Chartered Institute
of Linguists
Recent Spam and Scam emails
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
Emails received by Members
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
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
Member emails to CIOL
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.
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
- 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:
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.
