Warning: NDA signature forged by a company that emailed me through ProZ
Thread poster: Kristjan Rohde
Kristjan Rohde
Kristjan Rohde
Canada
Local time: 13:55
Japanese to English
May 13, 2020

Hello, I'm brand new to ProZ, so I apologize in advance if this topic is in the wrong place.
I would have posted about this experience on the Blue Board, but since I never got to the point of completing work with the company in question, it appears that I cannot. As such, it was recommended by another translator that I post here.

On April 10th, I received an email via ProZ from a language solutions company (henceforth referred to as "Company") about openings for a transcriptio
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Hello, I'm brand new to ProZ, so I apologize in advance if this topic is in the wrong place.
I would have posted about this experience on the Blue Board, but since I never got to the point of completing work with the company in question, it appears that I cannot. As such, it was recommended by another translator that I post here.

On April 10th, I received an email via ProZ from a language solutions company (henceforth referred to as "Company") about openings for a transcription project.
At the time I was not a ProZ member, and as such could only see the base rating of the Company on the Blue Board. Had I been able to read the entries at the time, I most likely would have deleted the email then and there, but I digress. I have very little professional experience with translation/transcription, and even less with the companies in these fields, so regardless of the rating I could see, I felt that an opportunity to earn money was better than none at all.

Following completion of the Company's application form, I was contacted by a resource manager and the details of the project were confirmed, including payment, which I came to understand was extremely low based on discussion with other industry professionals.
My contact details were passed to a project manager at the Company, who then contacted me and re-confirmed that I was still on board for the project. I responded affirmatively.
The next part is where things got strange. The next email I received was one containing instructions for doing a transcription test for the project through a site/platform unrelated to the Company, as well as a login for this site. There was also a test indicating that I had understood the NDA of said site.
I completed the necessary transcription test, and proceeded to do the NDA test, assuming that I would be signing the NDA at this time. I was surprised to find that the test was based on an NDA that "[I] signed when creating my login for the site", since I was given the login by the Company, and had not needed to sign anything when logging in for the first time. Upon navigating to the electronic NDA on file with the account, I found that it had indeed been signed by "me". However, it was signed in a timezone several hours ahead of mine before my initial login, and the signature was one based on my name, though not one I would ever use.

I stopped there and contacted the Company, asking why the NDA had been signed on my behalf, without my permission, let alone a prior reading. In response, I was told that "it has to be completed in order to our client can assign you jobs. [sic]" and nothing more. I told the Company that I would not be working with them any further in light of this, and after receiving a separate email about beginning production of transcription (???), I got a response to my email asking why I did not want to continue, despite having clearly outlined my reasons previously. I responded with a reiteration of my reasons.

At this time, I have not received any further response from the Company.
I cannot have been the only one to receive the email via ProZ from this Company, since it appeared to use a given aspect of my profile to find me, so I am curious if anyone else signed on to this project and had issues.

In hindsight, there were a number of errors on my part, including not doing my due diligence in researching the Company, but fortunately I have only wasted a short amount of time throughout the whole mess.

Any and all advice is sincerely appreciated!
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Kuochoe Nikoi-Kotei
 
John Fossey
John Fossey  Identity Verified
Canada
Local time: 16:55
Member (2008)
French to English
+ ...
May 13, 2020



[Edited at 2020-05-14 12:53 GMT]


 
Fiona Grace Peterson
Fiona Grace Peterson  Identity Verified
Italy
Local time: 21:55
Italian to English
Unacceptable practice May 13, 2020

John Fossey wrote:

Personally (you might feel differently) if the BB rating was good and the NDA did not have anything I objected to, I would probably have not made an issue of it.



John, frankly I'm stunned by what you write. Since when has it been acceptable for a company to sign documents on our behalf?
If they need an NDA in order to send us work, they should be organised enough so that said form can be read by the translator and returned before any documents are sent to the translator.

Kristjan, you may be interested in Payment Practices, which is a great, independent site where translators rate agencies' payment and working practices.
It's subscription based, but the fee is pretty low and is well worth the investment.

http://www.paymentpractices.net/


Hedwig Spitzer (X)
Thomas T. Frost
Kristjan Rohde
Wout Van den Broeck (X)
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Vera Schoen
Carla Guerreiro
 
Kristjan Rohde
Kristjan Rohde
Canada
Local time: 13:55
Japanese to English
TOPIC STARTER
Not the issue May 13, 2020

John Fossey wrote:

Did the NDA contain anything you objected to? If not, perhaps the PM was just trying to simplify things for you to get the onboarding process moving faster. It's not at all unusual for PMs to use Proz.com profiles to source vendors. It's also not that unusual for agencies to have different sites/platforms for the onboarding process.

Personally (you might feel differently) if the BB rating was good and the NDA did not have anything I objected to, I would probably have not made an issue of it.

Of course, if you don't feel comfortable about a client it's your right to decline to do business with them.


With all due respect, I feel that you may have missed the point I was trying to make, and what I am trying to warn people of.

Did the NDA contain anything you objected to?

No, the NDA did not contain anything I object to. It was a seemingly standard document for such a platform.

It's also not that unusual for agencies to have different sites/platforms for the onboarding process.

