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SCAM: translation of a 11,643-word document (various email addresses, payment with a check)
Thread poster: Thomas Szabo, MD, MS
Hang A (Christina) Kim
Hang A (Christina) Kim  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 04:08
English to Korean
+ ...
I just received the email from Cheryl Kutscher Oct 17, 2019

email title: [ProZ.com mail] AVAILABLE PROJECT

Cheryl Kutscher via ProZ.com

A ProZ.com user visited your ProZ.com profile and sent the following message.

Author: Cheryl Kutscher
[NOTE: The author is not a registered ProZ.com user or was not logged in when sending this message.]
Author's IP address: 41.58.85.33

-----------

Hello, I'm contacting you in regard to an English content
document worth 11,543 words (46 Pa
... See more
email title: [ProZ.com mail] AVAILABLE PROJECT

Cheryl Kutscher via ProZ.com

A ProZ.com user visited your ProZ.com profile and sent the following message.

Author: Cheryl Kutscher
[NOTE: The author is not a registered ProZ.com user or was not logged in when sending this message.]
Author's IP address: 41.58.85.33

-----------

Hello, I'm contacting you in regard to an English content
document worth 11,543 words (46 Pages). I need this document
translated into Korean , I would like to know if you are
interested and available to get this done for me. Please get
back to me as soon as you can via
email([email protected]). Thank you.

Best regard,
Cheryl
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Eleonora_P
Eleonora_P  Identity Verified
Italy
Local time: 12:08
Member (2012)
English to Italian
+ ...
Another similar email today Oct 17, 2019

Just received this today and I am almost sure it might be a similar scam:

******

Author: robert moeller [NOTE: The author is not a registered ProZ.com user or was not logged in when sending this message.]
Author's IP address: 36.85.194.218
Title: Request for quote

-----------

Hello

We have 30 A4 pages to translate from english to italian.We
would like to send you the file online.
The pages have a lot of phot
... See more
Just received this today and I am almost sure it might be a similar scam:

******

Author: robert moeller [NOTE: The author is not a registered ProZ.com user or was not logged in when sending this message.]
Author's IP address: 36.85.194.218
Title: Request for quote

-----------

Hello

We have 30 A4 pages to translate from english to italian.We
would like to send you the file online.
The pages have a lot of photos,sometimes about 90% of the
page are fotos,sometimes only 5 % writing on a page. Over
all about 50:50% fotos/writing.

No business english,just casual.

How would you calculate your carges,what will be the prize
?

Regards,
Robert Moeller

*******

Poor English, no addressee, Hotmail address, etc.
What do you think?



[Modificato alle 2019-10-17 15:17 GMT]

[Modificato alle 2019-10-17 15:18 GMT]
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Kay-Viktor Stegemann
Kay-Viktor Stegemann
Germany
Local time: 12:08
English to German
In memoriam
Could be genuine, but be careful Oct 17, 2019

Eleonora_P wrote:
The pages have a lot of photos,sometimes about 90% of the
page are fotos,sometimes only 5 % writing on a page. Over
all about 50:50% fotos/writing.

No business english,just casual.


The fact that this person actually seems to be interested in a translation and tries to describe the document in this way is a possible clue that this might be genuine and not a scam. You could go ahead, but be very careful (check any incoming file for viruses and such, check if the source document is just something pulled from the Internet, ask for a full business address that can be verified, try to establish skype contact or the like, and of course never in life accept check payment). Good luck.


