Is this a scam to buy software? Thread poster: Jan Andre de la Porte
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Supposedly from a company called Glasgow Translations. They did not answer my request for further info on the company:
Dear Jan,
Thanks for your reply
Your specialties and rates are okay with us.I"ll briefly give you details about the job then you can choose to continue or not.We have a long term project for translations and the topic
areas are:Business,Medical,Legal,Technical,Humanities,History,
Arts,Politics,Economics,I.Te.t,c We can offer as much as 4000... See more Supposedly from a company called Glasgow Translations. They did not answer my request for further info on the company:
Dear Jan,
Thanks for your reply
Your specialties and rates are okay with us.I"ll briefly give you details about the job then you can choose to continue or not.We have a long term project for translations and the topic
areas are:Business,Medical,Legal,Technical,Humanities,History,
Arts,Politics,Economics,I.Te.t,c We can offer as much as 4000
words 4 days in a week depending on how much work you can handle.And because of
the kind of companies and the kind of project we are doing.We also require that
You get Systran software(Business version).Even as you start work and
we can send one for you at
good discount rate or you can get it by your self from a shop close to
you.We pay translators twice a month by Westernunion,Paypal and
Banktransfer.I"ll be expecting your feedback on this so we an start
the
process.Thanks
Regards,
(removed) ▲ Collapse
| | | | pcovs
Denmark
Local time: 21:27
English to Danish
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I received the same e-mail, one hint at the scam would be, apart from the fact that you have to buy software from them, that their long term project seems to be in almost all fields of translation...
In my case, it ended when I told them I already had the software, which was a lie, obviously.
| | | | neilmac
Spain
Local time: 21:27
Spanish to English
+ ...
Systran is reasonably cheap and available directly fom the makers, although nowadays you can use Google translate or similar free options to do most of what it does. I'd be very wary of any would-be new clients who insist on you using any kind of software or tool, especially if they then offer to sell you it!
[Edited at 2011-03-16 19:47 GMT]
[Edited at 2011-03-16 19:47 GMT]
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Signe Golly 
Denmark
Local time: 21:27
English to Danish
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| check the company's blue board entry | Mar 16, 2011 |
I received an email this morning from the same company:
"We are currently in need of English to Danish translators.If you"ll
like to work with us,Please indicate by
Sending us your CV and let us know your rates and specialties.
Thanks
Regards,
Kate"
I checked the blue board entry for the company's name and found a recent note/warning from the ProZ staff to only accepts jobs from the email address @glasgowtranslation.co.uk. This is a different domain fro... See more I received an email this morning from the same company:
"We are currently in need of English to Danish translators.If you"ll
like to work with us,Please indicate by
Sending us your CV and let us know your rates and specialties.
Thanks
Regards,
Kate"
I checked the blue board entry for the company's name and found a recent note/warning from the ProZ staff to only accepts jobs from the email address @glasgowtranslation.co.uk. This is a different domain from the one used in the email I received, so since it was sounding fishy anyway (spelling/punctuation mistakes which are also plentiful in the message quoted by Jan) I would say definitely scam! ▲ Collapse
| | | | lidija68
Italy
Local time: 21:27
Italian to Serbian
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| easy way to check | Mar 17, 2011 |
write them saying that you already have Systran (if really necessary you can buy it later from the developer) and see what they say
-english is not my working language-
| | | | Annie Estéphan
Canada
Local time: 15:27
Member (2010)
English to French
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| 2, 000 words or 20,000 words ??? | Mar 17, 2011 |
Hello,
This morning there was a job offer for a proofreader from English to French for 2,000 words in 24 hours. The indian agency wrote me an email accepting my fees and telling me, oh, by the way there are 4,000 words to proofread and not 2,000 words, we made a mistake. Before accepting the job, I took a look at the 85 pages word document, the word count was 32,000 words for the bilingual file, so I took off the English row and saw that almost 20, 000 words needed to be proofread, ... See more Hello,
This morning there was a job offer for a proofreader from English to French for 2,000 words in 24 hours. The indian agency wrote me an email accepting my fees and telling me, oh, by the way there are 4,000 words to proofread and not 2,000 words, we made a mistake. Before accepting the job, I took a look at the 85 pages word document, the word count was 32,000 words for the bilingual file, so I took off the English row and saw that almost 20, 000 words needed to be proofread, so I wrote back to the agency telling them that I cannot take the work because there are 20, 000 words unless they are willing to pay me for the right word count...I never heard of them, I guess it was a good thing to do, I feel that maybe they wouldn't even have paid me at all. They think that we are morons or what ? It's not because we are translators that we are not able to count ! Anyways, just be aware of him. I think it was on Proz.
Annie ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Don't even bother to reply | Mar 17, 2011 |
lidija68 wrote:
write them saying that you already have Systran (if really necessary you can buy it later from the developer) and see what they say
This is a 100% scam.
First of all, I don't see why any professional translation agency would require their translators to use/buy machine translation software.
The second thing that would strike me is, that a serious UK-based translation agency make such blatant mistakes in their communication.
And finally third, replying to the message would only tell the scammer that your e-mail address is live and can be abused in future.
[Upraveno: 2011-03-17 21:09 GMT]
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| Different issue - start a new thread | Mar 17, 2011 |
Annie Estéphan wrote:
2, 000 words or 20,000 words
This thread is about the well-known Systran scam, not about agencies/end-clients, intentionally or not, underestimating word counts.
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It's ridiculous that they keep doing it!
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