Head over to the SlavFile page to check out the latest issue of the SLD newsletter! This issue includes lots of useful information on the upcoming ATA conference in Palm Springs, including an interview with this year’s Greiss speaker, highlights of sessions that might be of interest, the annual meeting agenda, and information on the newcomers’ lunch and SLD dinner. There is also a generous helping of the usual SlavFile fare: translator lives in review, linguistic humor, idioms and cultural references, answers to newcomer questions, and more!
Translation Scams, Part I. Recognizing and Avoiding Scams (SlavFile Reprint)

By Olga Shostachuk
This article is reprinted with permission from the latest issue of the SLD newsletter, SlavFile. You can find the current issue and an archive back to 1999 at http://www.ata-divisions.org/SLD/slavfile/.
You would think that after decades of attempting to scrupulously identify and combat the Internet’s oldest hustle, namely email scams, there`d be a fix for them by now. Alas, there is not. Internet access, social media, and the convenience and anonymity of email, along with the capability these provide for easily contacting thousands of people at once, enables scammers to work in volume. Although translators are generally aware of scams these days, even experienced, savvy translators get duped on occasion. The fraudsters continually refine their techniques and expand their targets, so it is crucial to stay alert.
This article describes some of the many email-based scams targeting translators (and often other types of freelancers as well). We hope this information will help you to better recognize potential traps and avoid them. The Federal Trade Commission (https://www.ftc.gov) is a great resource for further information on new and “recycled” scams and how to avoid cybercriminals.
Common types of scams
Many scams fall into a few broad categories, described below.
419 Advance fee fraud
This type of scam is also known as the Nigerian Prince scam, the Spanish Prisoner scam, the black money scam, Fifo’s Fraud, and the Detroit-Buffalo scam. These schemes are quite elaborate and, despite their somewhat preposterous appearance, they manage to hook a surprising number of victims. The classic 419 advance fee scam attempts to entice the victim into a bogus plot to acquire and split a large sum of cash. The translator variant of this scheme is usually one in which a translator is asked to perform a translation, paid in advance for the work, and then asked to refund an accidental overpayment.
Here is how it works. Once you’ve taken the initial bait, i.e., responded to the original job message, you will likely receive a sizable document to translate (usually 3,000-5,000 words) and an offer of payment. If you go on to accept the job, you will soon discover that the client has sent payment in advance (even if advance payment was not among the agreed-upon terms) and has “mistakenly” sent a check for a much larger amount than the agreed-upon fee. The scammer will ask you to return the excess funds, usually by bank wire. Alas, because of the length of time it takes to process a check, particularly one from overseas, by the time your bank informs you that the check is fake and no funds have been credited to your account, you will have long since sent the bank wire and had the money pulled from your account and transferred to the scammer. Thus, you are out whatever effort you put into the translation as well as the funds you wired to cover the “overpayment.”
Phishing emails
Phishing emails have been crafted to look as if they were sent from a legitimate organization, when in fact they aim to fool you into visiting a bogus website where you inadvertently download malware (viruses and other software intended to compromise your computer) or reveal sensitive personal or account information. Phishing emails usually contain a link that appears to take you to a legitimate company`s website to fill in your information, but the website is a clever fake and the information you provide goes straight to the crooks behind the scam.
Subscription scams
Subscription scammers approach translators (and other freelancers) with the promise of well-paying work, but they want you to pay for the leads or subscribe to their services for a fee. All they want is your money, not your skills. You might as well throw your money away.
Resume (identity) theft
In this scenario, fraudsters pluck a translator’s resume from a website such as www.proz.com, set up an e-mail account in the translator’s name, and send (often poorly crafted) e-mails posing as the professional translator and soliciting work. It is unclear how exactly this profits them, although they might get paid; but certainly it damages your reputation.
SlavFile editor Jen Guernsey warns of another scam in which the scammer impersonates a legitimate company. If a new company contacts you be sure to look closely at the website and domain name.
Recognizing and avoiding email scams
The screen shot below contains numerous red flags indicating that this email is likely a scam:

