pity because for those of us who are legit, really want to work and are looking for opportunities, things like these limit our opportunities of getting new costumers":

I work in a translation company, and I am obviously keen to hear from good translators looking for work but I have had some bad experiences too (a fake German translator who did a horrendously bad job, and who turned out to be not a German lady but a man based in Palestine.
... See more
In response to the comment "This really is a pity because for those of us who are legit, really want to work and are looking for opportunities, things like these limit our opportunities of getting new costumers":

I work in a translation company, and I am obviously keen to hear from good translators looking for work but I have had some bad experiences too (a fake German translator who did a horrendously bad job, and who turned out to be not a German lady but a man based in Palestine...) and I have become wary of unsolicited applications.

If you are interested in working with a particular company, I would recommend giving them a ring and asking for the name of the person you should address your application to. Spam emails aren't usually addressed to a particular person so they will know that your application is genuine.
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Lucja Biel, Ph.D.
Lucja Biel, Ph.D.
Poland
Local time: 05:30
English to Polish
+ ...
same story Sep 3, 2012

Wieland Haselbauer wrote:

a few colleagues send me the IP in header lines of the spam mail, which is 37.75.214.130

This belongs to the Address: inetnum

Search result:

inetnum: 37.75.212.0 - 37.75.215.255
netname: PS-ORANGE-PALESTINE
descr: Orange Palestine Group Co. for Technological Investment Joint Stock Private Company
country: PS
status: Assigned PA
mnt-by: Orange-MNTNER



Same story, I'm afraid. A person from Palestine is using my CV and sending it out repeatedly to all possible translation agencies with my real email replaced by hotmail and gmail addresses. The person is using a return-path of [email protected] (IP 209.85.213.177). When offerred a job, s/he provides Rafah Israel as a current place of residence, says s/he works for a translation agency now and provides a bank account held by Kamel M M Salama in Palestine Islamic Bank. When asked for the full details of the translation agency, the scammer stopped responding. This should hopefully arouse suspicion of outsourcers.
The IP itself points to California so this may not always work but a return-path and envelope sender indicate that this is a mass scam.

I am wondering whether these scams will change the way freelancers solicit jobs.

best,
Lucja


 
Lydia De Jorge
Lydia De Jorge  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 23:30
English to Spanish
+ ...
My identity has been stolen! Sep 12, 2012

Several agencies have contacted me to verify my information as they have received an email with my CV soliciting work. I am outraged! What can we do to protect ourselves?

 
Christopher & Rozilene Frye
Christopher & Rozilene Frye  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 01:30
Member (2011)
Portuguese to English
+ ...
CVs in PDF not much protection Sep 21, 2012

I went ahead and put our CVs in PDF format, but any crook with half a brain knows how to take a screen shot and OCR it, or simply read your CV and type the information. The only answer is research and be careful!

 
Claudio Rondeico
Claudio Rondeico  Identity Verified
Canada
Local time: 22:30
English to Portuguese
+ ...
Beware, they're among us Sep 25, 2012

I was recently offered to sign the following agreement:


Authorization and Agreement
Our company would like to ask for your permission giving us the
authority to send your CV and cover letter to our clients.
- Our policy does not allow direct contact between the freelancer and
our clients.
- Your contact details will be replaced by a free email where projects
will be sent to.
- Our company will have full authority dealing with your CV by
marketing it and receiving projects on your behalf.
- Any other information or certificates of you might be sent by email to
our clients if needed.
- The projects we receive on your behalf will be directly sent to you.
- If not available, our team will send the project to another freelancer.
If you agree to these terms, we will instantly start working on your CV giving you the chance to have your projects delivered to you without making any effort. This agreement makes you one of our team and consequently an active one. This would also make you a priority in any development plan in the near future. This agreement will facilitate your work in a crowded translation market with a high level of competition.

Signing this agreement means you agree on all the above-mentioned terms.

Your name Your signature


Looks rather fishy.
1- Who's "Our company"?
2- The contract never expires!
3- They have full authority with dealing with my CV!