Eleonora_P
Liviu-Lee Roth
Kevin Fulton
 
CFCreative
CFCreative
United States
Local time: 07:08
English to Spanish
+ ...
Scam Alert: Translation of a 12,750 word PPT from Spanish to English (44 Pages) Oct 21, 2019

Scam alert for our friends in the translation industry: beware of a client looking to quote a 44-page PowerPoint presentation from Spanish to English. Like most scams, they'll ask for a quote, then accept it, and promise to send out a check. Since we've been around for a while and know of almost no client who 1) accepts a relatively high-price quote unquestioned, and 2) agrees to send out a check without even speaking to anyone in our organization, we knew this was highly irregular and most cert... See more
Scam alert for our friends in the translation industry: beware of a client looking to quote a 44-page PowerPoint presentation from Spanish to English. Like most scams, they'll ask for a quote, then accept it, and promise to send out a check. Since we've been around for a while and know of almost no client who 1) accepts a relatively high-price quote unquestioned, and 2) agrees to send out a check without even speaking to anyone in our organization, we knew this was highly irregular and most certainly a scam, especially when the 'client' said 'she' would pay almost 3 times the quoted amount so we could move on to 'phase two' of the project, without having ever mentioned additional work. We knew better than to believe this was real, but humored the scammer.

We never got the check, but the scammer continues to text and email us to make sure we deposit the check ASAP, and send her back the excess amount since it was a mistake. This scam is old, but the addition of the professional-looking, long PPT and story about needing this to for her visa sponsor, a research team at a local university, makes it seem legitimate.

Beware of 'Patricia Pérez' and '[email protected]'. The account and name may change, but the story is almost always the same. hashtag#scams

Email history:


From: Patricia Perez
Date: September 28, 2019 at 8:53:33 AM EDT
To:
Subject: Spanish Content Translation

I'm contacting you in regard to an Spanish content document with 12,750 words words (44 Pages). I need this document translated to English. I would like to know if you are interested please get back to me asap thanks

Good morning Patricia, and thanks for reaching out to us regarding your translation needs.

What is your timeline for this project, and what is the subject? CF Creative specializes in all but medical and scientific material, with the exception of technology related to Microsoft products and services, as we’ve worked with them for 10+ years.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks, and best regards,


Andie Farris
Marketing Lead

From: Patricia Perez
Date: Monday, October 14, 2019 at 7:08 AM
To: Andrea Farris
Subject: Re: Spanish Content Translation

acknowledged the receipt of your payment information. Your payment will be prepared and mail out to you soon

The payment have been delivered, the payment you received include payment for second phase and i will send you the document once my sponsors approves and send it to me, Kindly proceed to deposit the check and get back to me with the confirmation

On Thu, Oct 17, 2019 at 5:13 PM Patricia Perez wrote:
Hello, I am so sorry for the delay, there is death in the family of my sponsor so i have little delay. I hope the project is in progress? But I am happy to inform you that your payment has been mailed out to you by my sponsor and You will receive it today. Also, we discussed about considering you for the next phase of this project, but I need to be sure the first phase will be well translated. The additional fee for the next phase of the project was added. We've calculated the next phase with your rate,
so the first phase and the next document will cost us.$4,980.70 and that is the amount on the check. We don't have much time now and here is the information....

Amount on check: …..…….$4,980.70

Tracking;;;;;9401 9102 0086 4783 4350 64 USPS

Kindly confirm with me as soon as you receive the payment. I hope to hear from you

soon.
Best Regards

After these emails on 10/15, we received several text messages on our business line asking us to confirm receipt of the check for $4,980.70 and they are providing a USPS tracking number and delivery confirmation slip. The mobile number from where they're sending text messages is 408-740-3769. All of this is fake. Please beware and reach out to us if you'd like additional information to help protect yourself and your firm.

Conchie Fernandez
Principal
CF Creative
Fort Lauderdale, Florida





[Edited at 2019-10-21 15:55 GMT]
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Bernhard Sulzer
Bernhard Sulzer  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 07:08
English to German
+ ...
"To get this done for me" Oct 22, 2019

Kay-Viktor Stegemann wrote:

The fact that this person actually seems to be interested in a translation and tries to describe the document in this way is a possible clue that this might be genuine and not a scam. ...


"To get this done for me" is just one sure clue it's a scam. Also the number of pages 11,... Also, the easy way to get paid and that's it's a casual, simple text with lots of pics. And yes, it's a good idea to verify as much as possible if you have any doubts.