This was not what I wished to make an issue of. To add a bit more detail, the platform in question is one that anyone can access and sign up to be a contractor on. The projects on the platform are also open to anyone that wishes to apply. In this case the Company has presumably either received permission from the platform to subcontract the project work, or the Company is trying to use the platform to make money by acting as a middleman (an unnecessary one, there's no benefit as far as I can tell) between subcontractors and the platform. And they would have been skimming a significant amount, based on the rate offered to me, versus what one stands to make in reality if they work directly on the platform.

Personally (you might feel differently) if the BB rating was good and the NDA did not have anything I objected to, I would probably have not made an issue of it.

The issue here is not that I objected to the NDA, but rather that the company signed a legal document on my behalf, without my knowledge, much less my permission to do so. Furthermore, the platform account was made in my name, and my signature was forged in order to do that. Inexperienced as I may be, I cannot help but feel that such behaviour is far from acceptable.


Kuochoe Nikoi-Kotei
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Vera Schoen
Carla Guerreiro
Tina Vonhof (X)
 
Kristjan Rohde
Kristjan Rohde
Canada
Local time: 13:55
Japanese to English
TOPIC STARTER
Thank you! May 13, 2020

Fiona Grace Peterson wrote:

John Fossey wrote:

Personally (you might feel differently) if the BB rating was good and the NDA did not have anything I objected to, I would probably have not made an issue of it.



John, frankly I'm stunned by what you write. Since when has it been acceptable for a company to sign documents on our behalf?
If they need an NDA in order to send us work, they should be organised enough so that said form can be read by the translator and returned before any documents are sent to the translator.

Kristjan, you may be interested in Payment Practices, which is a great, independent site where translators rate agencies' payment and working practices.
It's subscription based, but the fee is pretty low and is well worth the investment.

http://www.paymentpractices.net/




Thank you for your response, Fiona! It is a relief to have confirmed that such practices are indeed considered unacceptable.

And thank you for letting me know about Payment Practices! It certainly sounds like a beneficial site to have a subscription on, and I will be sure to look into it


 
Matthias Hirsh
Matthias Hirsh  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 16:55
Japanese to English
No? May 14, 2020

John Fossey wrote:

Did the NDA contain anything you objected to? If not, perhaps the PM was just trying to simplify things for you to get the onboarding process moving faster. It's not at all unusual for PMs to use Proz.com profiles to source vendors. It's also not that unusual for agencies to have different sites/platforms for the onboarding process.

Personally (you might feel differently) if the BB rating was good and the NDA did not have anything I objected to, I would probably have not made an issue of it.

Of course, if you don't feel comfortable about a client it's your right to decline to do business with them.


I'm really surprised a professional would imply that forging a signature is okay. Someone else signed his name on a contract, that's illegal.


Kristjan Rohde
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Carla Guerreiro
Thomas T. Frost
 
Katalin Horváth McClure
Katalin Horváth McClure  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 16:55
Member (2002)
English to Hungarian
+ ...
Unacceptable and fraudulent behavior May 14, 2020

Kristjan,
You are absolutely right being outraged by this.
This is completely unacceptable.

Kristjan Rohde wrote:
the Company is trying to use the platform to make money by acting as a middleman (an unnecessary one, there's no benefit as far as I can tell) between subcontractors and the platform. And they would have been skimming a significant amount, based on the rate offered to me, versus what one stands to make in reality if they work directly on the platform.


I have a feeling that this may be the case, hence the shady actions with your signature.
I would contact that platform (which you said was public) and let them know about this issue, and ask for the removal of the account that was created on your behalf by this company. Also, please submit a Support Request to ProZ. You have email evidence to support your story. Since this company contacted you via ProZ.com, one would think they would look into this. You cannot post a BB rating because the BB rules don't allow that unless you performed work for them, but ProZ may take administrative actions towards that company anyway. Refer to this thread in your support request as well.


Kristjan Rohde
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Sheila Wilson
Carla Guerreiro
Thomas T. Frost
Tina Vonhof (X)
Marwa Seleem
 
Kristjan Rohde
Kristjan Rohde
Canada
Local time: 13:55
Japanese to English
TOPIC STARTER
Thank you! May 14, 2020

Katalin Horváth McClure wrote:

Kristjan,
You are absolutely right being outraged by this.
This is completely unacceptable.

Kristjan Rohde wrote:
the Company is trying to use the platform to make money by acting as a middleman (an unnecessary one, there's no benefit as far as I can tell) between subcontractors and the platform. And they would have been skimming a significant amount, based on the rate offered to me, versus what one stands to make in reality if they work directly on the platform.


I have a feeling that this may be the case, hence the shady actions with your signature.
I would contact that platform (which you said was public) and let them know about this issue, and ask for the removal of the account that was created on your behalf by this company. Also, please submit a Support Request to ProZ. You have email evidence to support your story. Since this company contacted you via ProZ.com, one would think they would look into this. You cannot post a BB rating because the BB rules don't allow that unless you performed work for them, but ProZ may take administrative actions towards that company anyway. Refer to this thread in your support request as well.


Katalin, thank you very much for your response!
I have already been in contact with the platform, and I believe they are investigating.
Additionally, I requested that the Company delete the account that they created (whether they would or not is doubtful hah), but if it still appears to be active, then I will ask the platform support what to do.

I had been wondering what I should do in regards to ProZ, so the advice of submitting a support request is sincerely appreciated! I will do so asap.


 


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Warning: NDA signature forged by a company that emailed me through ProZ







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