I was scammed by someone pretending to be with SummaLinguae Thread poster: Razvan Nitulescu
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Towards the end of August of last year, I received an email correspondence from an individual using the address [email protected]. This individual inquired about my availability for a substantial proofreading assignment encompassing more than 14,000 words.
Despite my scepticism stemming from the use of a Gmail address, I accepted the task as I had some time on my hands. Subsequently, I completed the assignment, albeit with lingering suspicions regarding... See more Towards the end of August of last year, I received an email correspondence from an individual using the address [email protected]. This individual inquired about my availability for a substantial proofreading assignment encompassing more than 14,000 words.
Despite my scepticism stemming from the use of a Gmail address, I accepted the task as I had some time on my hands. Subsequently, I completed the assignment, albeit with lingering suspicions regarding the legitimacy of the contact. Upon finishing the initial task, the individual requested further work, to which I said that I would not proceed until receiving payment for the initial assignment. To this day I have yet to receive any payment, nor have I heard back from this individual.
Notably, the emails from this individual contained branding elements, signatures, and excerpts mimicking authentic Summalinguae communication. The PO I was sent looked impeccable. Altogether, this suggests the possibility that the assignment might have been delegated to an intermediary entity, who then forwarded it to me, under a fake alias.
I tried getting in touch with SummaLinguage, the real SummaLinguae that is, several times, however, they never replied.
I learned my lesson at a considerable cost. Beware of [email protected]!
[Edited at 2024-01-03 11:30 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Magdalena Iacob 
Romania
Local time: 22:30
Member (2014)
English to Romanian
+ ...
| It happened to me too | Jan 4 |
Unfortunately, it seems this guy impersonating a SummaLinguae PM is all over the place and targeting the Proz database to try and deceive by the same method more and more translators. So beware indeed!
My story goes along the same lines as Razvan's. I was contacted by EDWARD JOSEPH with an almost legit e-mail address with summalinguae domain to do an edit job of 12.000 words for a medical report. I wondered myself of the legit character of the request but since the email was very go... See more Unfortunately, it seems this guy impersonating a SummaLinguae PM is all over the place and targeting the Proz database to try and deceive by the same method more and more translators. So beware indeed!
My story goes along the same lines as Razvan's. I was contacted by EDWARD JOSEPH with an almost legit e-mail address with summalinguae domain to do an edit job of 12.000 words for a medical report. I wondered myself of the legit character of the request but since the email was very good in mimicking the real SummaLinguae template with full details, website, even VAT number and after consulting BlueBoard I decided, albeit a bit reluctantly, to go for it and did the edit not before requesting a PO which again was impeccable in terms of details. Needless to say that after delivering the project all communication stopped. No payment received (3 months already) and so on. So basically I worked for nothing. But the least we can do is to advertise this and make you aware of this guy and his modus operandi.
What I do consider a curious thing though is that I did the same as my colleague Razvan and contacted the real SummaLinguae office based in Poland. Obviously, unfortunately, there is no answer from them. But that only makes me wonder WHY? Or should I say WHY NOT? Because its their name that is being circulated and impersonated, is their reputation at stake since I filled in a non-payment report related to their company which we all know it impacts their BlueBoard score. So why haven't they answered? It was just a simple email in which they should have said thank you for bringing this to our attention. We will further investigate this issue since it impacts us as a company. That makes me wonder if they actually know the guy and are aware of his shenanigans. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Common names, and inside jobs | Jan 4 |
I'm sorry to read that this happened to you, Răzvan. I must admit that I share your and Magdalena's suspicions about why the impersonated company didn't reply to you. I would expect a company whose identity has been stolen to seem a little more bothered.
Extremely common names like "Edward", "Joseph" etc. seem to be one of the hallmarks of scams these days, perhaps to make them seem credible. On me, though, they have the opposite effect - they make me more suspicious, not le... See more I'm sorry to read that this happened to you, Răzvan. I must admit that I share your and Magdalena's suspicions about why the impersonated company didn't reply to you. I would expect a company whose identity has been stolen to seem a little more bothered.
Extremely common names like "Edward", "Joseph" etc. seem to be one of the hallmarks of scams these days, perhaps to make them seem credible. On me, though, they have the opposite effect - they make me more suspicious, not less! A few weeks ago, I got an email from an "Adam Smith" (how original! ) claiming to represent a translation company that had no website. I checked it out on the Companies House website. The company did exist, but it had been incorporated only a few days before I received the email... by a dentist, of all people, with what appeared to be an Asian (possibly Pakistani) name. "Mr Smith" claimed his company had had a translation done by someone else (on the cheap, I suspect) for a court case and just wanted me, as a CIOL member, to certify it so it would be accepted. A dubious proposition to which I didn't even reply.
