Is TM-Town Legit? Thread poster: Wing HU
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Wing HU
China
Local time: 03:36
Member (2014)
English to Chinese
+ ...
Hello everyone,
I recently joined TM-Town through Proz.com, believing it to be a trustworthy platform. Last week, I was contacted by a Human Resources Coordinator from Task Talent through TM-Town, offering a high-paying translation project. The coordinator told me to start working on it immediately without providing any specific requirements or signing any NDA. The arrangement was to receive payment after each batch of translations. (Sounded too good to be true)
Despite... See more Hello everyone,
I recently joined TM-Town through Proz.com, believing it to be a trustworthy platform. Last week, I was contacted by a Human Resources Coordinator from Task Talent through TM-Town, offering a high-paying translation project. The coordinator told me to start working on it immediately without providing any specific requirements or signing any NDA. The arrangement was to receive payment after each batch of translations. (Sounded too good to be true)
Despite doubts, I worked on the project for seven days. When I didn't receive the initial payment, the coordinator told me to contact the bank from their side, Mutual Trust Credit Union Bank. The bank requested a £184 refundable deposit for verifying my account's active status, which seemed highly suspicious.
I stopped working on the project and informed Proz staff. The coordinator contacted me again, insisting the payment was pending unless I paid the deposit, assuring me it was not a scam. However, I still distrust this process.
Has anyone else had similar experiences with TM-Town or Task Talent? Is TM-Town a legitimate platform for translators?
Thank you for your insights. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Daryo
United Kingdom
Local time: 20:36
Serbian to English
+ ...
| Makes little sense | Jul 12 |
On few occasions I had to "prove" that my bank account is real/live - to perfectly legitimate, household name companies.
For that purpose, I would be asked to make a payment of ONE PENNY. [£0.01]
"a £184 refundable deposit for verifying someone's account active status" is pure nonsense.
Also, there is no "Mutual Trust Credit Union Bank" there is only a "Mutual Trust Credit Union" a credit union i.e. a non-profit organisation, not a standard commercial b... See more On few occasions I had to "prove" that my bank account is real/live - to perfectly legitimate, household name companies.
For that purpose, I would be asked to make a payment of ONE PENNY. [£0.01]
"a £184 refundable deposit for verifying someone's account active status" is pure nonsense.
Also, there is no "Mutual Trust Credit Union Bank" there is only a "Mutual Trust Credit Union" a credit union i.e. a non-profit organisation, not a standard commercial bank, based in George Town, Cayman Island.
When you say "the bank requested" did YOU call this credit union on a phone number advertised on their website? Ordinary emails are all to easy to spoof...
As for TM-town, I'm not particularly impressed by the concept behind it, so I never took a closer look. No idea who they let use the site to look for translators.
You could always threaten to sue them for non-payment, as I very much doubt that any court will accept "pay first a deposit of £184" as a valid reason for avoiding to pay you. If you have the time for that. Or IOW if you want to waste more of your time on a hopeless case.
Did the material you have already translated look like something someone might really need? That would be another clue to indicate whether it was a scam from the beginning, just to get £184 off you.
An idea: next time you get a suspicious offer, take the time to do a better due diligence. If you end up spending a week on something unpaid but more interesting for yourself instead of working for free for someone else, nothing lost.
[Edited at 2024-07-12 22:07 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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If you put an ad for your services in a specialized newspaper, and a client contacts you and it turns up to be a scammer,.would you blame the newspaper?
TM-Town is owned by ProZ for a while now.
It's legit in that respect, although I consider it like a still-born and personally don't think there will be many customers (let alone legit ones) coming your way through it.
Whatever the platform, due diligence is required to minimize risks.
Unfortuna... See more If you put an ad for your services in a specialized newspaper, and a client contacts you and it turns up to be a scammer,.would you blame the newspaper?
TM-Town is owned by ProZ for a while now.
It's legit in that respect, although I consider it like a still-born and personally don't think there will be many customers (let alone legit ones) coming your way through it.
Whatever the platform, due diligence is required to minimize risks.
Unfortunately, from your description, it sounds to be very likely a scam.
Best of wishes
[Edited at 2024-07-12 12:44 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Lieven Malaise
Belgium
Local time: 21:36
Member (2020)
French to Dutch
+ ...
Wing HU wrote:
The bank requested a £184 refundable deposit for verifying my account's active status, which seemed highly suspicious.
Golden rule: never pay to get paid. This is a scam without any doubt. There are simply no job offers that are (even almost) too good to be true, they don't exist. Learn and move on.
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Dan Lucas 
United Kingdom
Local time: 20:36
Member (2014)
Japanese to English
| Don't ignore doubts | Jul 12 |
Wing HU wrote:
(Sounded too good to be true)
...
Despite doubts, I worked on the project for seven days.
If something sounds too good to be true, it usually is.
And if you have doubts, there is usually a valid reason.
Pay heed to those misgivings in the future.
Regards,
Dan
| | | | Wing HU
China
Local time: 03:36
Member (2014)
English to Chinese
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Daryo wrote:
When you say "the bank requested" did YOU call this credit union on a phone number advertised on their website?
