| Pages in topic: [1 2] > | Scammers/impersonators: fighting back? Thread poster: BabelOn-line
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BabelOn-line
United Kingdom
Local time: 19:31
English to French
+ ...
Hello Prozians,
As a small agency, we receive at least one email a day originating from impersonators/scammers.
For those of you who are lucky enough not to know about them, they are people hi-jacking real linguists CVs and trying to impersonate them via bogus email addresses.
These scammers seems to use @gmail addresses exclusively (which in a way is brilliant, as it makes it even easier to identify).
I have tried to contact gmail to t... See more Hello Prozians,
As a small agency, we receive at least one email a day originating from impersonators/scammers.
For those of you who are lucky enough not to know about them, they are people hi-jacking real linguists CVs and trying to impersonate them via bogus email addresses.
These scammers seems to use @gmail addresses exclusively (which in a way is brilliant, as it makes it even easier to identify).
I have tried to contact gmail to tell them about these bogus addresses, but google policy is: "As long as the guys from the FBI do not invade our offices in California and start asking questions, we don't give a damn". It is not that they are not aware of the problem, but there is no reporting process to ask them to deactivate an address.
Yes, you can always report it to your local authorities. Competent services are trying to avoid serious terrorists attacks or wholesale bank details hacking. In terms of priority, you can imagine how urgent this must look to them.
As an agency, we would therefore recommend all linguists to get a proper email address "@MyOwnName.something"as it makes them far more credible during their first online contact – and the cost of owning your own domain is now very affordable.
Now. What do we do to defend our turf?
I looked at the "spam the scammers approach": sending back thousands of emails to verified scammers emails addresses. Not legal, it seems, and not obvious. It entails anonymizing your source to avoid problems – I find mornings difficult enough after my third coffee, I don't need to have the Russian(*) mafia knocking on my doorstep.
But ever so tempting, as this would render their lives impossible, having to trawl through thousands of emails in order to find a real punter.
Or do we order stuff from them and not pay them? That's is also illegal.
I wondered if any IT-minded Prozian could think of a legal, acceptable, and possibly humorous way of fighting back – instead of lamenting on the fact there are bad people out there?
What do you think?
Best!
(*) please delete Russian and add your favorite country mafia name here. I say Russian purely because, well, it seems this is where this originates from. ▲ Collapse
| | | | John Fossey 
Canada
Local time: 14:31
Member (2008)
French to English
+ ...
| Reporting spam to Google | Oct 15, 2014 |
If the scam email was unsolicited it may qualify as spam, in which case it can be reported to Google here. They do take spam from gmail addresses seriously.
| | | | BabelOn-line
United Kingdom
Local time: 19:31
English to French
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Will give it a go, thanks John.
Not super optimistic about the potential outcome, but worth a go.
If Google effectively closed such scammers account quickly (and my guess is that most scam attempt are unsolicited ), these email addresses would be rendered useless and the scam could not operate.
I have contacted Google a number of times, but never using this avenue, so will try it now.
... See more Will give it a go, thanks John.
Not super optimistic about the potential outcome, but worth a go.
If Google effectively closed such scammers account quickly (and my guess is that most scam attempt are unsolicited ), these email addresses would be rendered useless and the scam could not operate.
I have contacted Google a number of times, but never using this avenue, so will try it now.
Thanks! ▲ Collapse
| | | | Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 19:31
Member (2008)
Italian to English
| You should never reply to a scammer | Oct 15, 2014 |
You should never reply to a scammer because by doing so you are confirming that the email address they used is valid. I thought everybody knew that !
Don't try to fight back. Just set your email application to automatically trash all emails that have [whatever] in the message line. So long as you do this carefully you won't also inadvertently trash emails that are important to you.
You may have to do this for each new scammer or each new email address they send from, bu... See more You should never reply to a scammer because by doing so you are confirming that the email address they used is valid. I thought everybody knew that !
Don't try to fight back. Just set your email application to automatically trash all emails that have [whatever] in the message line. So long as you do this carefully you won't also inadvertently trash emails that are important to you.
You may have to do this for each new scammer or each new email address they send from, but it only takes a few seconds.
I have also set my email application to make the noise of a flushing toilet. Quite a shock if it happens in the middle of the night!
[Edited at 2014-10-15 12:49 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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BabelOn-line
United Kingdom
Local time: 19:31
English to French
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TOPIC STARTER
Cheers. Was not thinking about using my own email address for this!
Problem with headers e-mail filters is they do not work for us. The scammers try to change wordings.
