Over the past few months, I have received a number of different emails from people trying to scam me. They were from different “companies”, they had different approaches, different pseudonyms, but they all had one same goal.
One of the emails was for an interpreting job. They accepted my rate, and additional fees, without any hesitation and they offered to pay me before I even rendered my services! Even though a part of me really wanted to believe that it was true -who wouldn’t want the money up front?- deep down I knew that something was wrong.
Another scammer contacted me about a translation job, and wanted me to tell him “which languages I could handle”…if this had been a serious potential client, they would be contacting me because they already know that I can deliver the translation services that they require.
So here’s what these bad guys have taught me, and a list of signs to look out for:
• the email is usually from a free email service (gmail, yahoo, hotmail, aol…)
• they do not know what languages you work in
• they offer to pay before the services are rendered
• they offer to pay in money order, PayPal, or travelers check
• they come across pushy
• they are not very interested in answering your questions or addressing your professional concerns and reply with simple short sentences like: “we’ll take care of everything”
• their priority is to find out where they can send the money to
• the email contains typos, spelling and grammar mistakes. It is written in very poor English
• the information about the job is extremely vague
• the email contains missing spaces which suggest copy/pasting
• they do not mind paying higher than market rate
Always type the company name + the word “scam” into Google. See what comes up. This will pull up any past forum postings, blog mentions and might help you find previous instances in which these same people have already tried scamming others.
If they provide a phone number in their email, call it for verification, and see how the phone is answered. And if they have an address, also go ahead and Google it. See what comes up.
You may also check and see if they are listed in the scams section of The Payment Practices (PP) https://www.paymentpractices.net/Scams.aspx. If you are sure that the email is a scam, and they are not yet listed on the scams page, please add their name, phone number email address and any additional contact information that they had provided so as to help other interpreters avoid their traps.
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Jennifer Bikkal Horne is an English and French interpreter and translator in Atlanta, Georgia. She runs Translations by Jen. She is an avid social networker who specializes in marketing. She is a member of the American Translators Association (ATA) and Board member of the Atlanta Association of Interpreters and Translators (AAIT). She blogs at www.translationsbyjen.wordpress.com. Contact: jen@translationsbyjen.com.