Scammers approaching translators using ProZ.com Thread poster: Sayda Pineda
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Sayda Pineda 
United States
Local time: 12:28
Member (2010)
English to Spanish
Hi All,
I have been approached by too many scammers lately. It is easy to recognize they are scammers, some don't even know how to write an email properly, some have spelling or language errors, they are vague and they say they have "some" translation work, they even attach suspicious documents that I never open. Some are more polished and sound like real customers.
Many of them want to pay by check or money order. All of these fake "customers" who have sent me an ema... See more Hi All,
I have been approached by too many scammers lately. It is easy to recognize they are scammers, some don't even know how to write an email properly, some have spelling or language errors, they are vague and they say they have "some" translation work, they even attach suspicious documents that I never open. Some are more polished and sound like real customers.
Many of them want to pay by check or money order. All of these fake "customers" who have sent me an email and I can recognize as scammers are contacting me via ProZ.com.
They appear as unregistered users and they have generic email addresses (yahoo, gmail, hotmail, etc.)
Is there a way that ProZ.com can help us filter these users? Perhaps there should be some kind of form that they should fill out in order to reach translators via ProZ that includes their physical address, country or any info that can further identify them? This might disuade some of them.
Or... can proZ create a page where we can report suspicious email addresses and names? Although this seems too much work...but if you are going to be robbed it might be useful.
Perhaps it´s only me and I am overly suspicious and this is not happening to many people, but I think that if they are so insistent it's because it's worked for them and they have trapped some honest people and cheated them out of their labor, information or money. ▲ Collapse
| | | | DarwinE
United States
Local time: 14:28
Spanish to English
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| This website already does a decent job of compiling e-mails | Nov 6, 2018 |
http://www.translator-scammers.com/translator-scammers-directory.htm
Has a database of of e-mails used by scammers, and tips on how to determine whether that lucrative offer you just received is real or a real scam. Even has a list of active scammers of the current week. I just received such an offer today and sure enough that e-mail was on the list.
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Dear moderators of this forum.
Earlier tonight, about 30 minutes within the OP's post, I have posted a reply which also included the links to some relevant posts in the Scams forum of ProZ. Now I cannot find it under this post.
Is there a reason for the removal (I wasn't informed about such action). Or maybe there is another reason why I cannot see it?
Thank you in advance for your clarification.
Elif
| | | | Sayda Pineda
United States
Local time: 12:28
Member (2010)
English to Spanish
TOPIC STARTER | Intresting page | Nov 7, 2018 |
@Darwin. Thanks for the link.
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| | Sheila Wilson
Spain
Local time: 20:28
Member (2007)
English
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| Email settings | Nov 7, 2018 |
It doesn't make the scammers go away, but I can only be contacted through the site by logged-on users. I get a very occasional scammer who has actually bothered to create a basic profile, but very few. It's a setting somewhere.
| | | | Jo Macdonald
Spain
Local time: 21:28
Italian to English
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Hi Sayda,
The Email settings are in your profile, settings, email preferences.
I have mine set to "Allow anyone to send me messages via my profile page" and get almost no scam/spam mail.
Not exactly sure why, but I have no visible mail addresses in my profile, they're all in "mail to" format. I'll also tell anyone using the To: box to send messages to mailing lists to remove my mail from the list.
| | | | Woodstock (X)
Germany
Local time: 21:28
German to English
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| Where to adjust your settings | Nov 7, 2018 |
You can control who sends you messages in the "My communication settings" under your user name at the top right (in the dark green bar). Mouse over your name and a pop-up window appears that lists numerous options for personalizing ProZ to suit your preferences. The first option under "My communication settings" is "Profile mail settings", where you can set who is able to contact you through your profile page.
Personally, I even use the "Allow only logged-in ProZ.com members to sen... See more You can control who sends you messages in the "My communication settings" under your user name at the top right (in the dark green bar). Mouse over your name and a pop-up window appears that lists numerous options for personalizing ProZ to suit your preferences. The first option under "My communication settings" is "Profile mail settings", where you can set who is able to contact you through your profile page.
Personally, I even use the "Allow only logged-in ProZ.com members to send me email via my profile page" option and get essentially no scam mails, which I used to get quite frequently before I changed the setting. Obviously, that means I probably miss some legitimate offers as well, but since most unsolicited offers I got in the past were of no interest anyway (usually due to unacceptably low rates), it's not a huge problem for me. You may decide in favor of a different setting since my choice may not work for you. The main thing is that you can control who contacts you to a significant degree.
Edited to fix typo.
[Edited at 2018-11-07 16:57 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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Sayda Pineda
United States
Local time: 12:28
Member (2010)
English to Spanish
TOPIC STARTER | Thank you very much! | Nov 7, 2018 |
The links and ideas all of you are sharing are excellent!
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