I am so sorry to hear of scams like this! I did not realize they occur both ways. Have seen this, I can certainly see why someone would do it - to try to get work done and then not pay. Here we receive emails almost daily from individuals claiming to be translators who want to work for us. We find 95 percent of them to be scammers. This is why we go through a vetting and registration process with all of our linguists. We establish a contractual relationship with each linguist before any services are rendered. We welcome your participation with us, and you can read our reviews here on ProZ from others who have worked with us.
Sincerely,
Steve Onken
Senior Project Manager
Compass Languages
Manuela Hoffmann-Maleki wrote:
Hello,
after reading this, I am sorry to say that I took one of these mails for a real request. Fortunately, I answered that I would just accept bank transfer, not a cheque, but in case they send money - is there anything to do? I gave them my banking details. Hope that doesn't turn out to be a bad idea...
This is the first mail I received via ProZ:
"Hello,
My name is Dennis Rio from United Kingdom . I will
need the service of English to German interpreter while
i
will be coming to (Bavaria)Germany for a 3day event with
my wife
who is 5month pregnant. My wife does not understand
German
and as such will need English to German Speaking
Interpreter
to assist her in the area of purchasing certain items and
other relevant services. Your services will only be
needed
from thursday23 ,september to Saturday 25 September, 2010
from
9am -2pm
daily.
I will prefer that such an interpreter is someone who is
very familiar with Bavaria places of interest and will
be a
very nice and jovial person that can keep a smile on my
wifeĆ¢?Ts face till I return because she means a lot to
me.
If interested, do get back to me with the fee involved so
i
can make deposit.
best regards
Dennis Rio"
And this is the one I received after I gave him my price details:
"I am okay with the fee.i would have love to come down to pay you by cash, but its going to be stressful and time consuming so i will send you an international Bank Certified check that you can easily catch at your bank.in case you stay outside Bavaria Munich do calculate your Transportation .Do provide the below details for payment.
Name to be written on the check
Full address to send the check
Your phone number
kind regards
Dennis"
So the latter contains almost everything that makes it look like the above-mentioned spam mail.
I reported this mail now by clicking on the link in the last line of the mail.
I hope there is not going to be any more trouble with this one. It had appeared somewhat strange to me, but when I found nothing via Google, I answered it...
Best regards,
Manuela