Fair enough, you can spot these emails a mile away and indeed, trash them immediately: these emails annoy me not because they clog my inbox but only because of what it does to our industry.
Will try the Google reporting route. Seems that, should the whole profession report this to Google, i... See more Cheers. Was not thinking about using my own email address for this!
Problem with headers e-mail filters is they do not work for us. The scammers try to change wordings.
Fair enough, you can spot these emails a mile away and indeed, trash them immediately: these emails annoy me not because they clog my inbox but only because of what it does to our industry.
Will try the Google reporting route. Seems that, should the whole profession report this to Google, it could kill off this type of scam in no time.
Best! ▲ Collapse
| | | | Eric CM
Czech Republic
Local time: 20:31
English to Italian
+ ...
| Different approach | Oct 15, 2014 |
I would try a different approach.
Let me explain: a scammer's most prized possession is his/her anonimity, right? That's what they really want to protect at all costs.
So, if your agency would enforce a strong policy to legally verify every identity before assigning a job to a new guy I bet lots of scammers would steer far away.
Setting this up might be laborious at first, but pay big dividends in the long run.
| | | | BabelOn-line
United Kingdom
Local time: 19:31
English to French
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
These guys will never disclose anything, no chance of extracting any info from them.
I once answered one of the known scammers' email (using a disposable, non traceable email address).
Told them, "Brilliant, our offices are round the corner from your address, let me knock at your door as you are literally a neighbour". It was good fun. These guys embarked on a "Don't come to my home as there is no one there, I am staying with a friend in Patagonia for the next 3 months ... See more These guys will never disclose anything, no chance of extracting any info from them.
I once answered one of the known scammers' email (using a disposable, non traceable email address).
Told them, "Brilliant, our offices are round the corner from your address, let me knock at your door as you are literally a neighbour". It was good fun. These guys embarked on a "Don't come to my home as there is no one there, I am staying with a friend in Patagonia for the next 3 months but I work remotely" (yeah, right). Wrote I could see the lights at their place and this meant they must be burgled and did they want me to contact the police? It was fun, but after a few exchanges of emails, the scammers lost interest.
As soon as you ask for any ID or try to enforce any sort of check, they simply give up. To them, iIt a number game: one person in a thousand will take the bait. So you just spam, spam some more and wait.
Again, it is not so much for us: we have not been caught so far and the chances of them fooling us with this specific kind of scam are small. These scams emails are very easily identified once you have seen a few and we hardly ever use people who introduce themselves via email – when we need a good linguist, we go to Proz
It is more for the damage they create to the profession.
This is why I am asking if anyone can think of a legal way we could all se and collectively hit back at them.
[Edited at 2014-10-15 14:18 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Eric CM
Czech Republic
Local time: 20:31
English to Italian
+ ...
BabelOn-line wrote:
These guys will never disclose anything, no chance of extracting any info from them.
........
As soon as you ask for any ID or try to enforce any sort of check, they simply give up. To them, iIt a number game: one person in a thousand will take the bait. So you just spam, spam some more and wait.
.......
It is more for the damage they create to the profession.
This is why I am asking if anyone can think of a legal way we could all se and collectively hit back at them.
[Edited at 2014-10-15 14:18 GMT]
That's the whole point: if everyone in the industry would ask for positive identification, the whole scammer's scene would go bust.
Isn't that what we all want?
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BabelOn-line
United Kingdom
Local time: 19:31
English to French
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
You are right, that would solve things.
But again:
1/ if you work in the translation business, 99% chances are that you are aware of this scam. You do ask for ID, you do your checks. No one gets hurt.
2/ if you do not work in our industry, you are amongst the people who are far more likely to fall for it. If you get caught - or even if you have a near-miss, you may well believe that our industry is in the hand of a bunch of jokester who cannot enforce self-... See more You are right, that would solve things.
But again:
1/ if you work in the translation business, 99% chances are that you are aware of this scam. You do ask for ID, you do your checks. No one gets hurt.
2/ if you do not work in our industry, you are amongst the people who are far more likely to fall for it. If you get caught - or even if you have a near-miss, you may well believe that our industry is in the hand of a bunch of jokester who cannot enforce self-policing.
