Blacklist L




Email 11/08/14: 
"I just received this 'generous' offer from Language Insight (http://www.languageinsight.com/), a UK based agency, for a transcription plus translation job. Here is the e-mail conversation:
Rosie: We are in need of linguists who specialise in medical transcription from Portuguese- English.
We work with Portuguese audio and transcribe directly into English. These are usually medical interviews with doctors or patients for market research purposes.
Our rate is always charged per recorded minute rather than per word.  Our rate is  £1.40 per recorded minute.
My response: Dear Rosie
Thank you for your e-mail. You are looking for people to transcribe and translate, from Portuguese audio into English text, and are willing to pay £1.40 per minute of audio? Have I understood correctly.
Rosie: Yes that is correct.
My response: I see. That being the case, and assuming that one hour of audio contains around 5000 words, or 83 words per minute, this would mean a rate of around £0.0168 per word. My normal rate for medical translation is £0.08 per word. Considering that for a translation and transcription project I would need to work without the aid of a CAT tool, or else I would need to transcribe the whole audio file and then translate it, which given the subject matter, would probably be necessary in any case.
In terms of time, the job as described would probably take around 10x the length of the recording, depending on the quality of the audio and the complexity of the subject matter. So the offer is likely to be worth around £8.50/hr [£2 more than the UK minmum wage], and may be even less. Obviously I could not possibly accept the job at such a rate.
I will propose the following, and as there are two jobs here, I will quote them separately. For the transcription (Portuguese audio to Portuguese text) I will charge £1 per audio minute. For the translation (Portuguese text to English text), I will charge £0.08 per word.

Unsurprisngly, I've not heard anything back. 
I was also offered other (non-translation) work by this agency at insulting rates."

Email 2/2/15: "Language Insight contacted me and asked me to take a test longer than 700 words (medical - which is not my area of expertise btw). I spent a whole day trying my best to impress them. Only 3 hours after returning the test, they told me I had passed the test, providing me with their contract to sign. Before signing I asked some questions about payments/preferred currency/invoices etc...
I have never heard from them again.
The name of the VM was "Carlos"
From A to Z I've found 13 agencies to which I sent my CV. Luckily they were not categorised as "CV Thieves". However, I'll mark them in red in my spreadsheet.
Again, thank you very much for your useful list! 


4665 - 44th Street SE
Suite A-1101
Grand Rapids, MI
USA 49512-4052

Translator's email 7/11/13 : " They asked me for a job in December 2010. I sent an invoice for $ 1,530,24 on 31 December 2010, but after having promised twice to pay immediately, they have not answered e-mails. I am currently using debt collection agency to collect this debt for me, but they have disputed my claim although I have a valid PO which Chelsie Fink sent before I started working. It would not hurt to publish this in your black list and ask if anyone else has been treated similarly to me."




(scam, notorious bad practices, fake photos, unrealistic deadlines)
Others names : Expert of Linguists, Palestine Territories, PM: Stephani (fake name), fake address: 2/1, Hifa St., Alfei Menashe, 43351 Israel (fake address), Skype: Ch.Trans, experts.of.trans@gmail.com, Paypal ID: hambaka5@gmail.com GTrans, no website, linked to Gentle Translations/Translation Secrets, Languagemet/Purity Translations/ Amazing Translations among others; non-payer, CV identity thief.


"Another non-payer to watch out for is Agatha Wear, LengoTrans. They are a scam that pretends to be a legitimate agency"
PS Omar AKA Agatha Wear AKA Lego Trans/Petra Trans (see note 18, TSD). Lonaverbas/Professional Translator Team are also closely connected to Gentle Translations (aka Languagemet/Translation Secrets and many other scam operations).


