Scammers, need advice! Pretending to be Connected World Translation Services Thread poster: Olena Canali
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Olena Canali
Ukraine
Local time: 00:57
English to Russian
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Dear Colleagues,
I replied to a job posted on Translators.cafe https://www.translatorscafe.com/cafe/job275477.htm and then was contacted some months ago by a manager Tale Miasham and his assistant Sara Brown working for Connected World Translation Services, Canada. So I've spent 2 months doing super specialized pharmaceutical and clinical trial jobs from EN to Russian, working da... See more Dear Colleagues,
I replied to a job posted on Translators.cafe https://www.translatorscafe.com/cafe/job275477.htm and then was contacted some months ago by a manager Tale Miasham and his assistant Sara Brown working for Connected World Translation Services, Canada. So I've spent 2 months doing super specialized pharmaceutical and clinical trial jobs from EN to Russian, working day and night, without weekends, because needed some fresh money and completed probably 500 pages. So some days ago it was the day for the 1st payment and I received an email that they are closed and can not pay. The amount they already owe to me is over 8200 CAD, so over 5000 Euro. I called to the office and some furious lady replied that she's never heard of those managers and shouted at me saying I'm a criminal and want to still her money and she'll go to police.
Have no idea if she's saying the truth. I have all POs from that company but who knows, maybe they are fakes produced in Photoshop.
Those managers also told me some days ago that I have to delete all the files what I've translated, because they contain client details etc for security reasons. This time I was not that stupid (though I was super stupid in general)))) so I still have them.
Probably it's possible to find those bastards, because the jobs were done for quite famous clients like Fujifilm, Gedeon Richter etc.
Do you think it's reasonable to contact those companies somehow? Or useless waist of time?
Will be grateful for any ideas, because I'm in despair now(((((
Elena ▲ Collapse
| | | | Liviu-Lee Roth
United States
Local time: 17:57
Romanian to English
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| If I were in your situation | Jun 25, 2019 |
I would contact the clients and let them know.
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Hello Elena,
One of the thing I would do is informing TranslatorsCafe.
For CWTS, i have found the following on facebook:
"Connected World Translation Services
8 h ·
I advise all my colleagues in the translation field, as well as all Canadian translation companies to be aware that international fraud is becoming more and more prominent everyday.
I would like express my frustration and disappointment in those who have tried to defraud our industry... See more Hello Elena,
One of the thing I would do is informing TranslatorsCafe.
For CWTS, i have found the following on facebook:
"Connected World Translation Services
8 h ·
I advise all my colleagues in the translation field, as well as all Canadian translation companies to be aware that international fraud is becoming more and more prominent everyday.
I would like express my frustration and disappointment in those who have tried to defraud our industry. My agency, Connected World Translation Services (CWTS) has been targeted by individuals in Europe and Latin America by trying to use my company’s name as their own.
CWTS has worked hard for 6 years to establish its footing and reputation and to employ excellent professional translators from across Canada.
My priority as a translation agency owner is to provide the best service to clients and to respect and pay my colleagues for their hard work.
I do hope to find the support from Canadian Anti-fraud Centre (CAFC) that we all deserve. "
So, I guess you are not the first. Maybe you should write her a mail, explain her the situation and join the document you have.
If you wish to try finding those persons why not. It will take time,maybe be a waste of time and I'm not sure you will find them, but at least you will have tried. I know that I would..
I have look for the name you mentioned, can't find them, no facebook, no linkedln, nothing nowhere...
Kindly,
Véronique ▲ Collapse
| | | | Kevin Fulton 
United States
Local time: 17:57
German to English
| Contact an attorney | Jun 25, 2019 |
For this sum of money owed, conferring with an experienced attorney may be worthwhile, if for no other reason to learn your rights in this case. It's possible that you may be a victim of fraud, or the agency in question is screwing you. If the latter is true you may have some recourse, although you may additionally have to engage a Canadian attorney. This may be expensive, but half a loaf is better than none.
