Unfortunately, scams are becoming more and more prevalent in our industry. This morning, we received the following from a Gmail address; which lead us to hit the delete button immediately. However, we were curious and googled the sender's company name, and sure enough, there were widespread reports of scams.
We currently need German to Spanish Translators.If you"re interested to work with us please contact us by e-mail as soon as possible. Thanks Donald DAIMOND TRANSLATIONS e-mail:daimondtrans@gmail.com P:6462916552 F:1-414-345-2346If you get this e-mail as well, please don't reply to it. As a matter of principle, we don't reply to non-serious inquiries coming from non-professional e-mail addresses, so this was an easy decision for us. This new trend in the profession is quite alarming to us, but it's fantastic that we have forums where we can communicate these happenings to others. Our colleague Jill Sommer just reported on a similar scam (perhaps the same individuals are behind it?) last week on her blog.
28 comments:
I've received several e-mails from this gentleman (term used loosely!). It's definitely a scam!
I will have to take your comments at face value, as I can't find anything negative (or otherwise) about this outfit on the web, other than your reference. But in what way is it a scam? And Corinne, how did this 'gentleman' mistreat you?
thanks a lot! i also received an e-mail like this....
@Alan: usually these scams involve mock customers requesting translations and then disappearing into cyberspace and leaving unpaid bills behind. This e-mail has been circulating in many different versions (with the same e-mail address) for a while now, and unfortunately, some folks might have fallen for it. There is no information whatsoever on this supposed agency on the translation networks we belong to/subscribe to, and no one has ever heard of them. We like to use this forum to tell colleagues about this! The internet is a wonderful thing -- years ago, you'd have to call your colleagues or write them a letter to get more information -- seems very archaic now. In general, a non-professional e-mail address should raise a flag.
@Corinne: we are on the same page!
@Anonymous: happy to help. Just hit the delete button and trust your gut.
I recommend to ask for prepayment if something seems wrong.
Judy & Dagmar: Thanks; I was just trying to figure out HOW it was a scam, and you explained it.
I just got the same Daimond e-mail, felt for it and sent my résumé. Look at the reply:
I"ll briefly give you details about the job then you canchoose to continue or not.We have a long term project fortranslations and the topicareas are:Business,Medical,Legal,Technical,Humanities,History,Arts,Politics,Economics,I.Te.t,cwe pay about 0.19$ per word source.and we can offer as much as 3000words 4 days in a week depending on how much work you can handle.And because ofthe kind of companies and the kind of project we are doing.We also require thatyou get Systran software(Business version).Even as you start work andwe can send one for you atvery good discount rate or you can get it by your self from a shop close toyou.I"ll be expecting your feedback on this so we an start theprocess.ThanksRegards,DonaldDAIMOND TRANSLATION
IT IS A SCAM!!! - silly me:-(
@Alan: happy to help. However, after reading Anonymous' experience, turns out this scam has a different angle than the one that had been reported (alas one that we have heard before; requiring the linguist to purchase software).
@Anonymous: thanks for sharing and so sorry to hear about your experience. I am glad you stopped with them right there after you got that atrocious e-mail. It's truly amazing that so many unethical folks try to take advantage of freelance translators. Luckily, we have international networks and blogs to tell each other about this. Be sure to look for red flags like bad grammar/spelling and non-professional e-mail addresses in the future -- those are usually indicators that you are not dealing with a legtimite buyer of translation services.
@Thomas Gruber: great idea! We have occassionally asked for pre-payment, and it's only fair: we can't extend free credit to folks we have not worked with before, unless they have positive payment practices reviews on translator networks.
I keep getting his messages, too. I never replied though. I did a google search and this is what I found on ProZ http://lav.proz.com/forum/software_applications/112609-systran_language_software.html.
It sounded very strange for a tranlsation agency to be selling SYSTRAN to potential cooperators, and like everybody else, I just hit a few buttons and came up with several "nice" stuff about that guy. And what actually triggered my curiocity was that, of all the questions I asked, he only replied that as soon as I get the SYSTRAN, we can get started. Well I guess I'll just get rid of him. Thanks for the info, it was helpfull.
hei, i received the same email today!