Discussion on Linked In
"Here is another translation job for $250 / 6500 words = $0,03846 per word!! Here is the full text of the original "ad":
"We are in urgent need of a skilled freelancer to translate an English Maintenance Manual (Main condensate pump) to DUTCH.
- Deadline is on September 21, 2010 at 8:00 a.m. Korea time (GMT+8).
- The file has around 6,500 words. The project rate is USD 250.
- Educational/Work background in mechanical engineering & technical translations is an advantage.
To all qualified applicants, please email your resume ASAP at [email removed*]. Kindly mention your location so we can work our our time difference. :)
Looking forward to your email!
Many thanks,
Christine Ignacio (LEXCODE Project Coordinator)
Deadline: September 17 the end of the day"






Very late payments, crowdsourcing, cheap machine translation, zero quality
 
Email 03/12/13 : "I know two translation agencies that I thought suitable for the blog post + helpful to share with other fellow translators. LingoTek, Utah, USA: Although they are already on the list and someone pointed out their late payment, I have been having the same problem.  I have worked on 5 projects with them since early 2013 and 100% of the payments are late so far.  Thanks and regards,"
Ayako T
Email 2/7/14:  
You should write about this move toward crowdsourcing translation work. It is really an ominous turn of events. I was recently approached by these guys:


Here is their video, very alarming--we are, as if, to meld, Borg-like, with a "machine,", i.e., software. The rate I was offered was 0.03 USD per machine-translated word. We all know that the current state of machine translation means that editing it is labor-intensive, to put it lightly.
Needless to say, I told them to "frack" off.



Very demanding for the rate they offer
 
Discussion on LinkedIn: "
 just got this "great offer" - USD 0,05/word... and quite a long requirement list for experience:"
"At least 5 years extensive experience in translation sector; Should be native speaking and has the capability to translate from English to their native languages and vice versa;
Using CAT tools, Trados 2009 or 2011;
Experience in working and cross-checking with reference material (glossaries etc.);
Demonstrable ability to follow instructions;
Ready to accept our fixed rate of USD 0,05/word for translation services
Ready to accept payments net 45 days following the end of month in which the service invoice is submitted
Ready to handle short sample translation in which the quality check is to be made by the native speaking third party.

Clearly another slave contract."



SCAM ! Incredibly rude and unprofessional, ask you to pay to register

Translator's report: "A certain Carl Dundas contacted me through ProZ some time ago, saying that they were taking applications for my language pair and specialisations. I obliged, albeit after quite a long time due to a protracted office & house move and not being able to access the documents he required (CRB check amongst them).
Today he replied saying that the application looked complete but have I sent his colleague 3 quid registration fee.
I replied saying that I was surprised, as it is not customary for potential clients to request payments from service providers and that I was leaving it up to him to decide whether he wanted to work with me. I also requested that he removed all the information I sent him from his email and drive if his decision is negative (they contained confidential information: scan of passport, CRB check, marriage certificate as my CRB was in my maiden name). In response I got this:
"I do not care for your arrogance and bad attitude, young lady, and for wasting my time. Rules are in place for security and I am surprised that you would throw away potential work opportunities for the sake of a minimal fee."
Whilst I'm not bothered about three quid and I would have happily sent it to them as a means of proving that I am a real (business) person if he gave me a professional and valid reason, I am shocked that someone can be so arrogant, unprofessional and pompous in such a short message.
AVOID!!!
Rest on LinkedIn
WPPF: "anyone knows this company, Linguagenesis?
I feel very weird.
Several days ago I applied an over the phone interpreting job from them on proz, just now, I've received their email telling they've got other interpreter to do it, then they suggest I register online  for their business, but they'll charge me £3 for registration fee, and even said I'm required to supply an insurance to work as their qualified freelancer. the point is the insurance costs £60, and if they apply the insurance on my behalf, they will charge me only £40.
Have you ever experienced this?"
"NEVER NEVER NEVER (I have 39 years of experience in translating technical text all over the world, and NEVER EXPERIENCED such a thing. Be careful! Teresa"




Email 19/03/14, Edward Whiteside: 
"I received this message via TD from some cheeky bugger in India (http://www.linguainfo.in).
Hi,
Scope of work:-
English To Hungarian Translation Requires
Domain----ENGINEERING (Machines)
Bulk work
Currently Approx 10000 words
Deadline ASAP
Our max offer 0.03 USD
Project In Hand
Files in PDF and word."



Mail 18/02/2014: "Hello, Could you please blacklist this Belgian company: Lingua Translations Contact Name: Ir. Y. Altintas Address:
Winkelstraat 58
BE-2890 Sint-Amands
Fax: +32 52/523 789 Email: info@linguatranslations.be
Website: www.linguatranslations.be
They owe me 100 Euro and are not replying to my emails for more than 2 months. I have already asked to blacklist them on Proz as well
http://www.proz.com/blueboard/28973
Thank you in Advance.
Regards,
Serge. 

