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Set up an email filter to automatically delete spam or fake translator applications

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The free system explained on this page works with gmail and can be used in combination with your own email address. It uses an XML file to filter out applications from existing spammers. But since these scammer companies constantly create new fake profiles, you may filter out new existing ones here.

The spammer email addresses are drawn from this site, while I prepare and update the XML file mentioned below. I also forward applications I suspect are fake, which he examines and may add to the growing list.

Following are instructions how you can apply the XML file to filter out these emails. Unfortunately, the scammer agency is regularly creating new addresses and the filter must be continually updated, but I have devised a functional filter through my server that can take care of new ones. For updates of the XML file (new records only) or for more info on my filter, please contact me.

When logged into your gmail account (make sure you are in Standard View and not Basic Html view – the latter being faster and much less resource intensive, but does not have the feature you need for this purpose), click on the Settings button  near the top right of the screen, and then the Settings link from the resulting dropdown menu. Once there press the Filters link along the top selection of links.

If you already have some filters set up you can select some of them and press the Export button when you scroll down to the bottom. This will create an XML file and show you what format the XML file should look like. If you are computer savvy enough you can use Word with its search and replace tool to convert a list of email addresses into this same format. For this I like to use the free version of html kit, for better visibility.

Once you have created your XML file (you can probably use Notepad to do this as well, or any other text editor), go back to your gmail account and press the Import Filters link at the bottom of the same window that you exported your filters from. Note that it can create duplications, so when you do import, it is better to make sure you only import updates and not the entire list all over again (you can download the occasional update from this site, before it is added to the entire list).

Since I usually have many programs on my computer and myself am pretty resource intensive in the computer’s use, I like to downscale wherever possible, which is why I prefer to view my gmail account in Basic Html view. Refresh your gmail browser tab (F5 in may browsers) and, as it is loading, you should see the Load Basic Html (for slow connections) link at the bottom right. If you have a lightning internet connection, you may need to respond quickly. Once in that mode you can press the link “Set basic HTML as default view”.

Gmail has many free and powerful features, for which reason I use it as a redundant backup. You can use it with your existing email account. Some advantages of using gmail:

  • You can create as many accounts as you like and forward mail sent to them to your existing account. So if you advertise your email address on the net, you can create a gmail account for that and forward/redirect all mail sent to it to your existing email address. You can use its powerful filter function (explained below) to screen out unwanted emails. If the email address gets bombarded beyond usability, you have the option of deleting it and starting all over again.
  • You are given 15gb of free space, great for redundancy purposes (instructions on what you can do if you start running out of space below).
  • Since all your emails are stored in the clouds on a powerful computer, its search tool can prove useful and very fast when looking up previous correspondence.
  • It has a good mobile phone feature, so you can check and respond to your emails out of the office without having to download any attachments.
  • You can use its Report Spam button to educate your own filter, and the data might be used by google to update its own filter system, making life more difficult for the spammers. But if your income is derived from translations, carefully consider spam reporting the fake applications, because you might be teaching google that you do not want to receive emails with important keywords like translations or translator.

You can check out other features through the Settings menu.

If your existing email account is being bombarded by spam and you do not want to change it for business reasons, you can forward your mail to your gmail account and use it’s filtering system that way. Many email providers will charge for this forwarding service, but it may well be worth it if not doing so will end up costing more time than the fee, or if excessive spam causes you to overlook some big job offers. Keep your account lean and mean. Manually unsubscribe when you can, or use gmail’s filtering system when you cannot. Before you manually set up a filter, you can copy the email or domain address of the spammer, paste it into the search box to display a list of all emails sent from them in the past, and report spam for all of them. Consider this a satisfying mud splattered into the face of the spammer before you finally get rid of them.

How to set up a manual filter

Go to Settings > Filters, or in html basic mode you should see a Create Filter link in the main window. Press the Create a Filter link and follow the simple instructions. Refer to the Help menu if you want to get fancier. Like most such database functions, you may need to use a * , which means “any number of any characters”. A ? means “any single character”. So *spammer.com would include both [email protected] and [email protected], but it may not be necessary to use this. Before you create your filter, you can test it before confirming. There is also a checkbox in the next window, before confirming, if you want to apply the filter to all previous emails as well, and not just those coming in after you create the filter. The Label refers to folders, which you can create yourself. “Apply the label” means to move an incoming email (based on your filter criteria) into that label/folder.

Once importing this xml file of fake application emails, your filter list will get very long, for which reason it may be occasionally necessary to ctrl+f search the page (wait until it fully loads) if you want to make changes to your existing filters. Whenever you make a change to a filter, it will always move to the bottom of the list once updated.

