Forum for Translators: Experience with Agatha Colten
Has anybody had experience with this outsourcer???
Agatha Colten has sent the following message to you and to other translators listed at:
http://www.TranslationDirectory.com/translators/german_english.php
==============================================
Dear translator,
I have 5000 words, I need translated from German into English. If interested please contact me with you availability and best rate.
Looking forward to hear from you soon.
http://www.translatorscafe.com/cafe/member147044.htm
Regards,
Agatha
I did some projects for Agatha Colten and never heard from her again.
It turns out that Agatha Colten is AKA Vlad Welson AKA Kathy Jack http://www.proz.com/blueboard/33013
Be wary of this outsourcer!!!
I had the exact same.
Delivered translation work and DID NOT GET PAID!!!!!!!!!!
This person needs to get taught a lesson !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Get in touch with me, i have an idea!!!
Agatha owes me over 2,000$ I have tried to get paid since 6 months ago. Latest email she sent me was "I have received the money from the client, I will transfer your money directly" That was 2 weeks ago. I haven't received the money yet, obviously. On Monday I will go to the police. I have two of her e-mails and one address (maybe false, but who knows, it's worth trying). If someone is interested in going to the police as well don't hesitate to contact me.
I doubt you will get any money.
Agatha Colten is a fake name and the address and phone number used on another website was also fake.
The person behind Agatha Colten is a criminal called Omar Salah Ibrahim Al-Balawi from Amman, Jordan (In the past he has used the name, Vlad Welson and Kathy Jack among others).
I would be very wary of anybody advertising here from Amman, Jordan using a gmail account (or any other free email account). It could be this crook.
Dear,
We have worked with a lot of translators and We pay for them ... Don't talk without knowing people .. If you think that we are lairs you are wrong ....
I have worked with a lot of translator not 10 or 20 , Many of translators .
Regards
Stephni
Hi guys, sorry I didn't go all the way to the oldest message and I am not sure how this thread started but here is my experience:
2 years ago I posted an ad for a job looking for some more people to add my colleagues finish a German into English job.
Agatha Colten (or whoever this person was) applied we sent her to do part of the work. I sent the address to mention on her invoice and asked that she send us an invoice, with data of her bank account to get paid. She never contacted me, until one month later. She gets in touch via gmail IM, telling me she is travelling in Jordan and needs money, asking if I could send her money through Western Union. As all this sounded fishy to me, (I started suspecting her, when the job she turned in was rubbish according to our proofreader) and I reminded her that the ad explained clearly that we pay only through bank transfer. Tonight, after 2 years she sends me an email with an invoice saying, either I pay or she will take legal measures (here again, she didn't mention any bank data, only some paypal account). To tell you the truth I totally forgot about her, and I was ashamed I didn't pay some translator who worked with us. She almost scammed me. Luckily enough I still had all the previous correspondance in my inbox. All I did is ask her to send me thebank data and that we will pay her everything. Until now, she didn't reply.
She used agatha.colten[at]gmail.com to contact me.
Her paypal address was translator1980.money[@]gmail.com
If any of you have a problem with her, you should probably report her to paypal.
Good luck!
Thanks for posting this. This scammer from Jordan has been at it for a long time. Agatha Colten is not even the real name of this crook.
Agatha Colten is none other than this scammer from Jordan, Omar Salah Ibrahim Al-Balawi, who has been ripping off translators at proz.com.
http://www.proz.com/blueboard/33013
This scammer owes me approximately $1400.
Agatha Colten is a fake name. It is really Ibrahim Alblewi from Amman, Jordan. His PayPal is translator1980.money at gmail.com. This hood has conned a lot of translators in both Translation Directory and Proz.com. Unfortunately, he is still at large under another fake name. See: http://www.proz.com/blueboard/33013
Hi, I just received a translation request from expert trans @ gmail, it was for a project for Ferrero, I am so glad I found this thread otherwise I would have been tricked! Perhaps we could track down this cold-blooded scammer by finding out who (Ferrero perhaps) requested this translation in the first place, so we can tell them their contact is a thief...
I told her I know it's a scam and this was her/his reply
"Dear,
We deal with a lot of translators and Here you are some of them You can ask them About us also I will try to find another one .
1980mirko@googlemail.com
helene.timokhovets@yandex.ru
nicapaixao@gmail.com"
I have a feeling we should beware of these email addresses too...
This person hides behind different names and email addresses and also uses proxy servers. Now I tend to avoid accepting jobs from outsourcers who use free email addresses or who refuse to give their contact details.
Hi,
We also used the "services" of this "person" last year. She claimed to be an English native speaker from Birmingham with very positve ratings in many platforms. The texts that we received had nothing to do with English and were even worse than google translations.
Half a year later she sent her "invoices" without any address or tax number. Payments had to be made to the Arab Bank of Jordan!!!!
I went to the police and they told me not to pay. Instead I wrote back about the information that you can find in google for "Agatha Colten" and that the translations were not English nor any other existing language.
Today, another 6 months later I received another mail with the same invoices - now not to be paid to the Arab Bank of Jordan but via Paypal. If not, legal actions will follow.
So be aware of Agatha Colten!!
Dear Colleague,
My name is Elena, and here was mentioned my mail address: helene.timokhovets@yandex.com and the mail address of my colleague, an English to Germn translator, Mirko. I do not understand why you shall beware of these mail addresses. At least before convicting us in something you could write and ask about the agency that made reference to my mail.
I believe that would be rather ethical and more professional than making conclusions without getting any information.
Kindest regards,
Elena
Dear colleague,
my name is Elena, my name was mentioned here as scam mail. I am a translator with about 11 years of experience in this field, and before accusing me of scam you would better contact me directly. Concerning this post - I have NEVER worked with this person and have never heard about her/him/them. Besides, here I see the mail address of my German colleague Mirko, with whom we worked for a while a couple of times. He is a translator and NEVER outsources projects, that is why I do not understand what is the problem with him. If some unreliable agency mentions my mail, it is not a reason to accuse me of scamming,
Kindest regards,
elena
I suspect Agatha Colten is still at large under a different identity. Be wary of the following outsourcer:
Experts Linguists experts.of.trans@gmail.com
Hi there, I have been contacted this morning by this outsourcer, offering me a proofreading job of 17000 words:
experts.of.trans@gmail.com
Thank you very much to you all for posting these informations.
Best Regards
Helena Ramos
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