"Yep, Lingua and Mr. Altintas (it's a one man show) is a crooked scheme. Had to contact the company I made the work for and threaten him with police charges + attorney action to be paid a lousy 500 € sum. Avoid this scammer at all costs." Joao



Email 30/04/14: 
"Thank you for running this wonderful website.
This is really helpful indeed.
I would like you to add "Lingua World Services" which is one of Indian translation agencies.
Their rate is extremely low (as 3 USD per word) besides sometimes they ask "additional requests" to edit the translations.
These additional requests occur due to bad organization. Basically they do not count the total words and do not edit document format to type in before passing these projects to translators.
Then they try to offer lower price saying "There are lots of duplicated words" which was total incorrect.
It is totally unfair to do those edits with only 3 USD and takes long hours to do that.
Also they do not pay if you don't ask hard.
They eventually paid out all my pays though it was way too over due and they sometimes did not respond to my inquiries about the payments although they respond to me real quick while I was on any projects.
The translation coodinator is polite though the agency is very disorganized and extremely late-pay.
Please be aware.
Thank you."

28/03/15: 
"Hello there,
I'd like you to add a Translation Agency to your blacklist: http://lingua-world.co.uk/
I have already done two projects for them. They don't reply to my e-mails and they make several excuses.
I finally got paid, but I had to send lots of emails. A complete waste of time!"




Email 06/08/14:
Hey! Just found your site, and I have another company that doesn't pay for services - they promise, but never deliver!
Parkhi Sabharwal
Lingual Consultancy Services Pvt Ltd (LC)
Office: +91-11-32315394
Skype: parkhi.sabharwal
www.lingualconsultancy.com


Shameless rates, zero concern for quality, hell to work with

Linked In report: (...) the one and only client I have ever had, that I would not even want for my worst enemy is Lionbridge because of the following reasons:

1. They won't send you that much work to make it worth your time.
2. PMs and other staff members don't answer emails.
3. Rates are OK, lety's say they are within the standard, but you'll end up investing a lot more time than you would for any other project for any other client.
4. They demand you use their software and apps for most projects, but their software and apps are unnecessarily complicated, don't represent a real help for translators, learning how to use them will take a long time you're not being paid for, and the worst part is there are errors, bugs and glitches everywhere.
5. Support for the use of their software is non-existent. Not even their own staff knows how to use their own software. They even admit the software is faulty.
6. Most tasks come along with silly requirements such as a number of additional fles to deliver for their statistics. It is just additional work that serves no purpose at all, and will make you waste your time.
7. I believe they don't pay translators as it took me nearly 6 months to get paid for the one and only task I completed for them, and only after spamming their emails every single day and shaming them in forums and else.
8. All translators I have met in person or online have either had awful experiences with them or heard the worst comments about them.
9. It is terribly disorganized as one PM doesn't know whether another PM has said or ordered something, they don't even know how their own company works, and they never solve any issues at all.

In summary, don't go there at all, just stay away, avoid them like the pest."
" Received this morning from a giant in translation industry, known for their ginormous tendering and no follow-up:
"We are currently looking to increase our pool of resources for a project to improve/validate Machine Translation (MT) output for a big online seller in the market. [...] High linguistic quality is not expected. Typos, punctuation, small grammar mistakes and other issues that do not affect purely the meaning of the translation are not to be corrected. [...] We are considering paying this work by word or by ad. If by word, the rate offered would be around EUR 0.0175/word. The rate takes into account the increased productivity due to MT and the lower quality expectations." 
The last line is my favourite." (28/01/14)

Email 20/11/14: 
"Very complete website! Thank you for mentioning Lionbridge! One of my last experiences, if you like to share with other people:
They ask the translators to use Linguistic Toolbox, a tool associated to Translation Workspace, THAT YOU HAVE TO PAY FOR!). Well, downloaded the application and try to install it, and got a message:"There's a new version of this tool" (AND WHY THE HECK DON'T YOU POST IT!!!). Try to install, and another message appears: "The system has detected that you have xxx and yyy running. Please, close these applications and try again". I close those applications and try again. Same message as before. I TURN OFF THE PC COMPLETELY, TURN ON AGAIN AND ONLY OPEN THAT F#@|¬ APPLICATION. The same message.I contact the so-called "support service", with all the above explanations.1 hour after, I get the answer from someone in Poland: "Can you explain us exactly what your problem is?"...After sending my answer, the West Europe Vendor Manager told me that my answer was very unprofessional. Balance: 90 minutes lost that nobody paid me..."Emilio 