What to do if you start running out of free space

You can use the filter system to erase received emails from certain senders, or occasionally put * or @ (meaning all email) in the From field and select the Has Attachment checkbox, then the Delete command for all emails, including previous ones. But make sure you remove/delete this filter once done, otherwise it will keep deleting incoming emails with attachments!! This will clear up a lot of space, and still leave a lot of previous correspondence, in case you need to use the search function for anything. Otherwise you can delete all, but delete with Attachments first, as that is usually enough.

Download the XML file
Contact me for updates
Send your offer to 15,000+ email address of translation agencies

Fake translator applications spamming the industry

9 Replies

Sometime around 2012 I noticed a massive spike in my daily emails from translators applying to work for my translation agency, from about 4-10 to 30-50 or more a day. I diligently responded to each email, but eventually determined that these new additions were not from real translators.

Below you will find information on the source of these emails and what you can do to protect yourself.

1)  What is the source of these fake email applications.

The fake applications come from at least one company masquerading itself as a translation agency but which collects resumes of real translators from the internet and sends emails in their name using newly created gmail, hotmail or yahoo email addresses (sometimes outlook.com or outlook.sa). If you try to give work to any of these fake translators, you can expect to receive a poor quality, google/machine translation.

2)  What measures you can take to protect yourself.

You can set up a free filter to block out existing and known fake applicants, or use our filter system to block out existing and new ones, since the scammer companies are creating new accounts on a constant basis.

Not only are these fake applications a headache, but they make it more difficult for real translators to enter the industry and for us to accept new ones.

To expose these email addresses to spam, you may find them posted below.

3)  CVs sent through this service, about three a month, use a particular template (although custom is also possible) whose subject always begins with a special code to instruct the 15,000+ recipients that they are from real translators. Read some testimonials to see that this is truly an effective way how to expand your translation client base.

Work at Home Translation Jobs

Below is some correspondence concerning this matter and which may shed further light on it.

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I just came across your website. I am getting quite bombarded with these translator CVs. Have you tried discussing this with such organizations as spamcop? A lot of email services base their spam filters on this database. How do you confirm that the email addresses are actually spammers? If this process could be expedited we could nip them in the bud. If they are using their own servers to send out all these emails, as I doubt gmail etc would allow so much messages, their IP address could also be marked as a spammer, and save all of our inboxes in the process. Or gmail etc could close down those email accounts.

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And, what could spamcop (or any other organization) do?
Please send me those CVs for proper exposure. If you could check if they are already in my Directory, that would expedite the posting of their data.
Of particular interest are messages, email addresses, attachments and PayPal addresses used by the scammers themselves (Languagemet, Translator Secrets, etc.) 

A lot of email services base their spam filters on this database. How do you confirm that the email addresses are actually spammers?

All these scammers emails are posted on hijacked CVs. 

If this process could be expedited we could nip them in the bud. If they are using their own servers to send out all these emails, as I doubt gmail etc would allow so much messages, their IP address could also be marked as spammer, and save all of our inboxes in the process.

Gmail addresses always locate back to Google IP addresses.

Or gmail etc could close down those email accounts.

Then what? It takes 3 minutes to scam someone’s CV and open another Gmail address.

This sort of activity can only be prevented (on the translators/companies side) by a proper risk management attitude.
And by exposing scammers IDs and emails used. They live off people not being aware of their operation.
The more they are exposed, the less chance they’ll have to continue their scamming operation in the open.

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If spamcop and others cooperated they could blacklist these email addresses. That means that any future mailouts from their addresses would end in the spambox of recipients. If google cooperated they could close down the accounts. Or they could go a step further by preventing those people from creating new accounts, but I guess the spammers could just makeup another IP address. But if their outgoing mail ended in the recipient’s spambox, or better their accounts were cancelled by gmail, they’d have to start all over again, for it is usually a timely process to get work from an agency (application forms to fill in, email correspondence and so on). I also probably have the list they are sending to (about 16,000 email addresses), so I can send them an email, such as to inform them they should carefully consider giving work to anyone whose email ended in their spambox (at least check more). More below.

Really, I do not expect any cooperation from Google or any other organization. Really. One of the purposes of having these emails in the open is to make them available to spambots. I even publish a TXT file with other addresses used by scammers.

I do not know which ones are the spammers. How do you find that out before adding an address to your dbase?

If you read the copy of my Directory you’ll get a clear idea of what to look for:
1. Gmail / Hotmail address (a good indication is to have an email from Hotmail that was actually sent by a Gmail address, look at the email header).
3. DOC authored/saved by someone different from the scammer’s name… Look at some of the most common names used by scammers in my Directory.
Or by having Arabic words in the File properties, in CVs not belonging to Arabic translators.
2. Funny CVs: Italian name, female, born in France, educated in Cameroon, worked as a “removal man”??? Would you believe it that a translation company in the USA has been tricked by a CV like that?

I don’t believe there is a solution, or a silver bullet for this.
Exposure, awareness and, above all, good risk management from translators and companies.

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To help with the cause I used to post the email addresses found on this site below.

translation CV campaign