New scam alert - jobs posted on Translators Café in the name of an individual (not a translator)
Thread poster: Jenny Duthie
Jenny Duthie
Jenny Duthie  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 01:48
Member (2006)
French to English
Nov 19, 2020

RE: New scam alert - jobs posted on Translators Café (TC) in the name of Alison Cowe - the email she used is [email protected]. "She" used the address of 2 real London companies on her POs. The real Alison Cowe is a former director of these 2 companies. She has subsequently asked Google to shut down that email address.

Hello, On 15 September 2020 a "TC Master" named "Alison Cowe" posted 3 translation jobs on the TC web
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RE: New scam alert - jobs posted on Translators Café (TC) in the name of Alison Cowe - the email she used is [email protected]. "She" used the address of 2 real London companies on her POs. The real Alison Cowe is a former director of these 2 companies. She has subsequently asked Google to shut down that email address.

Hello, On 15 September 2020 a "TC Master" named "Alison Cowe" posted 3 translation jobs on the TC website, please see details below:

Here are full details of each job posting:

1) FR to EN 4000 words, legal, Translators Café job ref. 299465, closed on 14 September 2020 at 4:56pm. This is the job that I bid for, & was hired for. “She” then sent me more translation work in September & October 2020; I actually translated a total of 16,755 words for her. I received genuine-looking POs from her.

2) Dutch to EN 4500 words, legal, Translators Café job ref. 300510, closed on 6 October 2020 at 7:44 pm.

3) Italian to EN 4000 words, technical, Translators Café job ref. 300705, closed on 9 October 2020 at 2:19 pm.

This is in fact a scammer, it's a case of identity fraud, I have spoken to the real Alison Cowe, because I actually hired a debt collector to contact her, to collect payment. She called me, she had reported the incident to the police, when she received the debt collector's letter she thought I was a scammer, as she'd never heard of me! It was a clever scam. The profile in her name has been removed at her request, but I wish to inform Proz & Translators Café users about this fraud, because if "she" successfully hired translators for the other 2 jobs above (TC job refs 300510 (Dutch to EN) & 300705 (Italian to EN) as a result of these postings, they must be in the same position as me, i.e. they did the work & are now out of pocket.... If any translators here were hired for these jobs, & were subsequently scammed, as I have, please contact me here so that we can pool our information to try to find the identity of the scammer & get our money. I'm in contact with the real Alison Cowe and we are doing some detective work to try to find the scammer. We have reason to believe this person is based in Serbia. I also created a Proz profile (before I realised it was not the real Alison Cowe) when trying to collect my payment, in the hope that translators on TC might search for her name on Proz & contact me via Proz, but due to the identity theft issue, that profile has now been hidden, at my request. So if anyone has worked for this person, please contact me.

Thank you,

Jenny Duthie

[Edited at 2020-11-19 16:47 GMT]

[Edited at 2020-11-19 16:50 GMT]
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New scam alert - jobs posted on Translators Café in the name of an individual (not a translator)







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