Have you noticed job posts for "someone who can translate document very well from English to..."

[#1]

What kind of scam can this be?

The translation jobs are full of these offers. They are supposed to be from clients in Australia, Portugal, the Netherlands, Singapore. Most of them claim to need 99 freelancers. In most instances, the text is the same.

Today, I've flagged about 5 to 10 such jobs. Upwork, please do something about these, I'm tired of seeing these same job offers for "very well" translators. They've been around for at least a few days.

[#2]

 Most likely an advance fee scam. 

[#3]

I'd love to hear from someone who has anwered one of these posts. Maybe I should send an offer, see if I get an answer and free connects for it.

[#4 · Accepted solution]

You will definitely get an answer! Then they tell you to go to skype or telegram. 

[#5]

In that case, the scam could be a way to enable freelancers to get free connects.

[#6]

Sure Luce you can apply and get some entertainment for 2 connects.

I don't see those posts, but I am curious how the interaction goes. They must be very good at convincing people to give them money.

[#7]

Prashant, I'll apply to the job offered from Singapore. 1 connect only!

I you want to see the posts, try the link Renata pasted earlier on,

https://www.upwork.com/nx/jobs/search/?q=%22looking%20forward%20to%20someone%20who%20can%20translate...

[#8]

I hope you get it! They want 99 people, so your chances are not bad at all!

New client, no prior hires. What I think that means is that a new client, eager to get his first project done, will be just as excited as you are! You might need to guide them along a bit and tell them that skype and telegram are a no-no, but they will appreciate your help in a big way. 

[#9]

The only problem is that they have been new client with no prior hires for weeks now. I'm not sure they'll be that excited to have Prashant as a freelancer.

[#10]

That job is gone.....I didn't want to work for somebody from Singapore.  My heart was set on Portugal....Oh well.

[#11]

Double the price in connects, Prashant...

[#12]

I've got another link for you, but I can't post it here.

[#13]

Deleted

[#14]

Hi Luce,

I found the ones you're talking about. I didn't realize the search feature can't compute apostrophes.

https://www.upwork.com/nx/jobs/search/?q=%22looking%20forward%20to%20someone%20who%20can%20translate...

I've been told recently that we can include links to searches that show multiple posts when we flag suspicious jobs. I can't come up with a plausible reason people would post nearly identical job descriptions from five different locations.

[#15]

Hi Renata, I'm wondering about the reason for these stupid posts. Maybe it's a way of attacking Upwork ? Right now, when you search for "French translation" jobs, you can see that most of the posts are suspicious.

I just tried your link: amazing. Similar jobs, one is supposed to be from someone in Norway. 6 connects. 2 connects for someone in Portugal, only 1 connect for someone in Singapore. What on earth is this?

[#16]

One scam I notice a lot more lately is one I think of as "the busywork investment scam." This is where the scammers give someone who's new to upwork a huge sham project that involves a ton of work (and most often this involves the newbie freelancers--who are new to both Upwork and the concept of freelancing itself--starting a project without a contract because they don't realize they need to have one). The project will involve something like translating Moby Dick Van Dyke Van Dick Van Dyke Van Dyke. When the freelancer is finished, the scammer then tells them they need to pay a fee in order to be paid .

Since the freelancer is now invested by virtue of spending an inordinate amount of time diligently completing the monumental busywork project the scammers assigned, they'll often agree to pay whatever ridiculous fee the scammer proposes so that they can be paid for the contract (for example, a registration fee, an ID card fee, or whatever). After they pay the first fee, there will be another fee, and the busywork invested freelancer will sometimes go for that too because they've just invested a whole lot of energy into creating the ultimate translation of Moby Dick Van Dyke Van Dick Van Dyke Van Dyke.

Edited to add:  The title wasn't my idea. For some reason the system corrected my title to the one you see.

[#17]

LOL so true. It's the sunk cost fallacy. The more you are invested into something, the more you need to believe it's true. Of course, the freelancers could also tell the client: Hey, I can copy/paste your pdf to word within seconds, I really don't need days to retype it, and you don't need to pay me thousands of dollars! Everybody wins! You are very welcome. 

The eternal riddle - why don't they choose this answer?

[#18]

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Martina P wrote:

LOL so true. It's the sunk cost fallacy. The more you are invested into something, the more you need to believe it's true. Of course, the freelancers could also tell the client: Hey, I can copy/paste your pdf to word within seconds, I really don't need days to retype it, and you don't need to pay me thousands of dollars! Everybody wins! You are very welcome. 

The eternal riddle - why don't they choose this answer?

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Because the scam is tailored towards a particular audience. It's hard to get first contracts on Upwork, so when you think you've bagged one, it may be easier to suspend your disbelief about any of the particulars. Also, people may be unfamiliar with what's typical in terms of jobs or wages in other countries.

[#19]

That sounds like an X-rated book.

[#20]

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Renata S wrote:

Hi Luce,

I found the ones you're talking about. I didn't realize the search feature can't compute apostrophes.

https://www.upwork.com/nx/jobs/search/?q=%22looking%20forward%20to%20someone%20who%20can%20translate...

I've been told recently that we can include links to searches that show multiple posts when we flag suspicious jobs. I can't come up with a plausible reason people would post nearly identical job descriptions from five different locations.

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________________________
And they still haven't been taken down.  

[#21]

Some have, but two new versions have replaced them.

[#22]

Oh, I'm sure they're legit. But first you have to send them $1000 to buy a translating machine. 

[#23]

Robert, I'm afraid you don't need a machine to do a machine translation. 🙄

[#24]

Another job just posted from Norway, and one from Australia. Same time in both Norway and Australia.

Ah, the same person is responsible for "Typying and Retypying jobs". One of the "clients" is interviewing 31 clients.

[#25]

🙄🙄