 
Enrique Cavalitto
Enrique Cavalitto  Identity Verified
Argentina
Local time: 01:30
Member (2006)
English to Spanish
Scam alert was issued Sep 25, 2012

Cláudio Rondeico wrote:

I was recently offered to sign the following agreement:


Authorization and Agreement
Our company would like to ask for your permission giving us the
authority to send your CV and cover letter to our clients.
- Our policy does not allow direct contact between the freelancer and
our clients.
- Your contact details will be replaced by a free email where projects
will be sent to.
- Our company will have full authority dealing with your CV by
marketing it and receiving projects on your behalf.
- Any other information or certificates of you might be sent by email to
our clients if needed.
- The projects we receive on your behalf will be directly sent to you.
- If not available, our team will send the project to another freelancer.
If you agree to these terms, we will instantly start working on your CV giving you the chance to have your projects delivered to you without making any effort. This agreement makes you one of our team and consequently an active one. This would also make you a priority in any development plan in the near future. This agreement will facilitate your work in a crowded translation market with a high level of competition.

Signing this agreement means you agree on all the above-mentioned terms.

Your name Your signature


Looks rather fishy.
1- Who's "Our company"?
2- The contract never expires!
3- They have full authority with dealing with my CV!


A scam alert message was sent on this issue on September 12.

Regards,
Enrique


 
english-germ (X)
english-germ (X)
Local time: 05:30
English to German
+ ...
CVs allegedly stolen from translation agency databases Sep 29, 2012


I would say that removing your CVs from your ProZ.com profiles or elsewhere would not stop this scammer as long as translators keep responding with a copy of their CVs to their fake offers to be added to their database.


In fact removing the CV from PROZ might not help. I was recently alerted by a unexpected e-mail that someone identified a link between the identity theft scams described above and a vendor manager of a global translation agency.















[Bearbeitet am 2012-10-02 14:19 GMT]


 
Emilie Couprie
Emilie Couprie  Identity Verified
Local time: 04:30
Member (2011)
English to French
+ ...
Authorization and Agreement - Scam issue Oct 5, 2012

[quote]Enrique Cavalitto wrote:

[quote]Cláudio Rondeico wrote:

I was recently offered to sign the following agreement:


Authorization and Agreement
Our company would like to ask for your permission giving us the
authority to send your CV and cover letter to our clients.
- Our policy does not allow direct contact between the freelancer and
our clients.
- Your contact details will be replaced by a free email where projects
will be sent to.
- Our company will have full authority dealing with your CV by
marketing it and receiving projects on your behalf.
- Any other information or certificates of you might be sent by email to
our clients if needed.
- The projects we receive on your behalf will be directly sent to you.
- If not available, our team will send the project to another freelancer.
If you agree to these terms, we will instantly start working on your CV giving you the chance to have your projects delivered to you without making any effort. This agreement makes you one of our team and consequently an active one. This would also make you a priority in any development plan in the near future. This agreement will facilitate your work in a crowded translation market with a high level of competition.

Signing this agreement means you agree on all the above-mentioned terms.

Your name Your signature



Do not sign this document because they will send your CV with fake emails to several agencies around the world making a copy paste of your cover letter and enclosing CV.
Later they send you some proposals but this is purely an identity-stealing !!!!!!!

No one can introduce your translation activity to agencies or companies on your behalf.

I am in trouble with them, obviously no phone number or address to reach them.

The contact person is Tomas Anan, and he uses the following email address : [email protected]
Do not reply to his posts.

Good luck.


 
english-germ (X)
english-germ (X)
Local time: 05:30
English to German
+ ...
Scam is still growing Oct 7, 2012

I still keep receiving these fake applications and several e-mails a days from "undisclosed recipients". I also still wonder if they might abuse my e-mail and CV too.

In fact the e-mails mostly come from Palestine administration territory or a IP address in Mountainview, CA (which is a common proxy server IP) and propose that the fake applicant has a "name.surname" or "name.surname1" address at googlemail and/or hotmail.

The question is, where did they find my e-mail?... See more
I still keep receiving these fake applications and several e-mails a days from "undisclosed recipients". I also still wonder if they might abuse my e-mail and CV too.

In fact the e-mails mostly come from Palestine administration territory or a IP address in Mountainview, CA (which is a common proxy server IP) and propose that the fake applicant has a "name.surname" or "name.surname1" address at googlemail and/or hotmail.

The question is, where did they find my e-mail?

I recently noted that in a global text translation agency in the Netherlands there is a person (the individual might be of allochthon origin but now has adopted a Dutch surname due to marriage) working as a vendor manager. The person is connected to a political group called "Al-Quds Underground" in East-Jerusalem. I allege the person to be the link between the stolen translator database details and the Palestinian scammers.

