Scam alert - "Looking for native English speakers for future collaborations | IT>EN"
Thread poster: Jasmina Towers
Jasmina Towers
Jasmina Towers  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 05:39
Member (2000)
Italian to English
May 24, 2020

Dear Proz.com friends,
This is primarily for Italian to English translators, regarding the recent job post by Manuel Fanciulli (but signed off initially as Lorenzo).
He asked me to complete a 300 word test. Alarm bells rang when he stated:
"Please keep in mind that the quality is purposefully low (incorrect and/or missing punctuation, repetitions, etc.) to test your skills."
....which I found very unusual.
As this person only registered on proz this month, and th
... See more
Dear Proz.com friends,
This is primarily for Italian to English translators, regarding the recent job post by Manuel Fanciulli (but signed off initially as Lorenzo).
He asked me to complete a 300 word test. Alarm bells rang when he stated:
"Please keep in mind that the quality is purposefully low (incorrect and/or missing punctuation, repetitions, etc.) to test your skills."
....which I found very unusual.
As this person only registered on proz this month, and therefore has no history or Blueboard presence, I asked for some company details.
"Manuel" (or Lorenzo?) initially
"We simply use this as a test, so no further information is necessary."

When I insisted, and said that I would like to know if they were an individual, translation agency, direct client, other, etc, and if they had a website, the reply was:
"I am not allowed to disclose this information for the time being.
Hope that's not a problem."

Hmm.
Quite a big problem for me actually.

"Stay alert. Control scammers. Save rates."
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Jorge Payan
Katarzyna Slowikova
 
achisholm
achisholm
United Kingdom
Local time: 05:39
Italian to English
+ ...
I can understand ... May 26, 2020

I can understand them keeping the confidentiality of the end client, but not themselves.

 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 05:39
Member (2008)
Italian to English
thousands May 27, 2020

I am one of the (probably) thousands of people who responded to the email from "Manuel". I, too, checked him out in the same way as Jasmina.

From his tone he seemed OK. I don't think this is a scam; just a waste of time for a large number of people. I suppose it's reasonable that someone looking for a translator in a particular language pair would sign up to Proz specifically for that purpose. I think I've seen it happen before.

Presumably "Manuel" is now inundated wi
... See more
I am one of the (probably) thousands of people who responded to the email from "Manuel". I, too, checked him out in the same way as Jasmina.

From his tone he seemed OK. I don't think this is a scam; just a waste of time for a large number of people. I suppose it's reasonable that someone looking for a translator in a particular language pair would sign up to Proz specifically for that purpose. I think I've seen it happen before.

Presumably "Manuel" is now inundated with an enormous number of test translations, all of the same text, and is trying to work out which one he thinks is the best. Mine, of course, was the best; but how is he to know that? 😂😂😂

He did send a follow-up email advising everyone that he would only respond to the author of the translation he would choose. So the rest of us can take a walk. If you (I) accept to do these tests you have to take the consequences.
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Katarzyna Slowikova
Katarzyna Slowikova  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 06:39
English to Czech
+ ...
They have reasons to hide May 27, 2020

Tom in London wrote:

Presumably "Manuel" is now inundated with an enormous number of test translations, all of the same text, ...


How do you know this, Tom?
Maybe they tried to get a regular translation job done for free. That would explain why they're hiding their identity. Or they're doing something else they realize is wrong/illegal and could get them bad publicity in internet. Or already got one and know nobody would work for them, if they knew who the company are. (And that's why they got a random PM to register on Proz, because their BlueBoard rating is disastrous...?)
There can't be any good reason for hiding their identity like this. I'm astounded you would be willing to work for this (presumably) company.

[Edited at 2020-05-27 09:35 GMT]

[Edited at 2020-05-27 09:38 GMT]


Jasmina Towers
 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 05:39
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Hmmm May 27, 2020

Katarzyna Slowikova wrote:

I'm astounded


Sorry to hear it


 
Jasmina Towers
Jasmina Towers  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 05:39
Member (2000)
Italian to English
TOPIC STARTER
No details at all May 27, 2020

No email address was supplied; the only contact possible was through proz.com.
The poster, 'Manuel', registered on Proz this month. The profile is completely blank.
The post was signed off 'Lorenzo'. The job now shows as being posted by a logged-in guest.
I found it very worrying that Manuel/Lorenzo was unwilling to provide any company information at all.
All of these things rang very loud alarm bells for me!
Not to mention the 'purposefully low quality' of the test
... See more
No email address was supplied; the only contact possible was through proz.com.
The poster, 'Manuel', registered on Proz this month. The profile is completely blank.
The post was signed off 'Lorenzo'. The job now shows as being posted by a logged-in guest.
I found it very worrying that Manuel/Lorenzo was unwilling to provide any company information at all.
All of these things rang very loud alarm bells for me!
Not to mention the 'purposefully low quality' of the test - I really can't fathom that one out.
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Katarzyna Slowikova
Katarzyna Slowikova  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 06:39
English to Czech
+ ...
whatever May 27, 2020

Tom in London wrote:

Katarzyna Slowikova wrote:

I'm astounded


Sorry to hear it


Are you trying to make fun of my English?

I did work for a company earlier this year, that would perfectly fit this scenario (hiding bad reputation). They even got temporarily banned from posting jobs on Proz, so setting an anonymous profile as a Manuell would be a way to work around this ban (one would think not very effective, but your example proves otherwise), and definitely to disassociate themselves from their terrible BlueBoard rating.
I think that's what's going on here.
If you (or anybody) have a better explanation, please share it.


Yolanda Broad
 


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Scam alert - "Looking for native English speakers for future collaborations | IT>EN"







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