[Edited at 2019-06-25 15:02 GMT]
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| probably identity theft - info | Jun 25, 2019 |
The info that came out yesterday elsewhere is that the entities who advertised the jobs, and then wrote the OP about not being able to pay, used e-mail addresses that looked different than the e-mail address posted on the the company site. That was one clue. The actual company is located in Saskatchewan, Canada, but the "finance" person's phone number has an area code of Washington, USA. That actual company has its name, address etc. on its site, so it's a simple matter of copying those, cre... See more The info that came out yesterday elsewhere is that the entities who advertised the jobs, and then wrote the OP about not being able to pay, used e-mail addresses that looked different than the e-mail address posted on the the company site. That was one clue. The actual company is located in Saskatchewan, Canada, but the "finance" person's phone number has an area code of Washington, USA. That actual company has its name, address etc. on its site, so it's a simple matter of copying those, create a purchase order with that information, and pretend to be the company.
Without a doubt Ms. Novikova has been scammed, from what she is telling us, but the company whose identity was used has also been misused. ▲ Collapse
| | | | LIZ LI
China
Local time: 05:57
French to Chinese
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| I feel really sorry about Olena | Jun 25, 2019 |
But you shouldn't have done such a huge project for a NEW client for no-matter-what reason.
It's a real lesson for all of our fellow translators in terms of risk management.
If I were you, I'll go for contacting the end users of the translations done, they might eventually help.
[Edited at 2019-06-25 16:14 GMT]
| | | | S_G_C
Romania
Local time: 00:57
English to Romanian
| Translating from English... | Jun 25, 2019 |
I'm sorry to hear you have been scammed.
However, I will never stop wondering why people translating from English into [insert your language of choice here] will write still instead of steal and waist instead of waste, while I would have never passed my translator exams if I had made such mistakes. And the use of PCs, let alone laptops, was rather poor back then, so we had to write by hand, mostly.
[Edited at 2... See more I'm sorry to hear you have been scammed.
However, I will never stop wondering why people translating from English into [insert your language of choice here] will write still instead of steal and waist instead of waste, while I would have never passed my translator exams if I had made such mistakes. And the use of PCs, let alone laptops, was rather poor back then, so we had to write by hand, mostly.
[Edited at 2019-06-25 16:22 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Olena Canali
Ukraine
Local time: 00:57
English to Russian
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TOPIC STARTER | Agree with all your points | Jun 25, 2019 |
Thanks colleagues for your support!
For sure, I have no hope to get my money back, I just wanted to leave my story and details of those criminals somewhere in the Internet, so maybe it'll be helpful to someone else. For the same job, posted by that sham Tale Miasham, there were at least 60 other offers, as I remember, send by the other translators to Translatorscafe. And since they deleted my forum topic (actually still don't understand why), those people have no chance to discover ... See more Thanks colleagues for your support!
For sure, I have no hope to get my money back, I just wanted to leave my story and details of those criminals somewhere in the Internet, so maybe it'll be helpful to someone else. For the same job, posted by that sham Tale Miasham, there were at least 60 other offers, as I remember, send by the other translators to Translatorscafe. And since they deleted my forum topic (actually still don't understand why), those people have no chance to discover the truth.
Just some of my ideas regarding safety tips and so on.
1) All the colleagues say, you were stupid to work with a person with a yahoo account. I should disagree because have quite many nice clients, who run small agencies with free email accounts and without any website. So difficult to say
2) I really checked IP address of those to "managers" and they appeared to be in London. So it seemed to be fine, because that manager said she is from "UK office", so I didn't feel any lies. And for sure, financial and accounting departments can be located wherever in the world. Really many of my clients have external accounting companies, located, like, in Greece or Thailand. So the guy from US also didn't seem suspicious to me.
3) I still don't understand why the owner of that "real" CWTC is so rude and doesn't want to cooperate. I called and she just shouted. I've sent all possible documents I have to her mail, but got no reply. For sure, it can be someone she knows, maybe a former worker, if they know banking details for the POs etc. So now I have financial documents issued from the name of her company, so it's her task, I think, to prove that they are false to go to police and find them.
