Approach by GMAIL Thread poster: 2690984 (X)
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Dear ProZ members and colleagues,
I received an email this morning, and I'm not sure how to proceed or even if I should get back to the sender.
A ProZ.com user visited my ProZ.com profile and sent the following message:
"Hello,
Can i submit my document for translation from English to
Portuguese ? And are you free to handle it right now? Its a
community development lecture On Organic Farming which i
organize to support the you... See more Dear ProZ members and colleagues,
I received an email this morning, and I'm not sure how to proceed or even if I should get back to the sender.
A ProZ.com user visited my ProZ.com profile and sent the following message:
"Hello,
Can i submit my document for translation from English to
Portuguese ? And are you free to handle it right now? Its a
community development lecture On Organic Farming which i
organize to support the youth going into farming and animal
production as a business and i want it translated/submitted
before April 26th. Please respond back if you can meet up
with this deadline.
Thanks"
The thing is, I have recently been contacted by sketchy clients who offer the most bizarre gigs (mostly in this other website Freelancer.com, where I don't have an account anymore). What made me suspicious about the email I got this morning was that there was no link that would connect her message to Proz website. If I am to reply to her email, I have to use the sender's email (Gmail) address.
Just below this sender message, there was the following:
"Author: xxxxxxxxxx [NOTE: The author is not a registered ProZ.com user or was not logged in when sending this message.]
Author's IP address: xxxxxxxxxxxx"
Please, note that I used above "xxxxxx" to protect the sender's name and IP address.
The sender might be legit and have good intentions, but I just wanted to check here first and see if some of you with more experience could give me any guidance.
Thank you so much,
Carla ▲ Collapse
| | | | Samuel Murray 
Netherlands
Local time: 08:11
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
Carla O. wrote:
What made me suspicious about the email I got this morning was that there was no link that would connect her message to the Proz.com website.
If the message was sent via ProZ.com, the sender would be [email protected], but whether you would be able to see the sender's address depends on what e-mail program you're using (some e-mail programs hide this information from the user).
Also, the subject line should start with "[ProZ.com mail]" (but that can be faked).
If the person was not logged in at ProZ.com when they sent the message, then these words will also appear at the top of the message: "A ProZ.com user visited your ProZ.com profile and sent the following message." And of course, the information you posted about the footer will be in the footer.
If you use your e-mail program's "REPLY" function, the e-mail should go directly to the person and not to ProZ.com (but again, this depends on how your e-mail program works).
If I am to reply to her email, I have to use the sender's email (Gmail) address.
Yes, I don't think there is an option in ProZ.com's system whereby you can reply to an e-mail (from a potential client) in such a way that the message goes to that person via ProZ.com again (thereby hiding your real contact details from the person). So you're going to have to contact her via e-mail in the usual way.
[Edited at 2019-03-25 07:07 GMT]
| | | | DZiW (X)
Ukraine
English to Russian
+ ...
| business awareness | Mar 25, 2019 |
Hello Carla--it's a pity so many even decent specialists are but poor businessmen.
Indeed, using a free email box is ok sometimes, but mostly not for new* biz, let alone[NOTE: The author is not a registered ProZ.com user or was not logged in when sending this message.] implying that (1) an unidentified stranger (2) without proper introduction and contacts--(3) ignoring your name/title (4) didn't care to login or register to do the good business.
Sometimes it may be a frantic rush, yet mostly it's (A) lack of respect, (B) lack of professionalism, and (C) wish to stay anonymous--starting it badly ratly...
As far as a legal and fair business is usually based on mutual trust, in the era of digitized info and virtual personalities, such red flags make it closer to a glowing fraud--especially without double-checking the real company contacts.
Take care
| | | | | Another scam or, at least, "trouble" | Mar 25, 2019 |
Carla, take a look at this article that will help you how to identify fake emails and scams:
https://www.proz.com/about/translator-scam-alerts/
Make sure to subscribe to receive scam alerts.
I hope it helps.
Regards,
Sonia
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2690984 (X)
TOPIC STARTER
Thank you, Sonia! I will check this link out!
| | | | Lianne van de Ven
United States
Local time: 02:11
Member (2008)
English to Dutch
+ ...
| This is a scam | May 12, 2019 |
Good for you for asking around before acting! The email behavior that you describe is normal, but it is really anonymous and the sender doesn't provide any information about themselves. The only thing you have is a gmail address. The digits in it are a red flag. Someone is completely anonymously inquiring about services.
I received the same message, one on May 8 with subject line [ProZ.com mail] URGENTLY NEEDED and one today with [ProZ.com mail] English translator to Polish. The typ... See more Good for you for asking around before acting! The email behavior that you describe is normal, but it is really anonymous and the sender doesn't provide any information about themselves. The only thing you have is a gmail address. The digits in it are a red flag. Someone is completely anonymously inquiring about services.
I received the same message, one on May 8 with subject line [ProZ.com mail] URGENTLY NEEDED and one today with [ProZ.com mail] English translator to Polish. The type of body that they sent out is suspicious and I reported both to proz.com as scam now.
Hello,
Can i submit my document for translation from English to
Dutch? And are you free to handle it right now? Its a
community development
lecture On Organic Farming which i organize to support the
youth going into farming and animal production as a business
and i want it
translated/submitted before July 4th. Please respond back if
you can meet up with this deadline.
Thanks
Dwane
Other flags:
* July 4th is a long time away from today. It may make someone think it's a nice big and serious job but probably is an overpayment scam (see more here: https://www.westernunion.com/us/en/fraudawareness/fraud-types.html)
* Requests for translation of lectures have been used in scams for a while. I am not sure what makes them so popular for this purpose.
* Larger jobs from new clients: I rarely accept these and never without thorough checking of credentials (including IP address).
* I suspected these were scams because of the type of message, and because the IP points to the use of a VPN. One mail used IP 45.56.160.0/24 - SALT-LAKE-CITY with business name Strong Technology LLC, which is a VPN service. That in itself is not bad, but if someone want to be credible, they should not send emails while running VPN service. The other IP has been reported 5 times: https://www.abuseipdb.com/check/193.37.252.58.
Success! ▲ Collapse
| | | | | I received four of those emails in two days from two different people | May 12, 2019 |
As I do more than one language pair, I received the exact same email for one pair, responded I was not available, then one hour later , another email , exactly like the one before, asking about another pair.
One simple way to check is ask them about their billing address and tell them you refuse to be paid by certified check, only PayPal. They will disappear.
I was once sent a USD 4000 check for a 700 USD translation I had not even done (did not believe it was legit, in... See more As I do more than one language pair, I received the exact same email for one pair, responded I was not available, then one hour later , another email , exactly like the one before, asking about another pair.
One simple way to check is ask them about their billing address and tell them you refuse to be paid by certified check, only PayPal. They will disappear.
I was once sent a USD 4000 check for a 700 USD translation I had not even done (did not believe it was legit, intros to Adam Smith's work?) Of course I did not deposit it. ▲ Collapse
| | | | IrinaN
United States
Local time: 01:11
English to Russian
+ ...
Please see my recent post in Scam Alerts.
Gmail is the last thing you should be worried about.
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