I certainly wouldn't be surprised if, sometimes, people working for legit companies pretend to be scammers who are impersonating their company, or get associates to collaborate with them in the way you mention. Some years ago, I received an email which appeared, at first glance, to be from a local company I'd worked for once before, about a tiny job that took maybe an hour. I did it and sent it off, but never got paid. When I looked more closely at the original email and checked the details, I realised there were some things that looked suspicious (name similar to the owner's but slightly different, and a few other discrepancies I can't remember now). Why would a scammer pretend to be working for a virtually unheard-of, tiny company in a very small town in England run by a single person and with no BB record, which I happened to have worked for previously? If I'd contacted the owner about the non-payment, I'm sure she'd have said "that's not my name/email address/whatever, it's someone pretending to be me". I strongly suspected that the sender of the "scam email" was in fact the owner of the real company, pretending to be a scammer impersonating her so she could get out of paying.
Conclusion: some scams might be "inside jobs" carried out by people who want to give the impression that someone has stolen their identity, or by associates of theirs. And beware extremely common names! ▲ Collapse
| | | | Chantha Nav
Cambodia
Local time: 02:30
English to Khmer (Central)
| Be aware of this guy | Apr 3 |
Here is the message I got from him.
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Hi,
It's Edward from summa linguae translation company
Please let me know if you are available for this English to Khmer(central)
Language translation project of a legal complaints file consisting of 66 pages ?
Please let me know your best translation rate per source word?
You can check the attached 3 files
The Deadline is by 31st of January EOD
... See more Here is the message I got from him.
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Hi,
It's Edward from summa linguae translation company
Please let me know if you are available for this English to Khmer(central)
Language translation project of a legal complaints file consisting of 66 pages ?
Please let me know your best translation rate per source word?
You can check the attached 3 files
The Deadline is by 31st of January EOD
After your confirmation, I will send you the PO.
Awaiting your reply asap
Best Regards,
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Razvan Nitulescu
United Kingdom
Member (2023)
English to Romanian
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | Yup, apparently he is still around :) | Apr 5 |
Chantha Nav wrote:
Here is the message I got from him.
-----
Hi,
It's Edward from summa linguae translation company
Please let me know if you are available for this English to Khmer(central)
Language translation project of a legal complaints file consisting of 66 pages ?
Please let me know your best translation rate per source word?
You can check the attached 3 files
The Deadline is by 31st of January EOD
After your confirmation, I will send you the PO.
Awaiting your reply asap
Best Regards,
----
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Sorry to hear you were scammed, but SummaLinguae did listen to you, at least it looks like it.
I checked them on the Blue Board, and got a.o. this message:
January 9, 2024, 1:06 pm
Don't accept job offers from people claiming to represent Summa Linguae from a free email address (such as Gmail, Hotmail, etc.): Summa Linguae only sends job offers from official email addresses with the domain @summalinguae.com —
A littlebit late, ... See more Sorry to hear you were scammed, but SummaLinguae did listen to you, at least it looks like it.
I checked them on the Blue Board, and got a.o. this message:
January 9, 2024, 1:06 pm
Don't accept job offers from people claiming to represent Summa Linguae from a free email address (such as Gmail, Hotmail, etc.): Summa Linguae only sends job offers from official email addresses with the domain @summalinguae.com —
A littlebit late, but better late then never. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Michael Beijer
United Kingdom
Local time: 20:30
Member (2009)
Dutch to English
+ ...
| Razvan Nitulescu
United Kingdom
Member (2023)
English to Romanian
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Indeed, very interesting... my Edward calls himself Edward Joseph, email address [email protected]
Probably at it again, on a different alias, haha!
[Edited at 2024-04-05 16:31 GMT]
[Edited at 2024-04-05 16:40 GMT]
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Daryo
United Kingdom
Local time: 20:30
Serbian to English
+ ...
| Do you know who is the final client? | Apr 7 |
If I understand well, the work you've done is a real document for some real final client.
Do you have any indications from the text(s) you worked on who is the final client?
The final client may well be blissfully unaware that they have been sold stolen work. Doesn't change the fact that if you can locate them, you have all the rights to contact them and demand from them either
- to a pay you
- give you the information about who sold them your work, ... See more If I understand well, the work you've done is a real document for some real final client.
Do you have any indications from the text(s) you worked on who is the final client?
The final client may well be blissfully unaware that they have been sold stolen work. Doesn't change the fact that if you can locate them, you have all the rights to contact them and demand from them either
- to a pay you
- give you the information about who sold them your work, so that you can pursue them yourself.
BTW the last few years there was a number of "offers" I received that suddenly vanished in thin air when I requested to first speak with a live person by me calling a phone number I can verify to who it belongs ... probably moved on to easier targets.
What Peter Shortall is talking about is also a distinct possibility.
[Edited at 2024-04-08 19:24 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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