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Aug 09 2008

SPAM, Becoming More Intelligent

Posted by: P. in (Un)Safe Computing, Translating/Translation

I received the following message this morning:

I am contacting your company because I have been working as a freelance translator for nearly five years and would like to offer my services to additional translation agencies.

I translate from French into English and also provide proofreading and editing services.

Do you require translators to complete an application form? Do you require tests or samples? What range of rates do you typically pay?

Colleagues of mine may also want to offer their services to your agency. What other languages do you require.

Please let me know if you would like to me send my curriculum vitae.

Thank you for your interest.

Best regards,

Adriana Lesova
French - English Freelance Translator
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
E-mail adriana_lesova@videotron.ca

I am used to receiving this type of messages asking for jobs (someone put me right in the middle of a directory, or so it seems), so I’ve answered the following:

Please, do check my web site, right where it says: “I work exclusively into Spanish, my mother tongue“. That means I do not outsource.

Best of luck,

P.
———————–
Pilar T. Bayle
Traductora EN-ES Translator

And then I’ve received the following message from my server:

This is the mail system at host hl20.dinaserver.com.

I’m sorry to have to inform you that your message could not be delivered to one or more recipients. It’s attached below.

For further assistance, please send mail to postmaster.

If you do so, please include this problem report. You can delete your own text from the attached returned message.

The mail system

: host mx.videotron.ca[24.201.245.37] said: 550 5.1.1 unknown or illegal alias: adriana_lesova@videotron.ca (in reply to RCPT TO command)

So I’ve started googling. That «adriana» sends viruses. Please, be careful.

P.

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 9th, 2008 at 9:56 am and is filed under (Un)Safe Computing, Translating/Translation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

6 Responses to “SPAM, Becoming More Intelligent”

  1. Philippe says:
    August 9th, 2008 at 12:45 pm

    Hi,
    I just got the same message from Adriana Lesova, then the same answer when I replied . I cannot figure the aim of that exercise, since *she* even did not attach any file. So : she does not seem to attempt to infect my computer, the return address is wrong, so she cannot confirm my address for spamming, so what?

    I also found a forum dated 2006 where the same(?) Adriana Lesova would have sent a trojan to a translator. By the way, I am surprised she seems to target translators. It implies she selects people by their work. Usually, spammers and other scums of the earth strike in a blind manner. Does she it manually?

    Anyway, I confirm : be careful

  2. Paula says:
    August 9th, 2008 at 3:03 pm

    I received the same message this morning, and was about to answer pretty much as you did (different languages), but something told me to look into this further. Your post came up on Google. Thanks for the research and the warning.
    PG

  3. P. says:
    August 9th, 2008 at 6:29 pm

    :) Glad it helped!

    P.

  4. P. says:
    August 9th, 2008 at 6:43 pm

    :) Unfortunately, there is no need to attach a file nowadays. My system is fine and I haven’t got anything, but it wouldn’t be a bad idea to set your email client to receive plain-text messages only. :) HTML is dangerous, as a friend showed me. They can create an image (1×1 pixel) that connects to a server without your knowledge… :)

    Good luck!

    P.

  5. Ray Peat says:
    August 10th, 2008 at 11:59 am

    It seems a few of these are being sent out. There is some discussion on Proz.
    http://www.proz.com/forum/safe_computing/112315-scam_warning.html
    I replied like Paula and googled - to find your posting (big thanks!) - then adjusted my spam filters.
    Today I received another e-mail saying:
    “Please note that my correct e-mail address is aXXXXXX_XXXXXa@hotmail.com.”
    The Reply-To address is “aXXXXXX_XXXXXa@mXcrXcXnsulting.com”.
    So I guess, like the proprietor of mXcrXcXnsulting.com, I can at least look forward to a few e-mails arriving addressed to the lady in the future.
    It is the school/college holidays and the devil finds work for idle hands.
    Ray - also a translator (German to English)

  6. P. says:
    August 10th, 2008 at 12:59 pm

    Here you can post names, Ray. Before I posted the name, I googled this person, and it doesn’t exist. So it is fair game :)

    I got the hotmail too!

    P.

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