Do you think this a scam? (Client wants to pay by check) Thread poster: Maika Vicente Navarro
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Dear All,
Two days ago, I was contacted by a man. According to this person, he had found my data in Proz and wanted to use my Spanish translation services.
Because the first e-mail sent looked fine, I answered to this person asking for more information for his English to Spanish translation project.
The answer to my first e-mail was a bit strange. I had a number of grammar mistakes and mispellings. And the enclosed book, a How to book, seemed to be a copy ... See more Dear All,
Two days ago, I was contacted by a man. According to this person, he had found my data in Proz and wanted to use my Spanish translation services.
Because the first e-mail sent looked fine, I answered to this person asking for more information for his English to Spanish translation project.
The answer to my first e-mail was a bit strange. I had a number of grammar mistakes and mispellings. And the enclosed book, a How to book, seemed to be a copy of a book published. I say seemed to be a copy, because the document I have enclosed had minor differences with the book I found in Google.
Not any longer sure whether this was a real offer, I decided to send my rates and ask for the first half of the payment on advance.
This was the answer to my second e-mail:
Hello,
Thank you for your email, your trust is outstanding in the returned email.The basic purpose of this email is about the payment. I will suggest that 50% is made first, then you have balance at the end of work. I believe that is reasonable enough for the two part. I am making arrangement with my partner on the payment so please let me know where you stand.
In your return email, please be inform that my client as choose method of payment for me to go with although i tried to persuade her that translators receive payment via Western PayPal but unfortunately she do not have that because it has nothing to do with her business so i guess it will be nice to inform you. she will be paying you by check.please provide me the following for part payment.
Full Name
Full address
city, state, zip code
Direct phone number.
I hope you understand the situation here and comply with the method. I hope to read from you soonest.
Regards.
I believe this is a scam. But what is your opinion?
Thank you for your help.
Maika Vicente
www.intecmevi.com ▲ Collapse
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neilmac
Spain
Local time: 17:20
Spanish to English
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Parece ser algun tipo de scam. Lo de "outstanding" (= destaca su confianza) me sugiere que este señor es hispanohablante, y en este caso, me pregunto porque se dirige a tí en este inglés rudimentario.
No entiendo que beneficio podrian sacar de tus datos, pero creo que es mejor no entrar en tratos con desconocidos, por si resulten al final "banqueros nigerianos", o similar...
[Edited at 2011-04-13 15:30 GMT]
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neilmac
Spain
Local time: 17:20
Spanish to English
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I just realised I answered your post in Spanish.
I'd take nothing to do with this person, it sounds well dodgy to me.
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JH Trads 
United States
Local time: 11:20
Member (2007)
English to French
+ ...
| if it walks like a duck, | Apr 13, 2011 |
and quacks like a duck, then it's a duck
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| No pasa nada | Apr 13, 2011 |
Entiendo español perfectamente. A mi también me parece extraño y sospechoso. De hecho no le he contestado.
Pero preferia tener la opinión de más gente antes de decir nada más.
Maika
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Signe Golly
Denmark
Local time: 17:20
English to Danish
+ ...
| classic scam | Apr 13, 2011 |
If you proceed, they'll try to send you a payment that is a lot more than it's supposed to be (claiming some kind of accounting error) and ask you to "just cash the check and send the extra money back to them." The check will be fake and although you may get lucky and be able to deposit it in your bank, the money will later be returned and you will have lost the amount that you sent back to them and be the victim of fraud.
Several threads have been posted about this type of scam.
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| Beyond a shadow of a doubt | Apr 13, 2011 |
I thought I had seen that e-mail somewhere else and searched for:
please be inform that my client as choose method of payment for me to go with although i tried to persuade her that translators receive payment via Western PayPal
I got several hits listing discussions on an identical e-mail, in ProZ as well as other translotors’ sites. For example, see this:
... See more I thought I had seen that e-mail somewhere else and searched for:
please be inform that my client as choose method of payment for me to go with although i tried to persuade her that translators receive payment via Western PayPal
I got several hits listing discussions on an identical e-mail, in ProZ as well as other translotors’ sites. For example, see this:
http://www.proz.com/forum/off_topic/195569-scam_alert.html ▲ Collapse
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| 100% pure scam | Apr 13, 2011 |
Any further reply will be total waste of time.
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Neil Coffey
United Kingdom
Local time: 16:20
French to English
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| Remember the classic signs... | Apr 13, 2011 |
E-mail focussing on establishing intricate and unusual payment mechanisms rather than being concerned about the actual job. Need one say more...
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| Thank you all for your answers | Apr 13, 2011 |
Your answers confirm me what I had already tought. I haven't answered to this person and I won't.
I just wanted to be sure that I was doing the right thing.
Thank you very much.
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LEXpert
United States
Local time: 10:20
Member (2008)
Croatian to English
+ ...
| Deteriorating quality of English in the e-mails | Apr 13, 2011 |
Telperie wrote:
Because the first e-mail sent looked fine, I answered to this person asking for more information for his English to Spanish translation project.
The answer to my first e-mail was a bit strange. I had a number of grammar mistakes and mispellings.
Also typical. The first e-mail is in good English because it is part of an existing, common template they use and which they have had all the time in the world to come up with. As soon as you begin to ask questions, that's when they have to have start improvising quickly to keep up the correspondence, and the poor English begins.
[Edited at 2011-04-13 20:25 GMT]
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"Blanco y en lechera es leche"
(If it's white and comes in a churn, it is milk!)
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