If anybody has any evidence supporting this, I would be happy to assist in a report to the Dutch police.
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Claudio Rondeico
Claudio Rondeico  Identity Verified
Canada
Local time: 22:30
English to Portuguese
+ ...
They wouldn't keep using the same email for too long Oct 9, 2012

[quote]Emilie Couprie wrote:

[quote]Enrique Cavalitto wrote:

Cláudio Rondeico wrote:

I was recently offered to sign the following agreement:


Authorization and Agreement
Our company would like to ask for your permission giving us the
authority to send your CV and cover letter to our clients.
- Our policy does not allow direct contact between the freelancer and
our clients.
- Your contact details will be replaced by a free email where projects
will be sent to.
- Our company will have full authority dealing with your CV by
marketing it and receiving projects on your behalf.
- Any other information or certificates of you might be sent by email to
our clients if needed.
- The projects we receive on your behalf will be directly sent to you.
- If not available, our team will send the project to another freelancer.
If you agree to these terms, we will instantly start working on your CV giving you the chance to have your projects delivered to you without making any effort. This agreement makes you one of our team and consequently an active one. This would also make you a priority in any development plan in the near future. This agreement will facilitate your work in a crowded translation market with a high level of competition.

Signing this agreement means you agree on all the above-mentioned terms.

Your name Your signature



Do not sign this document because they will send your CV with fake emails to several agencies around the world making a copy paste of your cover letter and enclosing CV.
Later they send you some proposals but this is purely an identity-stealing !!!!!!!

No one can introduce your translation activity to agencies or companies on your behalf.

I am in trouble with them, obviously no phone number or address to reach them.

The contact person is Tomas Anan, and he uses the following email address : [email protected]
Do not reply to his posts.

Good luck.


Hi, Emilie.
Don't you think that even if I didn't sign the "agreement" they can still contact agencies around the world on my behalf?
Also, since he was reported he must have already created other fake identity so that he can keep scamming people.


 
Ana Myriam Garro (X)
Ana Myriam Garro (X)  Identity Verified
Local time: 01:30
English to Spanish
+ ...
I didn't receive that contract to sign but Oct 9, 2012

my CV continues to be stolen. Last week and yesterday I received mails from two different agencies asking me if I had send the email that they forwarded to me. The scammer/s is/are happily using my CV and only change the email address. I thank the two agencies that contacted me, but I am wondering how many received "my application" for a translation job. Earlier in this thread it was recommended to use PDF format CVs, I did that and it didn't work either, they found a way to convert it into ano... See more
my CV continues to be stolen. Last week and yesterday I received mails from two different agencies asking me if I had send the email that they forwarded to me. The scammer/s is/are happily using my CV and only change the email address. I thank the two agencies that contacted me, but I am wondering how many received "my application" for a translation job. Earlier in this thread it was recommended to use PDF format CVs, I did that and it didn't work either, they found a way to convert it into another format and change the email address. Now I have my CV in JPG format. I still can't believe that this is happening, but on the other hand I am glad to notice that agencies are checking the information.Collapse


 
Mariusz Kuklinski
Mariusz Kuklinski  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 04:30
Member
English to Polish
+ ...
Thanks, Timothy Dec 8, 2012

Thanks, Timothy. I have been just contacted by a pretended outsourcer promising a lot of work on behalf of a rather exotic agency, by an e-mail from a free webmail address. I followed your advice and converted my Word CV into a pdf file.

BR
Mariusz Kuklinski


 
Mariusz Kuklinski
Mariusz Kuklinski  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 04:30
Member
English to Polish
+ ...
@ Ana Myriam Garo Dec 8, 2012

) Jpg is even better than pdf!
BR
Mariusz Kuklinski


 
Kamran Nadeem
Kamran Nadeem  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 00:30
Member (2005)
English to Urdu
+ ...
Thanks! Dec 19, 2012

Thanks for this valuable information

 
Melanie Meyer
Melanie Meyer  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 00:30
Member (2010)
English to German
+ ...
They are still trying Jan 6, 2013

Thank you very much for your alert on a certain outsourcer's Blue Board record, Lucia.

This is just to inform my colleagues that this company is still trying the same scam. I received an email from them this morning asking me to fill out release forms so that we could start collaborating since they "found my CV interesting".

When I checked their Blue Board records, I came across this scam alert. Thanks again!


 
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SCAM ALERT: Freelancers and agencies, please beware of a scammer impersonating real translators







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