See where I am coming from? I am thinking more in terms of reputation damage. I am also thinking about protecting our colleagues whose CV and good name are being hi-jacked ▲ Collapse
| | | | Sheila Wilson
Spain
Local time: 19:31
Member (2007)
English
+ ...
| ProZ.com Scam Centre | Oct 15, 2014 |
Once you're sure an email is a scam you can send it here: http://www.proz.com/about/translator-scam-alerts/
That would cause all of us to be on our guard, and maybe that would get back to the scammer. Maybe you could put a comment to that effect on your website. I doubt they'll want to encourage their emails to be published as scams in such a public place.
| | | | | Some great stories of people who did get their own back | Oct 15, 2014 |
http://www.419eater.com/html/letters.htm
The first one, The Road to the Skeleton Coast, is particularly good. The scammer ends up seasick in a boat off the coast of Namibia.
| | | | Jeff Whittaker
United States
Local time: 14:31
Spanish to English
+ ...
| Perhaps Proz could offer an e-mail verification service... | Oct 15, 2014 |
...as another incentive for verified members.
Members register all of their e-mail addresses with Proz. When an agency gets an e-mail, they can enter it into the database to see if that corresponding person has registered it.
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Tony M
France
Local time: 20:31
Member
French to English
+ ...
SITE LOCALIZER | Rather drastic! | Oct 16, 2014 |
Jeff Whittaker wrote:
Members register all of their e-mail addresses with Proz.
Although the idea is laudable, I think this would create uproar in the rank-and-file (unpaid) membership, since from now on, ALL their e-mail addresses would get rejected as spam!
This would seem to me wholly unfair, since it would virtually FORCE everyone to become a paying member.
Given that the problem is aggravated by the ease with which spam / scam messages can be sent via the ProZ.com system, I think a fairer system would be to invite ALL members (i.e. paying or not) to register all their e-mail addresses in a (confidential!) ProZ.com database, and then set up a system whereby paying members at least could opt to have automatic e-mail address filtering enabled on any mail they receive via the proZ.com system — you know, if the message contains an e-mail address, check to see if it is on the list, if not, set a flag as a first-line warning device.
I think this is really more important for individual translator members than for agencies as such, since any professional agency ought anyway to have its own due diligence procedures in place; it seems clear that most of the scams we read about on here are targetting individual translators, rather than actual agencies.
Another automatic flagging feature that I'd have thought ought to be easy enough to set up would be to check IP addresses, and flag up those coming from countries notorious for scam attempts; individual users could even be given the option to select which countries they would like to be warned about.
| | | | BabelOn-line
United Kingdom
Local time: 19:31
English to French
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | Ideas, ideas | Oct 16, 2014 |
Thanks for all the interesting contributions to this post.
As Tony rightly underlines, agencies should have a due diligence process in place - or simply, they use linguists they have already vetted and only find new ones from vetted sources like Proz.
Problem is indeed more for the individual translator or for companies who other then agencies.
Any process of "checking an address against a whitelist/blacklist" is IMHO doomed to fail.
Reason is... See more Thanks for all the interesting contributions to this post.
As Tony rightly underlines, agencies should have a due diligence process in place - or simply, they use linguists they have already vetted and only find new ones from vetted sources like Proz.
Problem is indeed more for the individual translator or for companies who other then agencies.
Any process of "checking an address against a whitelist/blacklist" is IMHO doomed to fail.
Reason is, the scammers are not using sophisticated techniques: they steal a CV, send it as an email under a (palpably, really, the lack of imagination it is almost comical) impersonated gmail email address and hope they'll get a 1 / 100 000 return. They change addresses constantly. "Burning" one of their addresses does not hurt them, they can generate thousands of new ones and addresses get burned only after the damage is done.
This is why i was thinking at a positive riposte. Flooding back each of their mass mailing with emails containing empty text for instance would make it very hard for them to simply sieve through 99.999% bogus answers to find one proper scammee. That would hurt. Having the email addresses disconnected by google before they can receive any reply, that would hurt.
But this means that we all turn into watchtowers and we are all quick to respond.
We are an agency and if I am very cynical, scammers almost play in our favour – along the lines of "clients beware, go to a reputable agency as you never know who is who on the Net, contact a linguist directly at your own peril".
But I am also a translator and the idea some guys can "steal" the main asset of a linguist (her or his good name) and get away with it makes my blood boil.
Best thing now is to investigate the "report spammers to Google" process suggested earlier by John Fossey. Funny that Google has a "report spammers" link, but never seems willing to answer to scams report perpetrated via gmail addresses – and scam beats spam. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Recep Kurt
Türkiye
Local time: 21:31
Member (2011)
English to Turkish
+ ...
http://www.translator-scammers.com/
This is a directory maintainded by a colleague.
I downloaded the list and "fed it" to my e-mail client software - anything that originates from the listed addresses ends up in the junk mail folder...
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