[Edited at 2024-07-12 22:07 GMT]
The coordinator suggested that I contact their bank via live chat if I did not receive the payment within an hour, saying they would guide me on what to do. At that time, I was almost certain it was a scam because why would I need to contact the bank on their side instead of her doing it? The material I translated indeed looks like something someone might really need, and the content was interesting. From the very beginning, I decided that I would only deliver the second batch once I received the initial payment; otherwise, I would not proceed.
Asking people to deposit refundable money before receiving payment is quite a common scam, but I've never encountered one like this—where you translate a bunch of documents and then get scammed for the money.
| | | | Daryo
United Kingdom
Local time: 20:36
Serbian to English
+ ...
| That's a new element | Jul 13 |
If the text was "real" and you can be fairly sure who is the client who needed it, contact that final client and request to be paid by them.
see
See more
| | | | Michael Beijer
United Kingdom
Local time: 20:36
Member (2009)
Dutch to English
+ ...
| A brief history of TM-Town | Jul 13 |
A while back, TM-Town was created and caused a bit of a stir. It was a cool idea. Pretty soon, Proz bought it, and soon afterwards it became a Proz.com product. Proz also hired its developer, who worked for Proz for a while. As far as I know, he was responsible for some of the relatively recent website design upgrades. He has since left, and TM-Town lives on, but only barely. No one I know has actually ever used it.
This calls to mind a similar story: a while back, SDL/RWS bo... See more A while back, TM-Town was created and caused a bit of a stir. It was a cool idea. Pretty soon, Proz bought it, and soon afterwards it became a Proz.com product. Proz also hired its developer, who worked for Proz for a while. As far as I know, he was responsible for some of the relatively recent website design upgrades. He has since left, and TM-Town lives on, but only barely. No one I know has actually ever used it.
This calls to mind a similar story: a while back, SDL/RWS bought the mysterious enterprise CAT tool, MultiTrans. However, I just found out that they have stopped its development and will no longer be selling it.
Big company gobbles up little company and takes its (potentially threatening) product off the market.
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• https://slator.com/ma-wave-reaches-platforms-proz-com-buys-tm-town/
• https://www.softreviews.org/Localize2/MultiTrans/MultiTrans.html
• https://www.multicorpora.ca/emultitrans.html
• https://www.multicorpora.ca/MultiTrans4overview_e.html
• https://www.proz.com/forum/translator_resources/1381-need_info_on_multitrans_cat_tool.html
• https://www.proz.com/forum/smart_shoppers/346-multitrans_corpus_based_cat_tool.html ▲ Collapse
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Daryo
United Kingdom
Local time: 20:36
Serbian to English
+ ...
"Big company gobbles up little company and takes its (potentially threatening) product off the market."
Yes, it happens. But I doubt it was the motivation. I doubt that TM-Town was at any point in time any kind of serious competitor to Proz. The difference between "modern pastel colours" and "dated design" might be important for some kind of websites meant for the general public or some kind of entertainment, but what matters for sites like Proz is the benefits to users - a flashy... See more "Big company gobbles up little company and takes its (potentially threatening) product off the market."
Yes, it happens. But I doubt it was the motivation. I doubt that TM-Town was at any point in time any kind of serious competitor to Proz. The difference between "modern pastel colours" and "dated design" might be important for some kind of websites meant for the general public or some kind of entertainment, but what matters for sites like Proz is the benefits to users - a flashy/cool/modern design contributing in itself very little to that. No one is bothered if it's a "no-frill" design is the site serves well its purpose. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Ngoc Pham
Vietnam
Local time: 02:36
Member (2019)
English to Vietnamese
+ ...
| How to sue them for non-payment? | Jul 15 |
Daryo wrote:
On few occasions I had to "prove" that my bank account is real/live - to perfectly legitimate, household name companies.
For that purpose, I would be asked to make a payment of ONE PENNY. [£0.01]
"a £184 refundable deposit for verifying someone's account active status" is pure nonsense.
Also, there is no "Mutual Trust Credit Union Bank" there is only a "Mutual Trust Credit Union" a credit union i.e. a non-profit organisation, not a standard commercial bank, based in George Town, Cayman Island.
When you say "the bank requested" did YOU call this credit union on a phone number advertised on their website? Ordinary emails are all to easy to spoof...
As for TM-town, I'm not particularly impressed by the concept behind it, so I never took a closer look. No idea who they let use the site to look for translators.
You could always threaten to sue them for non-payment, as I very much doubt that any court will accept "pay first a deposit of £184" as a valid reason for avoiding to pay you. If you have the time for that. Or IOW if you want to waste more of your time on a hopeless case.
Did the material you have already translated look like something someone might really need? That would be another clue to indicate whether it was a scam from the beginning, just to get £184 off you.
An idea: next time you get a suspicious offer, take the time to do a better due diligence. If you end up spending a week on something unpaid but more interesting for yourself instead of working for free for someone else, nothing lost.
[Edited at 2024-07-12 22:07 GMT]
I am in the exact situation. How can I sue them for non-payment for real, not only threatening?
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