[Edited at 2019-10-23 00:44 GMT]


 
Mihai Badea (X)
Mihai Badea (X)
Luxembourg
Local time: 12:08
English to Romanian
+ ...
Interesting strategy Oct 22, 2019

Kay-Viktor Stegemann wrote:

ask for a full business address that can be verified


As far as I know, genuine honest businesses will intentionally make it easy for you to verify them. And serious agencies that (still) use a Hotmail email for business purposes, that's really rare.

Maybe not a scammer, but perhaps not the ideal client either.


 
khuleg
khuleg
United States
Local time: 07:08
English to Mongolian
+ ...
Scammer '[email protected]' Oct 23, 2019

Another scammer! Haven't heard from this "outsourcer" after I've asked to confirm his identity, etc. Beware!
Below are his emails:

On Sun, Oct 20, 2019 at 03:44 Daniel Smith via ProZ.com wrote:

A ProZ.com user visited your ProZ.com profile and sent the following message.

Author: Daniel Smith
[NOTE: The author is not a registered ProZ.com user or was not logged in when sending this message.]
Author's IP address: 173.244.3
... See more
Another scammer! Haven't heard from this "outsourcer" after I've asked to confirm his identity, etc. Beware!
Below are his emails:

On Sun, Oct 20, 2019 at 03:44 Daniel Smith via ProZ.com wrote:

A ProZ.com user visited your ProZ.com profile and sent the following message.

Author: Daniel Smith
[NOTE: The author is not a registered ProZ.com user or was not logged in when sending this message.]
Author's IP address: 173.244.36.61

-----------

Hello, I'm contacting you in regard to an English content document worth 11,800 words (60 Pages). I need this document translated into Mongolian. I would like to know if you are interested to get this done for me. Please get back to me as soon as you can via email ([email protected]). Thank you.

The second email:

On Sun, Oct 20, 2019 at 04:53 dan smith wrote:

Hello , I'm pleased to know you are interested in handling this project. However, I will require your service to translate the attached English document. In the mean time, could you also confirm your charges per page, per source word or for the entire translation? The deadline for this Project is 1 month starting from 22/October/2019.Finally, I'm proposing a cashier check or bank certified check for the payment. Please do not hesitate to confirm if this is okay with you? I look forward to reading from you soon.


Best Regards
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Ildiko Santana
Ildiko Santana  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 04:08
Member (2002)
Hungarian to English
+ ...

MODERATOR
I received the same overpayment scam with the same "source file" on Oct 21, 2019 Oct 23, 2019

A ProZ.com user visited your ProZ.com profile and sent the following message.

Author: John Woods
[NOTE: The author is not a registered ProZ.com user or was not logged in when sending this message.]
Author's IP address: 66.115.169.202

-----------

Hello I'm contacting you in regard to an English content
document worth 11,800 words (60 Pages). I need this document
translated into
Hungarian. I would like to know if you are interest
... See more
A ProZ.com user visited your ProZ.com profile and sent the following message.

Author: John Woods
[NOTE: The author is not a registered ProZ.com user or was not logged in when sending this message.]
Author's IP address: 66.115.169.202

-----------

Hello I'm contacting you in regard to an English content
document worth 11,800 words (60 Pages). I need this document
translated into
Hungarian. I would like to know if you are interested to get
this done for me. Please get back to me as soon as you can
via email (
[email protected] ). Thank you.



-----------
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mona10
mona10
United States
Local time: 07:08
English to Romanian
+ ...
Scam translation from Cheryl Kutcher Oct 28, 2019

I also received these scam e-mails from Cheryl about translating text from English to Romanian but there were red flags in her reply and then it prompted me to do some research and realized it is a scam. She uses 2 different e-mail addresses: [email protected] and [email protected]. Another one that I received the same scam e-mail is from a Daniel Smith with e-mail address... See more
I also received these scam e-mails from Cheryl about translating text from English to Romanian but there were red flags in her reply and then it prompted me to do some research and realized it is a scam. She uses 2 different e-mail addresses: [email protected] and [email protected]. Another one that I received the same scam e-mail is from a Daniel Smith with e-mail address [email protected]. They both got my info from the ProZ site. Be careful and always research! Scammers are everywhere!Collapse


Liviu-Lee Roth
 
Tai Fu
Tai Fu  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 04:08
English to Chinese
+ ...
emails from "Melissa James" Nov 30, 2019

I just got this:

Hello, I'm contacting you in regard to a Chinese content document worth 11,643 words. I need this document translated into English. I would like to know if you are interested and available to get this done for me. Please get back to me as soon as you can via my email ([email protected]). Thank you.

