New scam but where do they get our emails from? Thread poster: Bernhard Sulzer
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First email: from [email protected] (I disguised the email a bit to have this remain in the forum; but whoever got the same email will be able to recognize it andtell me about it)
Hello,
How are you doing today? Kindly let me know if you're available to translate a document from French to German, which I need done in a month. I await your response.
Regards.
>>>> Note: the author sends it to ... See more First email: from [email protected] (I disguised the email a bit to have this remain in the forum; but whoever got the same email will be able to recognize it andtell me about it)
Hello,
How are you doing today? Kindly let me know if you're available to translate a document from French to German, which I need done in a month. I await your response.
Regards.
>>>> Note: the author sends it to my email only, does not sign his name.
My reply:
Dear F......,
Thank you for your inquiry.
I offer translations from English to German and German to English. Unfortunately, I can't help you with your need here because my French isn't good enough unless it is a simple text.
However, I'll gladly help with any documents in my language directions in the future.
>>> I signed it with my name and website address.
Reply from sender:
Yes, I have another to be translated from English To German. Please find attached the document, check the word count and get back to me with your charges/quote, so we can proceed afterwards. I will need it ready in a month.
Regards
>>>>>> Note: The sender doesn't address me by my name and doesn't put his name under the email. He offers a job in my language pair instead. Document was attached (about agriculture in Europe) - a document easily accessible on the internet.
This is when I stopped communicating. Never heard back from sender either.
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Please let me know your experience with that sender.
These people are harvesting emails - question is are they doing it here? If so, what can be done against it?
[Edited at 2019-07-22 20:46 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Liviu-Lee Roth
United States
Local time: 17:40
Romanian to English
+ ...
| I answered to this question numerous times | Jul 22, 2019 |
Since 85% of my translation work is for the US law enforcement dealing with cyber crimes, I came across these kind of scams (they are on the lowest level of cyber crimes).
Anybody can buy fake names and texts (the 11,000 words, 44 pages is a classic) on the dark web. There are forums that post names and scams for sale. Most of the transactions are in bitcoins. Once a phishing target answers to their phishing attempt, the e-mail goes on their list for potential victims.
... See more Since 85% of my translation work is for the US law enforcement dealing with cyber crimes, I came across these kind of scams (they are on the lowest level of cyber crimes).
Anybody can buy fake names and texts (the 11,000 words, 44 pages is a classic) on the dark web. There are forums that post names and scams for sale. Most of the transactions are in bitcoins. Once a phishing target answers to their phishing attempt, the e-mail goes on their list for potential victims.
About two years ago I played games with them, they sent me the over-payment fake check and within days my name popped on their site for „gullible” potential victims.
Nothing fancy. This is the reason I advise everybody not to engage them. Send these messages directly to the trash bin.
Stay safe,
Lee
[Edited at 2019-07-22 20:59 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Tony M
France
Local time: 23:40
Member
French to English
+ ...
SITE LOCALIZER | Some thoughts... | Jul 22, 2019 |
Bernhard Sulzer wrote:
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>>>> Note: the author sends it to my email only, does not sign his name.
How can you tell? if they used Bcc, you will see only your own e-mail, but there might well be others that are simply hidden.
Bernhard Sulzer wrote:
...These people are harvesting emails - question is are they doing it here? If so, what can be done against it?
It is unlikely they could be harvesting them here, because of the way the ProZ.com system forwards profile mail.
Unless, of course, your e-mail address is visible in your CV for example...
One of the ways they get e-mail addresses is by getting people to engage with them — this serves to confirm an otherwise unqualified address. Sadly, there are vast databases available for sale out there, and every time you reply to a scammer, you only serve to confirm your address and make it an even more saleable commodity!
Sadly, there are plenty of unscrupulous companies who will sell their contacts' databases to anyone prepared to pay the price — which is why it's very important to be extremely vigilant about whom you give your e-mail address to.
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I've said time and again: beware of cherry pickers! ~Yours truly
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Bernhard Sulzer 
United States
Local time: 17:40
English to German
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | Lists are a possibility | Jul 22, 2019 |
Tony M wrote: Bernhard Sulzer wrote:
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>>>> Note: the author sends it to my email only, does not sign his name.
How can you tell? if they used Bcc, you will see only your own e-mail, but there might well be others that are simply hidden.
