| Pages in topic: [1 2] > | James Neel Thread poster: sonjaswenson (X)
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sonjaswenson (X) 
United States
Local time: 23:20
Spanish to English
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This email just arrived in my inbox and set off a lot of red flags. Just putting this out there since I couldn't find him on a search of this forum.
Hello,
I am James and i got your email from the website that you are a translator.
I want you to help me translate an article from (English-French).
I would like to know your terms and how much it would cost for the article?
Hope to hear from you as soon as poss... See more This email just arrived in my inbox and set off a lot of red flags. Just putting this out there since I couldn't find him on a search of this forum.
Hello,
I am James and i got your email from the website that you are a translator.
I want you to help me translate an article from (English-French).
I would like to know your terms and how much it would cost for the article?
Hope to hear from you as soon as possible
[email protected] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Usch Pilz
Local time: 06:20
English to German
+ ...
| Red flag = good! | Jun 10, 2012 |
Hi sonjaswenson,
IF you want to reply at all, you could ask for additional information without disclosing any of your details. Finish the answer by saying that you are not accepting payment by traveler's check.
I am willing to bet, you will never hear from "him" (???) again.
All the best!
| | | | | Precaution step | Jun 10, 2012 |
I never even bother to reply some one with gmail, yahoo etc id asking for a quotation.
If the email id is corporate, then I go to the website. I recetly found in 2 cases those were suspicious
1. the website is brand new- registered within last week
2. The web site main office is in S africa.
Since I handle only US based requests, these are straight no-no
| | | | Thayenga
Germany
Local time: 06:20
Member (2009)
English to German
+ ...
James seems to be from...wherever based on his poor English.
A gmail account is not necessarily a definite sign for scammers. One of my clients has a gmail account, the most reliable and fastest payer.
But your email (that you've received, not sent!) does sound scammy.
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I've also had a very good client with a gmail account, who got in touch via ProZ - fellow translators looking for people in other language combinations will often fit this definition.
However, definitely go back with a guarded reply asking for more info and that you don't take traveller's cheques and see what happens.
| | | | Tony M
France
Local time: 06:20
Member
French to English
+ ...
SITE LOCALIZER | DON'T reply! | Jun 11, 2012 |
If you have any suspicions at all that this MIGHT be a scam, then whatever you do, DON'T reply!
If you do, you will effectively validate your e-mail address, which could potentially lead to your receiving more and more scam offers.
At worst, if you ignore this and it was in fact a genuine enquiry, you will have spared yourself the hassle of working with someone whose basic approach is so unprofessional, and are probably unlikely to prove a reliable long-term client.
... See more If you have any suspicions at all that this MIGHT be a scam, then whatever you do, DON'T reply!
If you do, you will effectively validate your e-mail address, which could potentially lead to your receiving more and more scam offers.
At worst, if you ignore this and it was in fact a genuine enquiry, you will have spared yourself the hassle of working with someone whose basic approach is so unprofessional, and are probably unlikely to prove a reliable long-term client.
I receive enquiries from all over the world in Eglish or French of often highly variable quality; but it is easy to see the genuine slips made by a non-native speaker, which are generally quite different from the language level of these scammers. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | We meet again due to questionable customers | Jun 12, 2012 |
Hi Sonja,
Believe it or not, I got an email from him as well, wanted someone to translate a lengthy political article from German into English and I didn't feel quite right about the whole thing, plus I wasn't interested in the topic, so I turned him down.
| | | | jyuan_us
United States
Local time: 00:20
Member (2005)
English to Chinese
+ ...
| I have received the resumes of over 100 job applicants | Jun 12, 2012 |
offering their services in varied language pairs. All of them contacted me with their gmail accounts.
The resumes are all in the same format and none of them carries a physical address and a phone #.