Best regards.

And when I replied, I got this:

Hello
I'm pleased to know you are interested in handling this project. H
... See more
I just got this:

Hello, I'm contacting you in regard to a Chinese content document worth 11,643 words. I need this document translated into English. I would like to know if you are interested and available to get this done for me. Please get back to me as soon as you can via my email ([email protected]). Thank you.

Best regards.

And when I replied, I got this:

Hello
I'm pleased to know you are interested in handling this project. However, I will require your service to translate the attached Chinese document. In the mean time, could you also confirm your charges per page, per source word or for the entire translation? The deadline for this Project is 1 month starting from 27/November/2019. Finally, I'm proposing a cashier check or bank certified check for the payment. Please do not hesitate to confirm if this is okay with you? I look forward to reading from you soon.

Best Regards,

(attached a 20,000 word document in simplified Chinese)

I told them that I will only start the work if the check clears... so far I have not started the work. They said it has to be a US address so I gave them my dad's address. I told him that if the check clears to tell me, but otherwise I'm not doing anything.

I get semi-regular work from The Translation Gate anyways...
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Chely Hernandez-Miller
Chely Hernandez-Miller  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 07:08
English to Spanish
+ ...
I received the same scam....If it sounds too good to be true...it is!! Dec 11, 2019

"I'm contacting you in regard to an English content document with 11,643 words words (44 Pages). I need this document translated to Spanish. I would like to know if you are interested please get back to me asap thanks"
"I'm pleased to know you are interested in handling this project.However, I will require your service to translate the attached document. In the mean time, could you also confirm your charges per page, per source word or for the entire translation? The deadline for this Proj
... See more
"I'm contacting you in regard to an English content document with 11,643 words words (44 Pages). I need this document translated to Spanish. I would like to know if you are interested please get back to me asap thanks"
"I'm pleased to know you are interested in handling this project.However, I will require your service to translate the attached document. In the mean time, could you also confirm your charges per page, per source word or for the entire translation? The deadline for this Project is 1 month starting from 07 Dec-2019.
Finally, what would be your preferred mode of payment? Though I'm proposing a certified bank draft, a cashier check or bank certified check. Please do not hesitate to confirm if this is okay with you? I look forward to reading from you soon.
Best Regards"
"I quite agree with your price quote and I am willing to pay for your service. This project is a research paper being sponsor for a seminar coming up soon, so I would like to make an advance payment or make the full payment so you know you have my job with you but the payment can only made by CHEQUE and is Within the US only, do get back to me with the following payment information in the format below.

1. Full Name to be written on the Cheque
2. Full Physical Address:
3. Mobile number

"Your payment will be prepared once I have the requested details. Payment will be received before you send the document. Get back to me"

"I acknowledged the receipt of your payment information. Your payment will be prepared and mail out to you soon."

"Hello, I am so sorry for the delay, there is death in the family of my sponsor so i have little delay. I hope the project is in progress? But I am happy to inform you that your payment has been mailed out to you by my sponsor and will be delivered to you today. Also, we discussed about considering you for the next phase of this project, but I need to be sure the first phase will be well translated. The additional fee for the next phase of the project was added. We've calculated the next phase with your rate,
so the first phase and the next document will cost us $3,980.70 and that is the amount on the check. We don't have much time now and here is the information....

Amount on check: $3,980.70

Tracking;;;;;;;;777182518671 FedEx"



Kindly confirm with me as soon as you receive the payment. I hope to hear from you
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Haesoo Yoo
Haesoo Yoo
United States
Local time: 07:08
English to Korean
+ ...
Phishing SCAM: BE AWARE OF [email protected]; 302-348-9426! Jan 3, 2020

Hi Everyone, I report this phishing scam to you guys!