4) I did so much since the payment date was, for example, end of next month. It seamed to be reasonable, because many of my clients set 60 days now. Even got a notification from one former client from China that it'll be 90 days!!! never! Work in summer - get paid in winter))))
5) I wrote to all possible clients which I could recognize from files, but all of them are huge corporations, so all contacts you can get is email like "info@...." so nobody never checks them((
I have a desperate question to all my colleagues, maybe some of you worked with those companies and have some other contacts where I can complain:
"Gedeon Richter"
"Paul Hartmann"
"Aesica"
"Fujifilm"
"Orion Finland"
"Il-Yang Farmaceuticals"
For me will be enough to get an answer at least from one company to trace those criminals
And I think for sure there must be a strong and well reputed translation agency behind them ▲ Collapse
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| On some points (Olena) | Jun 26, 2019 |
- I do not agree completely with the rule of thumb that a free e-mail address is a sign of fraudulence, though in my experience even the small companies I work for usually use a more secure address. However, the people who contacted you all were either [name]cws@yahoo, or [name]cws@gmail, while the company's e-mail address on their "contact" page is connectedworldtranslation @ gmail.com . One would expect anyone working for the company to have that address, or [name]connectedworldtranslation@g... See more - I do not agree completely with the rule of thumb that a free e-mail address is a sign of fraudulence, though in my experience even the small companies I work for usually use a more secure address. However, the people who contacted you all were either [name]cws@yahoo, or [name]cws@gmail, while the company's e-mail address on their "contact" page is connectedworldtranslation @ gmail.com . One would expect anyone working for the company to have that address, or [name][email protected] or admin.connectedworldtranslation @ gmail.com etc. .... not "cws".
For the same job, posted by that sham Tale Miasham, .... And since they deleted my forum topic (actually still don't understand why), those people have no chance to discover the truth.
It's awkward writing about another site, on this site, but since part of the story is over there one must. This should be posted, but in the HFS section in order to warn others. Like the Blue Board, the HFS has that role. I hope you still do so there.
While the thread was alive over there, the name of the company was out there publicly as though they were the ones who had done the non-payment (because that was the assumption at first), and a copy of an e-mail by the sham "employee" was on display, making statements about a supposed financial situation of the company (he was pretending to represent) as an excuse for not paying you This could have caused untold harm to that young company whose name was being used. I can't imagine any site leaving up a thread as it appeared then. Here on ProZ there is the title of "Pretending to be.... " which is important!
** Going to the companies whose texts you translated on behalf of these scammers may be a good idea, especially since you did not let the scammers talk you into deleting those files (slick operators, aren't they?). I can't think of anything else, actually.
3) I still don't understand why the owner of that "real" CWTC is so rude ...
Imagine if a stranger overseas suddenly calls you out of the blue, saying that you owe them thousands of dollars, and accusing you of things. The stranger would probably be seen as a scammer (!) and it would be a total shock. We all get these phone calls from the IRS scams telling us we owe the government thousands of dollars due to unpaid taxes. Imagine, meanwhile that you had built up your company, its reputation, and suddenly it is being accused of such things.
5) I wrote to all possible clients which I could recognize from files, but all of them are huge corporations, so all contacts you can get is email like "info@...." so nobody never checks them((
Phone? Letter? (after finding out whom to address, specifically)
2) I really checked IP address of those to "managers" and they appeared to be in London. So it seemed to be fine, because that manager said she is from "UK office", so I didn't feel any lies.
For the future ....... Did you ever go to the site of the company itself, or look them up? That is a first thing to do, and for work of that magnitude, it might be good to check with the e-mail address given on the site. The company writes that they are based in Saskatchewan, Canada and there is no indication that they have affiliates anywhere else. They mention certified translators from Canadian organizations such as ATIO, ATIA, ATIM, and ATIS as working for them, which is what I expect as a Canadian translator. I would not expect such a company to be looking internationally for translators, especially in a platform manner.