I"ll briefly give you details about the job then you can
choose to continue or not.We have a long term project for
translations and the topic
areas are:Business,Medical,Legal,Technical,Humanities,History,
Arts,Politics,Economics,I.T
e.t,c
we pay about 0.19$ per word source.and we can offer as much as 3000
words 4 days in a week depending on how much work you can handle.And because of
the kind of companies and the kind of project we are doing.We also require that
you get Systran software(Business version).Even as you start work and
we can send one for you at
very good discount rate or you can get it by your self from a shop close to
you.I"ll be expecting your feedback on this so we an start the
process.Thanks
Regards,
Donald
DAIMOND TRANSLATION
i trust u and delete it
Hello all. I too got an e-mail from this Donald guy.... What a Bozo! My first clue that he was a fraud is the fact that he misspelled his company's name. Diamond is not spelled Daimond. He should know better when hitting up people of linguistic background... LOL
Hello fellow colleagues,
I also got the same message. What I misunderstood the most was the 3000 words per week or day? The offer seemed lucrative and the uncapitalized I and missing dashes in punctuation just seemed like sympathetic mistakes from a young recruiting person of this great translation company offering me a secure pay and peace at last. All the more disappointing, but I have addresses that I can trace them to.
I think I had a dejavu when I saw the name of the salesperson John Francis, I've seen that name before. I misspelled Daimond with Diamond and corrected that on my final agreement form, tried to find excuses that they are going to be a serious company in the end - just in stress as usual - words like network clinch though I couldn't reach them on the phone through the directory, that he wouldn't tell me what federal state they are in and so on...found some more excuses concerning Americans and Germans..
and I wasted one whole week on this crap. I really hope that someone from America will trace them and call the appropriate authority to shut their offices down. These are the same people that have been terrorizing everybody with their spams for years. As I said, I can remember the name or pseudonym John Francis or maybe I am just really crazy because this is really the last thing I need. And that is the normal way a normal person reacts to spams. There is no need to call them scams or whatever and give them new names. It's the same huge criminal network and it's a problem for the INTERNET POLICE SQUAD, but there just isn't such a thing. And if these people are reading this - even last time I called the chief local police officer and gave him your number where I could reach someone from Africa.
Here's proof:
Thanks for your feedback.The signed agreement form is O.K.Your
specialties are also suitable with us, and we"ll be glad to get you
started with work.Hope you saw the invoice i sent earlier?We"ll accept
payment by Western union for Systran and the Dell laptop.Kindly make
payment by Western union (www.westernunion.com) to this details:
Rachelle King
Oregon,Washington,
U.S.A(United States of America.Once you make the payment we'll send
you the program and the laptop then get you started.Let me know if
this is suitable for you.I look foward to work with you.Thanks
Regards,
Donald
Belgium just helped me to find this blog and a colleague from Romania said that their company headquarters is in the U.K.
As I am in Munich, I hope that someone in the US or UK does react, because they already have my bank account. It's terribly cruel to misuse translators like this. It's my second ripp-off this year and I am going to the consumer protection authority to tell them about the third one, too, a call center ripp-off. And now thinking about it, I've had at least six kinds of ripp-offs like this. Spams, Scams, phone calls in any case messages with total criminal energy wearing you out. I want legal compensation damage for last week.
And for the last, I hope that some people will send me some translations. Thank you for listening.
Thank you for posting. I received this email as well. I didn't answer it because this clearly did not seem like a professional organization. As others have mentioned, the word "diamond", misspelled as though it were pronounced in Spanish, was the first tip off to what seemed like simply a joke. Then again, it's true that there are many organizations that employ workers who are unfamiliar both with the value of orthography and proper business etiquette.
Hello,
the only thing now left unraveled is: how many anonymous are there?
I just wanted to comment that Daimond does sound like a serious company from Washington - at least to me, originally from in a Slavic country.
What do you think of ripp-off? Should of course be rip-off.
I am also inviting everybody to a "worst misspelling party" - if you are braves!
I also got the same message, also telling me that I had to buy Systrans and that I could get it at a discount through them. That got me suspicious right away. Anyway, if anyone wants to find out who's behind this scam, I'd start with someone associated with Systran.
said:
we got the same e-mail. they asked to send a Western Union wire transfer to: Rachelle King at a Washing/Oregon WU address for a discounted copy of Systran. If you hear from either Donald Peters or Rachelle King regarding sending money, contact the FBI immediately.
Hi to all my colleagues. I got two letters. This is the first mail:
We currently need English to Sebian Translators.If you"re interested
to work with us please contact us by e-mail as soon as possible.
Thanks
Earl
EXCEL TRANSLATIONS
e-mail:exceltranslation@gmail.com
P:6462916552
F:1-414-345-2346
And this the second letter from him:
I``ll briefly give you details about the job then you can
choose to continue or not.We have a long term project for
translations and the topic
areas are:Business,Medical,Legal,Technical,Humanities,History,
Arts,Politics,Economics,I.T
e.t,c
we pay about 0.19$ per word source.and we can offer as much as 3000
words 4 days in a week depending on how much work you can handle.And because of
the kind of companies and the kind of project we are doing.We also require that
you get Systran software(Business version).Even as you start work and
we can send one for you at
very good discount rate or you can get it by your self from a shop close to
you.I"ll be expecting your feedback on this so we an start the
process.Thanks
Regards,
Earl
EXCEL TRANSLATION
=================
I want to thank to each of you, you helped me a lot.