Scam: use translators profiles without authorisation!!! Massively report them asap if you are amongst victims

"This is outrageous. I've just found out that Lingvopoint.com has posted my profile information that has been stolen from my Proz webpage. They've also altered my rates to something ridiculously low. Here is a discussion on Proz:http://www.proz.com/forum/scams/277712-another_unauthorised_directory_listing_lingvopointcom.html It seems like many of us have profiles there. We need to bring this to the attention of Proz.
"I didn't know I was there too. As I don't intend let someone else steal my identity and do nothing about it, I plan to report them to the company that hosts this site (name.com) and which offers the email address abuse@name.com for this purpose.As you will see in the detailed whois record below, the registrant is located in the British Virgin Islands, and according to me, this identity theft needs to be reported to the BVI police. I guess that the BVI government site should be a good starting point if you want to contact them too:http://www.bvi.gov.vg/site-page/government-virgin-islandsWe don't know if the registrant's data are accurate, but I guess that the more we are to complain, the quicker this dirty business disappears." (Read rest of thread here)



Email 19/09/14:
"Littera.lv needs to be on your list:
They work via Proz and offer 0.03 euro per word. They used a tactic to steal this cheap services from me, where after delivery they claimed that they didn't need the job anymore. I gave them a chance to explain why they didn't cancel the job with me before I delivered it, but they don't reply anymore."




Email 14/03/14, R.P:
"I want to ask you to blacklist the following associated agencies: Livetranslation.com and web-translation.com

Full article can be found here: http://www.linkedin.com
Reasons for listing:
- a Translator fee of £0.03/$0.05/€0.035 per word exclusive of Value Added Tax (if applicable).
- imposing the requirement of an Insurance Policy, paid by the translator."



"Please allow me to add a very interesting specimen to your list.
I worked for Ivan Madrigal at Logic Lingo (based in Spain) as a freelancer in 2010, and after 3 years of weekly reminders, he still hasn't paid his debt. As a result, I have contacted a lawyer in Spain, and can forward you any relevant emails. Thanks and have a lovely day!"
Email 26/12/14: NON PAYER

"I have worked for Logic Lingo some years ago; Ivan Madrigal is a nice fellow, very prestative, but when some invoices were late for payment, all I got was excuses, like issues with the bank, his client had not paid yet, etc. I sent many e-mails and contacted him on Skype and asked for my outstanding invoice, but only got a small payment (not even 10% of what he owed me) and more excuses. The bottom line: after 2 years of that incident, I still have not received my payment. Of course I will not work for him again, and I use my time more efficiently working for better payers instead of writing to him and trying to get my money. But I hope this helps to warn against his very unethic practices."


CV identity theft scammers: Omar Salah Ibrahim Al-Balawi

According to this website www.translator-scammers.com, (note 69 at the bottom of the page), The scammer, Omar Salah Ibrahim Al-Balawi is the mastermind behind Lonaverbas www.lonaverbas.com
Interesting stuff revealed about Lonaverbas:
- Fake addresses
- Fake identities
- Stolen CVs
- Fake credentials
Mail 09/03/14  
"Hello, Your website is brilliant. Well done! Please list this agency (scam operation - see note 18 & 69 at Translation Scammer Directory). Lonaverbas/Professional Translator Team (CV identity theft scammers). They pay 0.04 USD pw for technical translations.




02/04/15: Hi, I have found a translation agency that refuses to pay for work done last year. Their telephone number, email and the link to their advert on Loquo.com is:


redaccion@traductorx.com
Matt

1 comment:

None said...

Please add this agency: Latitude Prime 1629 K Street, Suite 300 Washington, DC 20006. the guy's name is William Kennedy. He will offer 3 cents/word. He will hire you, put you payroll and then in the end he will say that the translations were not good, and doesn't say if he will pay or not. Really bad ethics.