Earlier this year a few blog posts were made here regarding scams targeting translators; I’ll post links to them at the bottom of this post for easy reference. It is interesting to note that these are the T.O. posts with the most views so far, and that among the search terms used by visitors coming to this blog, those which are clearly translators seeking information on possible scams rank highest, daily. I don’t know if scams targeting translators are on the rise, but they definitely do not seem to have diminished much.
In the ProZ.com forum dedicated to sharing news on scams I came across one that keeps popping up: the advance payment scam (you can see the thread here). These involve advance payment for a job, usually by check. The translator receives the check, which has been made out for an amount exceeding the amount agreed upon, and is asked to wire the difference back to the “outsourcer”. The checks bounce later, or turn out to be false, leaving the translator having performed some free work, out of some money, and in some cases, in trouble with the law (in the cases of forged checks).
Many of us can spot these attempts fairly easily, but it seems clear that there may still be a need to better spread the word or educate colleagues in detecting and reacting to these false job offers.
A group of reference links regarding detecting and responding to a potential scam has been posted in the Scams forum, here (reproduced below). Do you know of other good reference material on the subject that could be added? And just as important, how can this material be spread to colleagues who need it?
- Detecting and reacting to false job offers and other scams (ProZ.com Wiki)
- Translator scams and how to protect yourself from them
- Protecting yourself from fraud: a recent example
- Protecting yourself from fraud: another recent example
- Translators be aware: an ongoing scam asks for help using real translators as the “senders”
Join ProZ.com on LinkedIn
Excellent article. I will make a pdf copy and distribute in my trainings to interpreters. Thanks for sharing.
Nice to know. Thank you.
I have experienced a “near-miss” a few days ago… (was actually lucky the “client” was really weird, and made me look for what kind of scam it could be). Thanks for the article and links. FYI, in France, an association has been created to help people who have been scammed (http://cdvcb.free.fr/).
I wrote an article too about translation scams because I kept receiving translation offers in my inbox from shady characters with dubious intentions.
The link to this blog entry is:
http://languagentravel.blogspot.com/2011/10/how-to-protect-yourself-from.html