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Marguerite Storm
United States
Local time: 23:20
Member (2003)
English to French
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| SCAM!! James Neel tried to get me too | Jun 19, 2012 |
I received an email from James Neel a few days ago and it looked exactly like a "Nigerian" scam. I decided to respond just to see how far he would go. As I expected, I received a check for twice as much as the quote I had given him, and it came from a different person... I wrote him to ask for a phone number, and he called me almost immediately, saying he was in the UK, etc. The usual scam talk. He does have a slightly foreign accent but I can't exactly identify it. Anyway, this check is going t... See more I received an email from James Neel a few days ago and it looked exactly like a "Nigerian" scam. I decided to respond just to see how far he would go. As I expected, I received a check for twice as much as the quote I had given him, and it came from a different person... I wrote him to ask for a phone number, and he called me almost immediately, saying he was in the UK, etc. The usual scam talk. He does have a slightly foreign accent but I can't exactly identify it. Anyway, this check is going to the shredder and I told old James to stop doing that because it's fraud. Is there a way to ever catch these guys? ▲ Collapse
| | | | | James Neel keeps trying | Jul 2, 2012 |
Hi all,
I received a similar email this morning and I replied asking who/what he is, where he found my details and I told him I need to see some material before I can send him an estimate.
To my surprise, he actually sent me a document for translation, it's about world peace. He told me he is a motivational speaker and he found my details on the ATA database. Still there is no address or anything else to identify him.
After some research I came across this... See more Hi all,
I received a similar email this morning and I replied asking who/what he is, where he found my details and I told him I need to see some material before I can send him an estimate.
To my surprise, he actually sent me a document for translation, it's about world peace. He told me he is a motivational speaker and he found my details on the ATA database. Still there is no address or anything else to identify him.
After some research I came across this little discussion and I declined his request telling him literally that he is too vague a source for me to trust and that I wish him good luck finding someone else.
If a reply comes back to me telling him he is not at all trustworthy, I'll post it up here.
Kind regards,
Cindi Sheridan-Heller ▲ Collapse
| | | | Daniel Salinero
United States
Local time: 21:20
Member (2012)
Spanish to English
+ ...
| I just received an email from James Neel | Jul 9, 2012 |
Hello,
I am James and i got your email from the website that you are a translator.
I want you to help me translate an article from (English--Spanish).
I would like to know your terms and how much it would cost for the article?
Hope to hear from you as soon as possible
James
He used a yahoo address. He sent me an article about world peace copied ex... See more Hello,
I am James and i got your email from the website that you are a translator.
I want you to help me translate an article from (English--Spanish).
I would like to know your terms and how much it would cost for the article?
Hope to hear from you as soon as possible
James
He used a yahoo address. He sent me an article about world peace copied exactly from the following two sites: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_peace and http://www.bahai.com/Bahaullah/worldpeace1.htm. The total number of words totaled 8855 so it seemed like a nice job to take on EN>ES.
Red flag was raised in the first email. Not only from the poor writing but because the "ADDRESS TO" was sent to a translating agency in San Diego. Not sure how it came to me. I'm going to email them for more info. Very strange. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Natalie
Poland
Local time: 06:20
Member (2002)
English to Russian
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MODERATOR SITE LOCALIZER
Have you received this through your ProZ.com profile? If yes, please provide the IP number.
Thanks,
Natalia
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Typical scam. No identifiable information (company name, telephone number, address... nothing!), a rather vague job, no exact information about where he got the details... Please delete and forget!
| | | | Daniel Salinero
United States
Local time: 21:20
Member (2012)
Spanish to English
+ ...
Hi, Natalie,
It looks as if the scammer used the email address that I listed as the preferred address in the ATA directory. I haven't changed it to the email address associated now with my new translation website: TheWriteTranslator.com . It doesn't look like he used ProZ. In fact an earlier entry in this thread felt he got her address from the ATA directory as well. I'll just "delete his emails and forget" as another member suggested. Too bad, it looked like a nice job. I don'... See more Hi, Natalie,
It looks as if the scammer used the email address that I listed as the preferred address in the ATA directory. I haven't changed it to the email address associated now with my new translation website: TheWriteTranslator.com . It doesn't look like he used ProZ. In fact an earlier entry in this thread felt he got her address from the ATA directory as well. I'll just "delete his emails and forget" as another member suggested. Too bad, it looked like a nice job. I don't understand the scam, though. How could he make money from it? The most they get is a good translation - but for what purpose? In this case it was a translation request for poorly written articles on World peace...
Thanks for your quick response,
Daniel Salinero ▲ Collapse
| | | | Natalie
Poland
Local time: 06:20
Member (2002)
English to Russian
+ ...
MODERATOR SITE LOCALIZER | Overpayment scam | Jul 9, 2012 |
Hi Daniel, thanks for the clarification. Of course, just "delete and forget". The purpose of the scam would be sending you a check for some 2500 dollars "by mistake" and asking you to return the difference...
Natalia
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