We continue to receive reports from members who have been contacted by various email addresses with spam and scam content. Thank you to those members for bringing these incidents to our attention. We wanted to share them in case of help or use to other members. 

 

Recent Spam and Scam emails for Info

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Examples of emails received by Members

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I hope this email finds you well.

My name is Elvis Smith, and I am the editorial director at transperfect https://www.transperfect.com/, a member of the American Translators Association

We are currently seeking a skilled and experienced freelance translator for an exciting project involving English to French translations. The ideal candidate will

Exceptional translation skills

Excellent customer service ability

* A stronghold is commitment to maintaining client confidentiality and discretion.

If you are interested in collaborating with us, please do not hesitate to contact us. We look forward to hearing from you another time too or d exploring potential opportunities.

Thank you for considering our proposal.

Greetings from Hogarth Worldwide!

We’re excited to explore a potential collaboration with you on an upcoming translation project involving content in English to be translated into various languages. As part of this collaboration, we would appreciate it if you could share the following details: and as you have asked yes it's soon...

Your language pairs (from English to which target languages you offer)

Your rate per word for translation (and proofreading/editing, if applicable)

We’re looking forward to building a successful working relationship and delivering exceptional multilingual content together.

Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions or need further information.

Best regards

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From: Brende Merrill <brende@Wintersetconcertevents.com>
Sent: Wednesday, September 10, 2025 8:46 PM
Subject: Review Your 2025 Employee Onboarding & Key Updates REF XYo39391

Hello,

We hope this email finds you well.

We are providing you with essential information regarding your employee benefits for the year 2025. Please find the attached document for a detailed overview of your benefits coverage, included:

·  Health insurance premiums

·  Dental and vision coverage

·  Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs)

·  Health Savings Accounts (HSAs)

·  Life insurance

·  Disability insurance

·  Retirement plans

·  Paid time off (PTO) accrual

·  Other relevant benefits

We value your contributions to our company and are committed to supporting your well-being.

Best Regard,

Human Resources Manager

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From: Florence Moore <florence@edigihub-leadspro.services>

Subject: CIOL Conference Season 2025

Date: 22 July 2025 at 16:40:45 BST

Hi (incorrectly formatted name),

I'm following up if you're interested to get the Registrants/Attendees list.

•  CIOL Conference Season 2025 ( London , UK , 14 - 20 March 2025 )

•  Attendees Counts: 1,000

 I'm waiting for your response so I can let you know the cost & more details .

Have a great day

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Member emails shared with CIOL

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I'm writing to bring to your attention a common scam for translators. To save time, please see the the following thread on Reddit:

Translation job scam seeking someone to translate a movie script English > Brazilian Portuguese

I have now been approached twice by e-mail, by people claiming to be professionals in need of a translation. The first time I fell for it and wasted four days of work translating a document for them. Fortunately I wasn't so naïve as to make the IMF code payment. The second time, just yesterday, I wasn't going to be fooled.

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For about the last 6 months, the number of unsolicited emails I receive from companies claiming to be translation and/or interpretation companies has risen sharply. They usually say that they are "impressed by my credentials", without even writing to me directly (it usually greets me as "dear linguist", "dear interpreter", etc.), and without saying where they found my contact details. When I ask them where they found my details, they usually reply that they found them on the CIOL website.

The problem is not just this type of unsolicited emails, it is the fact that these are mostly scams, and/or proposing outrageous rates. I received an email today that was booking me (as if I were a staff member) for an interpretation assignment by phone (a service that I do not provide), for a rate of £25/hour. I replied that they should delete my contact details from their directory as I am not part of their staff or freelancer interpreters. I usually also tell them that, as a European citizen, I am protected by the GDPR. It is usually sufficient to make them cease.

 

What You Should Do

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• Do not respond to these emails or provide any payment or banking information
• Report as spam or junk in your email client and block these sender addresses
• Report the incident to Action Fraud: https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/reporting-fraud-and-cyber-crime
• Report phishing emails to: report@phishing.gov.uk

 

The following CIOL resources provide useful guidance:

• Beware of Scams and Unknown Links
• Stay ahead of Scammers Translation Offers  

 

 

You may also have noticed that we featured an article on some of these issues in the The Linguist, reflecting our ongoing commitment to keeping members informed and aware of potential risks from increasingly sophisticated bad actors.

The specific article 'Perfect Trap' from Charlotte Hale-Burgess is available in blog form here

If you receive similar solicitation emails, please forward them to us at membershipteam@ciol.org.uk so we can monitor the situation, raise awareness and help protect the CIOL community.