Beware the Jabberwocky – avoiding translation scams

 

[the Jabberwocky*]

In the wild, faceless world of the Internet, the natural home of freelance translators, lurk monsters called scammers. They expertly solicit work from translators and then seemingly disappear from view as they seek another victim. Their actual financial damage is relatively limited in most cases but they have a significant and negative impact on our trust in others and ourselves. Plain and simple, it hurts to be scammed. Thus, I present some known ways  of identifying potential scam attempts and how to confirm or disconfirm the legitimacy of a translation request.

Indications:

A.     Email address

Always compare the email address appearing in the email with the email address appearing when moving the curser over the email title in the browser. They must be identical. The suffix .gmail as compared to .com is a sure sign that something is amiss.

B.     Language

With the possible exception of few agencies in China and Spain (in my experience), expect project managers to be able to write the basic sentences of translation requests in proper English. Private clients may have a lower level.

C.      Communication

If the customer is avoiding direct answer to specific questions regarding payment, listen to the warning light in the brain. Something may be far fishier than the reading comprehension ability of the respondent.

Actions to take to verify:

A.     Google-search the address:

Type the email address and the word scam in Google. There are very few brand-new scammers in the sun. The vast majority have been identified before. There are also specific scammer lists for those that have access to them.

B.     Check the official site:

For companies and institutions, it is easy to view the official site and compare details with those in the email.

C.      Contact the customer directly:

Write or call the customer using information on the site and ask for confirmation of the job order.

D.     Demand prepayment:

If you have doubts, insist on full prepayment before starting work, explaining that advance payment is standard practice for new customers. Private individuals are used to paying before receiving goods and services.

It is very important to have a proper perspective regarding scammers. In almost 20 years, I have been scammed once but have identified numerous attempts in time. It is safe to say that such bad apples do not represent the large barrel of customers. So, if you do get burned, emotionally move on quickly as there is basically no way to touch them, unfortunately. To make myself feel better, I choose to believe that there is a special place in hell for those individuals but I could be wrong.  To end on an admittedly irrelevant literary note and quote Lewis Carrol but in regards to avoiding them:

And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?

      Come to my arms, my beamish boy!

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”

      He chortled in his joy.

 

* Picture captions help the blind fully access the Internet.

Picture credit