English to French translation

Interpreters beware!

March 9, 2005

This morning I received the following email:

Myself, my wife and my son are visiting the UK for 15 days and we are jus shopping / sightseeing. This is why we will need a translator service of someone we can go out with from March 18th to 2nd of April and will be willing to spend six hours everyday with us during our outings either from 9.00am - 3.00pm or 12.00pm - 6.00pm depending on when we choose to go out. Please let me know if you are interested in offering this service and we can proceed asap as I will like to make payment before our arrival. Thanks. Sadiq.

This is a scam that has been going around recently, targeting interpreters. I know about it because I sometimes have a look at the forums at Proz, an online community for translators, and it has been mentioned a few times, here and here, for example.

It goes like this: you agree on a price and Sadiq sends you a cheque for X, which does appear in your bank account. Soon afterwards, he changes his mind on the amount, or claims he made a mistake and transferred too much on your account, and asks you to send a cheque covering the surplus amount. He's hoping that by the time your bank realises his cheque is fake, he'll have had time to cash yours.

If you want to fight back, check out 419 Eater, a site about scambaiting, which is "a dialogue with scammers, simply to waste their precious time and resources. Whilst you are doing this, you will be helping to keep the scammers away from real potential victims." Some of the exchanges with scammers are hilarious. If I wasn't quite so busy with work (and slightly scared of dealing with criminals), I might well have indulged in a little correspondence with Sadiq…

Comments

Thanks for linking to the 419 Eater site - it provided me with a very entertaining lunch-hour in front of my PC. The names alone had me laughing out loud in the office: Mr Willie Stroker? Gladys Knight (becasue "All he's getting from my line is pips"...)? A great way to scam the scammers!

I too had a good laugh. There are a couple of scambaiter sites out there, and they're all full of hilarious stories. I must admit that sometimes I feel sorry for the "poor" scammers who are being scammed themselves.

Dearest,

I am Mrs.ROSE from Ivory Coast. I am a widow being that I lost my husband.My husband was a serving director of the Cocoa exporting board until his death.

He was assassinated by the rebels following the political uprising. Before his death he made a deposit of Ten Million USA Dollars uS$10,000,000.00)here in Côte d´Ivoire in security company .This fund he intended to buy a cocoa processing machine.

I want you to help me for us to retrieve this fund and transfer it to your account in your country or any safer place as you will be the beneficiary and recipient of the fund .

I have plans to do investment in your country, like real estate and industrial production. This is my
reason for writing to you. Please if you are willing to assist me and my only son Francis,indicate your interest in replying soonest.

Thanks and best regards .

Mrs.ROSE

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