Yes. What I meant is that they make it appear to just send it to me. Of course, it's strange right away that they didn't sign their email after "Regards".
Nevertheless, at that point, it could still be genuine, although I didn't think so from the start.
Bernhard Sulzer wrote:
...These people are harvesting emails - question is are they doing it here? If so, what can be done against it?
Tony M wrote:
It is unlikely they could be harvesting them here, because of the way the ProZ.com system forwards profile mail.
Unless, of course, your e-mail address is visible in your CV for example...
Yes again, except, as long as you are logged into Proz.com, if you click on the "send email" button on a profile page, the email address appears immediately. So, instead of sending it through the Proz.com system, you can just copy the email and "harvest" it that way. It's just within the last week, I've gotten two scams in a row within a short period of time. But sure, my email address is probably on lists out there.
Thanks for chiming in.
Bernhard
Correction:
I wrote above: "
... Yes again, except, as long as you are logged into Proz.com, if you click on the "send email" button on a profile page, the email address appears immediately."
That is not correct as Sheila has pointed out in the reply below. The 'send email" link at Proz.com does not reveal our email address.
[Edited at 2019-07-22 22:05 GMT]
| | | | Sheila Wilson
Spain
Local time: 22:40
Member (2007)
English
+ ...
| Check your own profile? | Jul 22, 2019 |
Bernhard Sulzer wrote: ...These people are harvesting emails - question is are they doing it here? If so, what can be done against it? Tony M wrote:
It is unlikely they could be harvesting them here, because of the way the ProZ.com system forwards profile mail.
Unless, of course, your e-mail address is visible in your CV for example... Yes again, except, as long as you are logged into Proz.com, if you click on the "send email" button on a profile page, the email address appears immediately. So, instead of sending it through the Proz.com system, you can just copy the email and "harvest" it that way. It's just within the last week, I've gotten two scams in a row within a short period of time. But sure, my email address is probably on lists out there.
I don't understand that comment, Bernhard. Mind you, I often don't understand IT things nowadays, so that doesn't surprise me. But I'm logged onto ProZ.com and went to send you an email. I got a screen up that showed my own email address and a note to the effect that I understood that you would see that email address. But I'm none the wiser as to your own email address.
Except that there's one written there in your About Me section. Maybe that's where they're getting it.
| | | | Bernhard Sulzer
United States
Local time: 17:40
English to German
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | You are correct Sheila | Jul 22, 2019 |
Sheila Wilson wrote: Bernhard Sulzer wrote: ...These people are harvesting emails - question is are they doing it here? If so, what can be done against it? Tony M wrote:
It is unlikely they could be harvesting them here, because of the way the ProZ.com system forwards profile mail.
Unless, of course, your e-mail address is visible in your CV for example... Yes again, except, as long as you are logged into Proz.com, if you click on the "send email" button on a profile page, the email address appears immediately. So, instead of sending it through the Proz.com system, you can just copy the email and "harvest" it that way. It's just within the last week, I've gotten two scams in a row within a short period of time. But sure, my email address is probably on lists out there. I don't understand that comment, Bernhard. Mind you, I often don't understand IT things nowadays, so that doesn't surprise me. But I'm logged onto ProZ.com and went to send you an email. I got a screen up that showed my own email address and a note to the effect that I understood that you would see that email address. But I'm none the wiser as to your own email address. Except that there's one written there in your About Me section. Maybe that's where they're getting it.
Thanks for checking Sheila. You are correct. You cannot get the email address through the "send email" window. If you try to copy the email link, you get the profile URL. Yes, I have my email publicly displayed in the "About me" section. Also, in the Contact window, my website is listed and when people visit it, of course they can get the email address. So, they can't get it directly from Proz.com, but as long as my website address is posted here, it's easy to get it. But it seems very likely that theses scammers work off lists. It would just be too much work to go through profiles to find individual emails - which they then could combine with our names and address us personally - which scammers hardly do. This could however be the next step for scams since most of us know quite well to recognize the "old/usual" scams - although since they keep trying, it must work at least sometimes.
So, maybe for now, I should be less concerned about how people get the email and more about how to recognize the scam right away and what to do to verify something is indeed a scam.
Impersonal emails are the first hint, certainly.
I usually reply with questions until I know someone is genuine or not.
Thanks again for your input.
Bernhard
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