***********************************************
Full name: Frank Brandon (fake)
Phone number: 302-348-9426 (fake)

FedEx envelop that had check
Mailing address: 5260 W. Baseline Road LAVEEN VILLAGE, AZ 85339
Sender: David A Ramirez
Origin ID: NOLA
Phone #: 360-523-2404
Tracking: 7773 5590 8320

Hi,My name is Frank ,Am contacting you in regarding of
English co
... See more
Hi Everyone, I report this phishing scam to you guys!

***********************************************
Full name: Frank Brandon (fake)
Phone number: 302-348-9426 (fake)

FedEx envelop that had check
Mailing address: 5260 W. Baseline Road LAVEEN VILLAGE, AZ 85339
Sender: David A Ramirez
Origin ID: NOLA
Phone #: 360-523-2404
Tracking: 7773 5590 8320

Hi,My name is Frank ,Am contacting you in regarding of
English content document , I need this document to be
translated into Korean . I will like to know if you are
available to get this done for me . Kindly get back to (
[email protected] ) Thanks. Frank

***********************************************

This guy approached sneakily to my private gmail account after seeing my profile in proz.com,
and paid me $3780.30 through the fake check from Corliam Fabricating Company, and delivered by Fedex with very fake address which is Petco which is located at 5260 W. Baseline Road LAVEEN VILLAGE, AZ 85339. He forced me to deposit it right away and asked for return of amount for phase 2 via Cash App, which would be wired transfer.
I thought it was suspicious and searched for such incidents regarding scam, and appeared to be usual "my sponsor had death in family" scam.
Obviously, the name is fake and the phone number used for text message would also be fake using computer.
Not sure if the name on FedEx package is real, but if indeed it is real and he sent package from Petco, I hope police can sort it out and jail this m***** f*****.
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Liviu-Lee Roth
Liviu-Lee Roth
United States
Local time: 07:08
Romanian to English
+ ...
Please read the scam section on a regular basis Jan 3, 2020

Haesoo Yoo wrote:

Hi Everyone, I report this phishing scam to you guys!

***********************************************
Full name: Frank Brandon (fake)
Phone number: 302-348-9426 (fake)

FedEx envelop that had check
Mailing address: 5260 W. Baseline Road LAVEEN VILLAGE, AZ 85339
Sender: David A Ramirez
Origin ID: NOLA
Phone #: 360-523-2404
Tracking: 7773 5590 8320

Hi,My name is Frank ,Am contacting you in regarding of
English content document , I need this document to be
translated into Korean . I will like to know if you are
available to get this done for me . Kindly get back to (
[email protected] ) Thanks. Frank

***********************************************

This guy approached sneakily to my private gmail account after seeing my profile in proz.com,
and paid me $3780.30 through the fake check from Corliam Fabricating Company, and delivered by Fedex with very fake address which is Petco which is located at 5260 W. Baseline Road LAVEEN VILLAGE, AZ 85339. He forced me to deposit it right away and asked for return of amount for phase 2 via Cash App, which would be wired transfer.
I thought it was suspicious and searched for such incidents regarding scam, and appeared to be usual "my sponsor had death in family" scam.
Obviously, the name is fake and the phone number used for text message would also be fake using computer.
Not sure if the name on FedEx package is real, but if indeed it is real and he sent package from Petco, I hope police can sort it out and jail this m***** f*****.


I posted last week how these scams work. This overpayment scam is five or six years old and the text was bought on the dark web.
I was surprised reading that „He forced me to deposit it right away”. Nobody can do that. I commend you for searching thoroughly, but if you had been informed beforehand about this scam, you could have saved a lot of precious time.

Stay safe,
lee


Kevin Fulton
 
Erica Huttner
Erica Huttner  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 06:08
Member (2016)
Spanish to English
Exact same scam from a different email address Jan 7, 2020

I just received the same scam emails from someone named Danielle. The two emails quoted below and the attached document are exactly the same.

