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overpayment scam
Thread poster: Mary C Ellis
Jean Dimitriadis
Jean Dimitriadis  Identity Verified
English to French
+ ...
Encore Jun 11, 2020

This did strike a chord, Mervyn.

Or rather, my vocal chords, with laughter!

My love to Scammie.


Sheila Wilson
Liviu-Lee Roth
Beatriz Ramírez de Haro
 
Iris Schmerda
Iris Schmerda  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 12:32
Member (2016)
French to German
+ ...
Horrible Jun 11, 2020

What a horrible situation. I am sorry you got scammed like that.

I have got one question: Did the scammers use gmail addresses? Or did they somehow manage to fake "normal" e-mail addresses?


 
Natalie
Natalie  Identity Verified
Poland
Local time: 12:32
Member (2002)
English to Russian
+ ...

MODERATOR
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Why don't you check the scam alert center? Jun 11, 2020

https://www.proz.com/about/translator-scam-alerts

Why don't you read the scam alert reports at http://wiki.proz.com/wiki/index.php/Translator_scam_alert_reports

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Why don't you read the scam alert reports at http://wiki.proz.com/wiki/index.php/Translator_scam_alert_reports

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Mervyn Henderson (X)
Mervyn Henderson (X)  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 12:32
Spanish to English
+ ...
@Jean Jun 11, 2020

I passed on your regards, Jean, and do you know what? It turns out she has a cousin in Gabon, Felicity Angela Knomo Ebenezer, who has been trying to secure the release of twenty million dollars from a bank there, and - get this - amazingly you have the same surname as her dead father-in-law, to whom the money belonged. Her husband was run over by a bus and killed only last week before he could sign for the money, and no other family members have this surname, so perhaps you could help by paying ... See more
I passed on your regards, Jean, and do you know what? It turns out she has a cousin in Gabon, Felicity Angela Knomo Ebenezer, who has been trying to secure the release of twenty million dollars from a bank there, and - get this - amazingly you have the same surname as her dead father-in-law, to whom the money belonged. Her husband was run over by a bus and killed only last week before he could sign for the money, and no other family members have this surname, so perhaps you could help by paying the release fees to get the Dimitriadis millions out of there. I've seen a photo of her too, she's a dead ringer for Scarlett Johansson, and Felicity Angela totally flipped when she saw yours, and wants to know more about you. Sounds like opportunity knocking at your door too.Collapse


Liviu-Lee Roth
Christopher Schröder
Jean Dimitriadis
Beatriz Ramírez de Haro
 
Sheila Wilson
Sheila Wilson  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 11:32
Member (2007)
English
+ ...
Whoa! Jun 11, 2020

Iris Schmerda wrote:
I have got one question: Did the scammers use gmail addresses? Or did they somehow manage to fake "normal" e-mail addresses?

Oh please, what's not normal about a gmail address? Millions of people use gmail addresses. Only a tiny percentage of them are scammers.

Most of us are totally legitimate. Quite a few of my good clients use them, particularly the translators who outsource their overload. I use one because I started off by using my ISP's one and they went bust and were taken over by Orange. Overnight, with just one emailed warning, they deleted my email account and I lost everything -- business and personal emails and contacts. I decided the same thing was less likely to happen to Google.


Vesa Korhonen
Robert Rietvelt
IrinaN
Joe France
Liviu-Lee Roth
Angus Stewart
 
Dan Lucas
Dan Lucas  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 11:32
Member (2014)
Japanese to English
For individuals yes, but not agencies/direct corporate clients Jun 11, 2020

Sheila Wilson wrote:
Oh please, what's not normal about a gmail address? Millions of people use gmail addresses. Only a tiny percentage of them are scammers.

Sure, it's not at all unusual for freelancers, and that's fine. After all, not everybody wants to mess around with domain names, DNS servers and MX records. Same goes for freelancers who occasionally offer overflow work to others, but I class these as "individuals" in terms of their risk profile. That is, I regard them by default as higher risk, and would require payment up-front and so on.

For my part, I have never had dealings with an agency/company of any size that uses gmail. If somebody purporting to be an agency/company employee were to use a gmail email to offer me work, it would be an instant red flag, and I would take an even more cautious approach. It's a reasonable heuristic for screening out fake clients.

That doesn't mean that all those who send email that appears to be from a company domain are genuine, of course.

Dan


expressisverbis
Christopher Schröder
Michele Fauble
 
Sheila Wilson
Sheila Wilson  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 11:32
Member (2007)
English
+ ...
My clients are a very mixed bunch -- maybe more so than normal Jun 11, 2020

Dan Lucas wrote:
For my part, I have never had dealings with an agency/company of any size that uses gmail. If somebody purporting to be an agency/company employee were to use a gmail email to offer me work, it would be an instant red flag, and I would take an even more cautious approach. It's a reasonable heuristic for screening out fake clients.

I've just scanned my client list and I see 21 clients since 2012 who have used gmail addresses. At least 5, maybe more are boutique agency owners. Several more are small business owners who are/were direct clients. Many of the others are freelancers who outsource. I wouldn't regard them as private individuals -- those are very much B2B transactions, AFAIC.

But no, I agree that you wouldn't expect the behemoths of the industry to use gmail addresses. Then again, I rarely collaborate with those. Most of the intermediate-size agencies use their own domain's addresses too.


Dan Lucas
 
Dan Lucas
Dan Lucas  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 11:32
Member (2014)
Japanese to English
Again we come back to... Jun 12, 2020

Sheila Wilson wrote:
I've just scanned my client list and I see 21 clients since 2012 who have used gmail addresses. At least 5, maybe more are boutique agency owners. Several more are small business owners who are/were direct clients.

...the inescapable heterogeneity of the industry. So many different ways to approach the task of translation and related services.

"World is crazier and more of it than we think,
Incorrigibly plural."

Regards,
Dan


Sheila Wilson
 
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