There were red flags but you missed them. We are all in danger of missing red flags so this is a good lesson. My particular interest has been because of the location of the victim of identity theft. Canada has a good reputation, and recently "companies" and "translators" have popped purporting to come from here, but are not at all what they seem. If we're not vigilant, this will happen more and more.
I am so sorry that you were cheated like this.
(Rule of thumb: When being asked to translated massive material by a new client, for large sums, get at least a partial prepayment.) ▲ Collapse
| | | | LIZ LI
China
Local time: 05:57
French to Chinese
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I personally don't think that the agency or these "clients" have anything to do with these scammers.
It doesn't sound logic to leave so many info, easily traceable for victims.
Besides, all these "clients" requested one same agency to accomplish translation jobs ALL at the same time!?!
Again, illogical.
So there are possibilities that those scammers were after your translations, instead of selling them for money.
And my question will be: what are the values of t... See more I personally don't think that the agency or these "clients" have anything to do with these scammers.
It doesn't sound logic to leave so many info, easily traceable for victims.
Besides, all these "clients" requested one same agency to accomplish translation jobs ALL at the same time!?!
Again, illogical.
So there are possibilities that those scammers were after your translations, instead of selling them for money.
And my question will be: what are the values of these translations, for someone, or a specific company or industry?
As Olena is here for advices, not critics,
I will , if I were you,
try to inform these companies that they may be victims of such scamsscams which may eventually lead to profit loss.
Big corps do NOT help no one, but they don't like to lose anything.
Pls ignore it if it's all nonsense to you. ▲ Collapse
| | | | DZiW (X)
Ukraine
English to Russian
+ ...
| Demand meets supply... Due diligence and common sense? | Jun 27, 2019 |
Business=risks No guarantees, yet (double)checking the prospects and outsourcers is a must!
Nowadays one can easily find tools and services (!) to spoof and fake ANYONE, pretending to be a direct (end client-agency-translator...) or related (attorney-accountant-HR-PM...) party, so I feel sad when the needy, inexperienced, inattentive, and faint-hearted go into business without proper biz, research, and risk management skills or habits.
Shortly, if you can afford losing no more than $100, then your cap/limit is under $100; if you want to minimize the risks, ask for a partial prepayment, go by installment, or use escrow--and never work for debtors again.
As far as the suspect was contacted via the TC site, it would be better to solve the problem via their support line/rules; however, I doubt the ProZ or any others can do any better in a similar situation, alas.
Fresh money for whom?
Take care
| | | | Daryo
United Kingdom
Local time: 22:57
Serbian to English
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| That COULD be one of the oldest trick in the book | Jul 4, 2019 |
that I won't explain here - no point giving fresh ideas to crooks.
At least you had the common sense to preserve proofs that you are the one that has done the work, including all the emails, original texts, your translations etc?
From what you are saying, the point of the scam was to get REAL WORK done for free.
As you know where you work ended up - contact all these companies and
- notify them that as you haven't been paid, so you still have t... See more that I won't explain here - no point giving fresh ideas to crooks.
At least you had the common sense to preserve proofs that you are the one that has done the work, including all the emails, original texts, your translations etc?
From what you are saying, the point of the scam was to get REAL WORK done for free.
As you know where you work ended up - contact all these companies and
- notify them that as you haven't been paid, so you still have the copyright
- request from them information about WHO supplied them with your translations and sue THAT agency - your work didn't mysteriously land on their desks out of nowhere, they MUST know who down the chain is playing innocent.
Can't do in more details on a public forum... but if
1- you have kept ALL and ANY of your interactions - emails, ALL texts
2- you know who are the final recipients of your work
you should have decent chances of
exposing crooks
getting paid
Also, for the future, you definitely need to improve your due diligence. That could be, BTW, a really useful topic for a new forum ...
[Edited at 2019-07-04 09:31 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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