Leah Ashe wrote:

Just to add another report to this growing list … And to send a thank you to everyone who has posted in this thread.

Sounds as though many of these scams are run by the same artist. The person who emailed me used the same document and languages as reported by Gretchen Delfin – thank you, Gretchen, for confirming my suspicions! – but used the name Melissa Collins. Here’s the email exchange between “Melissa Collins” and me:


On Mon, Jun 24, 2019 at 12:48 PM Melissa Collins melissacollins090 [at] gmail [dot] com wrote:
I'm contacting you in regard to an Spanish content document with 12,750 words words (44 Pages). I need this document translated to English. I would like to know if you are interested please get back to me asap thanks

----------------------
From Me:
Dear Melissa,

Thank you for contacting me regarding this translation. I am available, and I would like to ask for more information about the project: Can you please tell me (1) the subject/field; (2) deadline; (3) anything else I should know about the author, client, or document; and (4) budget?
----------------------

I'm pleased to know you are interested in handling this project.However, I will require your service to translate the attached document. In the mean time, could you also confirm your charges per page, per source word or for the entire translation? The deadline for this Project is 1 month starting from 30 JUNE-2019.
Finally, what would be your preferred mode of payment? Though I'm proposing a certified bank draft, a cashier check or bank certified check. Please do not hesitate to confirm if this is okay with you? I look forward to reading from you soon.
Best Regards
[Attached document: INVESTIGACIÓN DE LOS PROCEDIMIENTOS DE UNA ORGANIZACIÓN PUBLICAS]


Liviu-Lee Roth
 
Nektaria Notaridou
Nektaria Notaridou  Identity Verified
Member
English to Greek
+ ...
Another scammer Jan 9, 2020

Different name same scam? See below for the emails exchanged, the name, address and tel nr s/he gave me:

Author: Bright
[NOTE: The author is not a registered ProZ.com user or was not logged in when sending this message.]
Author's IP address: 184.170.243.145
Message type: Request for quote

-----------

Hello, I'm contacting you in regard to an English content
document worth 15,800 words (70 Pages). I need this document
translated
... See more
Different name same scam? See below for the emails exchanged, the name, address and tel nr s/he gave me:

Author: Bright
[NOTE: The author is not a registered ProZ.com user or was not logged in when sending this message.]
Author's IP address: 184.170.243.145
Message type: Request for quote

-----------

Hello, I'm contacting you in regard to an English content
document worth 15,800 words (70 Pages). I need this document
translated into
Greek. I would like to know if you are interested to get
this done for me. Please get back to me as soon as you can
via email
([email protected]). Thank you.

===============================
Me: asking for source file.
Reply:

Hello.
it's basically about accounting.. I'm talking about 'Assessment of the effectiveness of accounting information as a tool for management decision' I guess you have a clue already with that. I send it to you when we agree. I just need it done in a week, let me know how fast you think you can go and also the pay please..
=================================
Me: asking for legal name, physical address, tel.
Reply:
We really have to have an agreement before i send documents over to you. let me know if i can we are together here. Tell me what the pay is. We have to be transparent here.
Regards
Bright Britten
4612 County Rd 616 #3
Alvarado, TX 76009, USA
727 877 0504
==================================
Me: giving a significantly overpriced cost range
Reply:
Hello , Thank you for getting back. I quite agree with your price quote and i am willing to pay for your service. This project is a research paper being sponsor for a seminar coming up soon, so I would like to make an advance payment or make the full payment so you know you have my job with you. In the mean time, do get back to me with the following payment information in the format below cause i would be paying through checks and wants this to be transparent
1. Full Name to be written on the Check
2. Full Physical Address:
3. Mobile number
Your payment will be prepared once I have the requested details. Payment will be received before you send the document. Get back to me asap.


[Edited at 2020-01-09 05:39 GMT]
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SCAM: translation of a 11,643-word document (various email addresses, payment with a check)







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