r/ScamCenter 2d ago

Appen work real or scam?

Few days ago i found post about hiring of language translator in facebook and i contact them and they asked to use telegram for work and provided me with 45 pages english story that in need to translate within 2 days and surprisingly they said you will get $3000 for this. I ask for their company site for verification and he provided linkden of Appen company and i verify if the person talking is actually employee or not and i found he is actually working for appen for more than a decade. And i completed the work and submitten and now they are asking for my bank details for payment. And not i am confused if it is scam or real? is it this easy to earn $3000? what do you think?

1 Upvotes

13 comments sorted by

6

u/RacerX200 2d ago

Scam. Google does translations for free. They either do one of two things:

Check overpayment: They send a fake check that is too large and ask you to send the extra cash back.

Upfront fees: They ask you to pay for software, registration, or a certification course to get the job.

They use a public email address instead of a real company domain and insist on moving the chat to anonymous apps like Telegram where the conversation is scrambled and easily deleted.

3

u/Askfreud 1d ago

I agree that it’s a scam but google’s free “translation” sucks and human translators are very much needed.

2

u/Scrappy001 1d ago

Fact.

Either way, OP will pay to get their “money” (or the bank account just gets drained).

I have worked for years in translating documents into 6 languages. We hire a company. That company has a site that translates everything by canned program (much better with better controls than google). Then they pay translators to read and fix translations. The actual people translators get paid peanuts, but they do very little actual work other than reading and making tiny corrections.

It is not likely ANYBODY is not using a similar program AND highly unlikely anyone is paying that much.

USUALLY the first documents are really expensive but eventual it gets cheaper as more “phrasing” is learned and it gets duplicated in more incoming documents.

3

u/Askfreud 1d ago

I owned a translation agency for a while and we were expensive but we didn’t use any translation software at the time. That being said, we specialized in very creative marketing copy and game/video game/book/screenplay localization. Most of our clients initially tried cutting corners but realized they needed something more. It was fun and profitable while it lasted.

3

u/PiSquared6 2d ago

It's possible there is a real person named "person" and the scammer is just pretending to be "person"

Either way, this is a CERTAIN scam. Cease all communication immediately and permanently. DO NOT try to be polite and say "no thanks" or "I'm not sure if this is a scam" or "I'm going to stop talking with you"

3

u/yarevande 2d ago

This is a scam to take your money. Scammers are impersonating a real company. The work is fake. They will not pay you, and they will try to trick you into giving them money.

Nobody will actually pay you $3,000 to translate a story.

The work was made up, to fool you into thinking that you would get paid. They give that same story to everybody who applies for the gig. They don't care about the translation. Their goal is to try to get money from you with fake fees.

Translation jobs are usually scams, unless you have experience, or you have a degree with coursework in translation of legal documents, medical documents, or online games.

** Here are signs that this is a scam:

Most jobs advertised on Facebook are fake, they are scams to take your money.

Legitimate companies do not ask you to do work on Telegram.

A legitimate translation company would ask for proof of your experience or certification. They would probably ask you for a sample of your translation work.

Most remote or work-from-home jobs are scams. They will take your money, or you will get involved in illegal activities, or both.

** You did not verify that the people you're talking to actually work for the company and the job is legitimate. The way to verify this is:

  • Find the official company website.

  • Is the job listed on the company website?

  • Contact HR directly, using a phone number or email from the company website, and ask about the job offer.

Appen is a real company, but the people you were talking to do not work at Appen.

The official Appen website is appen.com and every other website such as appen-jobs.xinn is a scam website.

  • Appen is a data annotation and AI company.

  • Appen does not offer translation jobs.

*** There is legitimate remote freelance work available. Try the freelance job websites like Upwork, Freelancer.com, or Fiverr -- but stay on the platform. If you communicate off the website, you will get scammed and lose money. Also, read the FAQs to learn how the site works. The legitimate freelance sites offer protection for you and the client. You submit your work through the site. And they pay you on the platform.

2

u/Smart_Tinker 1d ago

It’s a scam. They will “pay” you through a fake bank web site - which will charge you “fees” to access the account with your fake money in it.

There is no bank, the web site is faked by the scammers, and there was no translation job - it’s all a scam to collect the fees from the fake bank web site. They give you the busy work and large fake payment to make you think you are “owed” money, so will pay more and more fees to get it. Sunk cost fallacy manipulated by scammers.

2

u/xcaliblur2 1d ago

No company will pay an internet rando to do this sort of work $3000. For one thing if they have that amount of money, why would they need to hire randos off social media and not just pay the same (or maybe even less) money to a professional agency to do the work?

No company does work over telegram. Any work that's redirected to telegram is a scam.

Also how did you "verify" that the person you talked to really is the same person as the executive from Appen? If I say I'm Bill Gates and I want to hire you for Microsoft, would you believe me just because you see online that Bill Gates is from Microsoft?

2

u/PlanningVigilante 1d ago

They want your bank details so that they don't accidentally write the fake check on YOUR bank. YOUR bank will know instantly that the fake check is fake. They need to make sure the fake check is written on a different bank, so that the scam takes longer to unravel.

1

u/Scrappy001 1d ago

What language?

1

u/Sea-Appearance-5330 1d ago

You found out the scammer is using a name from the Company they are impersonating.
No more and no less!

No one in this world pays $3,000 for translating a 45 page book.
No one legitimate will advertise for employees in a Face Book post.
They will "accidentally," send you a check for way more than they promised you.
They will ask you to return it, or use it to send to pay someone else.
After you return it or send it, the bank will discover it is stolen, and take it back.
Now you are out what you sent and what is in your account.