Mickey, Freelancer
I received two days ago the exactly the same inquiry, promising the same benefits. I even received an invoice for Systrans discount copy. Everything looked so plane weird that I decided to google the net, which lead me to your blog. Great that you have posted that this guy is a crook.
@everyone: Thanks for your comments and input. We are truly delighted that our little blog is helping to stop unethical business behaviors. We will keep on posting about these as we hear about them to prevent our colleagues from falling for schemes like these.
I just got the same email. The problem is not the spam itself, it's apparently poor (or lack of) security on those "professional" sites storing users' emails.
Hello everyone,
I have also been victim of a scam and would like to warn everybody here.
The potential client sent me a 25000 words article about technology used for milking cows and requested a quote and terms and conditions of payment.
One of my conditions to start a job for a client I don't have much information about is to receive partial payment in advance. This man emailed back saying he wanted to pay for the percentage requested and since I did not have many details about him, apart from his name "Diester Hermann", I requested payment to be done via paypal and some more information about himself: address, landline telephone number, business email account, company he worked for and occupation.
He gave me an address from Munich and email me a scanned photo of his "German Passport" so that I could "trust" he was the person he was claiming to be. He said he did not have a paypal account, and that he worked independently and needed the translation for his Masters degree.
I suspected there was something fishy because he kept asking for my account details, so I checked the IP account from which the email was sent and I found out that he was in Nigeria, instead of Germany.
As I did not want to put a new client off, I was about to email him my details, but fortunately I took the necessary steps to find out that I was victim of a scam.
So... I learned the lesson... and hope you do not get any of this!!... Do not trust anybody... not even if they sent you a "passport" picture....and only ask for pre-payment if you have a paypal account!
Best wishes,
Jaquelina
Thanks for the warning. On 27-Feb-10 I received an email from a different "company" and contact person (Padena Translations, Steve Park) but the text and phone numbers are exactly as your report. While on this topic , I should report a different email received within hours which was recently reported on Proz.com as a money-laundering scam targeting ATA members: http://sve.proz.com/forum/money_matters/158975-ata_members_beware:_fake_translation_job_linked_to_fraud.html
I also received some emails from a company – Idioma.com – that seem very fishy. In the first one, the person – Steen Carlsson – mentioned that he had received my resume (which in fact I had sent to the company about one year ago, after seeing their website) and asked for my rates. After I sent my reply, another person – David Girotto, sent me an email offering me a rate of 0.045US/word and saying:
“If you can accept that then please send us your bank details, email addresses and all your telephone numbers. Also, all assignments are paid together by full calendar months, where we close e.g. all assignments delivered during May and then pay your total at the end of June. Payment is via bank transfer. Then we use what is called Metatexis, which is a translation memory program. Are you familiar with TM? “
I replied that I wasn’t familiar with that software and that I was uneasy about providing my bank information. I asked him to give me a phone number so I could call him to discuss. To that, he replied:
“We can supply you with the full version of Metatexis and we will initially finance this program. The list price is 109 Euros, but after discount the price is 90 Euros . So we give you the program to start with and ask you to pay it back in monthly installments of 15 Euros each month, for 6 months, by deducting the amount from your earnings. This will only apply if we have sent you work during that month. Please confirm that you can accept this. All assignments are paid together by full calendar months, where we close e.g. all assignments delivered during May and then pay your total at the end of June. Payment is via bank transfer. About your bank details, we get them all the time from other people, so you have nothing to worry about. Otherwise you can send it by post.”
Of course, I did worry. I was supposed to buy software and THEN get the work? And I had to give him my bank information when he couldn’t even supply me a phone number? I didn’t send anything and I am curious to see if someone else was contacted by that company.
Aw man, I'm sad it's a scam. I just got back from them after applying at this website (http://www.work4idioma.com/) and when they said the payment was via bank transfer I got a little suspicious - I was expecting Paypal, to be honest.
I think I will pass, then. Thankfully I found this blog entry, because there's no information on David Girotto online!
M: glad you found this post! Also have a look at PaymentPractices.net -- that's always the best place to start when investigating a potential new client, although we are not sure they have info on this particular outfit. It's $20/year and worth every penny.
Hi, It's not a scam. I have been working for Idioma as a free lance worker for 3 years now and they have always paid me on time by bank transfer.
I don't know about Diamond Translations, but idioma is a legit Czech company - nothing fishy there. I have been working with them for a couple of years now, and the payments have always been made on time and in full (via bank transfer, since I don't have a Paypal account).
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