Source: www.webroot.com
1 and 2. The email is not addressed to the recipient by name. Here, the addressee is “you” and “Dear customer.” Either the fraudsters don`t know your name, or they are using a template and not bothering to customize it.
3. The email doesn’t make sense. In this instance, it might reference an account that you never created. Or it states that you have exceeded the number of login attempts allowed, when you haven’t even been trying to sign in to that account.
4. The email contains a surprising number of grammatical or spelling errors, even though it ostensibly comes from a professional entity such as a bank or a translation company.
5. The email encourages you to confirm that the email is legitimate by clicking on a link provided in the email itself.
6. The email contains a link to a site or an email address that does not match the text of the link. To see the link destination, simply hover your cursor over the website link (without clicking), or click on the email address link, and you will see that the website or email address does not match the email originator or the purported destination. In this example, you can see the true link address displayed along the bottom of the screen.
Here is another typical example of a fraudulent solicitation. In November 2017, an email from George Boucher, georgyboucher@gmail.com, landed in my mailbox. It read: My dear! I’m in need of your service to translate the attached English content document. However, I have some questions such as:
1.How much would you charge per page, word or for the entire
translation?
2. Specialized language/s.
3. Preferred mode of payment, though I would like to propose cashier’s check or
bank certified check and do not hesitate to confirm if this is okay by you.
Project deadline is 1 month starting from 12/20/2017.
What are the warning signs here?
1. First of all, no client, especially a new one, is likely to call you “My dear.”
2. Grammar, style, and register are all off.
3. If a “client” found your info somewhere online, he or she would already know your language combination(s). No legitimate client reaches out to a translator without specifying the required language pair.
Tips to help you avoid being taken
The following recommendations can minimize your chances of falling victim of an email scam.
1. Utilize good general cybersecurity practices:
- Filter spam
- Don`t trust unsolicited email
- Treat email attachments with caution
- Don`t click links in suspicious or unsolicited email messages
- Install antivirus software and keep it up to date
- Install a personal firewall and keep it up to date
- Install and activate a web tool that identifies malicious sites (every standard browser now has a tool you can turn on to alert you if a website you are trying to access appears malicious)
- Configure your email client for security.
2. Never share your banking information with somebody you don’t know. If your overseas clients insist on paying you via wire transfer, or this is your preferred method of payment for overseas clients, you may set up a separate secondary account in your or any bank which you would use only for wire transfers for your overseas clients and transfer the money to your regular bank account right after the transaction. This is a great way to safeguard your regular account in case your bank info is hacked. 3. Ask as many questions as you can. If a “client” tells you that she has a 30-page article to translate, ask for the subject, style, details, background, and the like. A legitimate client will be able to give you all of this information in a blink, whereas a scammer will avoid the answers or will give you answers that seem off or simply don’t make sense.
4. Be suspicious if an email says that they found you on https://www.atanet.org/, for example. People generally make reference to institutions, not domains.
5. If you receive a link to a site or a downloadable file from a known colleague but your colleague has not communicated with you in advance and/or you don’t know why you’re receiving the link, do not click on it. Instead, contact your colleague and ask him or her about the matter. Do NOT respond directly to the email. Create a new email, or better yet, call.
6. Use your own link. If you receive a message supposedly from a legitimate company, go to its site directly from the web using any search engine but not through the email you received . This is the ONLY way to guarantee that you land on the legitimate site of a known company.
7. Hover before you click. Whenever you receive an unsolicited email asking you to “click here,” beware – even if it sounds like a legitimate company. The same goes for social networking links that take you to what appear to be login pages. These may in fact be sites designed to steal your information.
8. Google the named company or individual. Try keying in their name as well as an excerpt from the message text. Crooks often use the same wording and names for multiple translation scam attempts.
9. Ask for an advance fee. If the job is large, ask to be paid in installments and ask for a retainer. If at any stage the “client” suggests they’ve overpaid and asks you to wire back part of the payment, don’t! It’s a scam. Do not begin working until the payment fully clears. Be prepared to pay a bank fee if the check is fake.
10. Set up a PayPal or Square account, or any alternative thereof, (https://www.merchantmaverick.com/top-7-square-alternatives/) to be able to take a full or partial payment in advance from a new or unknown client that you find suspicious.
11. Pay no commissions or subscription fees. Translation is a large, fast-growing field, so you shouldn`t have to pay to get work. Try to be creative in finding your own clients.
Valuable resources:
https://www.proz.com/about/translator-scam-alerts
http://www.translator-scammers.com/translator-scammers-directory.htm
https://www.proz.com/forum/946
Olga Shostachuk is a PhD Candidate in Translation Studies at Kent State University, Kent, OH, where she previously completed her M.A. in Translation degree. She also holds an M.A. in Education and Linguistics from Lviv National University in Ukraine and a paralegal degree from the Academy of Court Reporting in Cleveland, Ohio. Ms. Shostachuk served as the Vice Chapter Chair for Ohio IMIA and currently is a Ukrainian editor for SlavFile, the newsletter of Slavic Languages Division of the ATA. She is also a Ukrainian into English grader for the ATA certification exam. Her research focuses on legal and medical translation, computer-assisted translation, psycholinguistics, localization, pedagogy, and assessment. She can be reached at olgalviv27@yahoo.com.

ATA59 Pre-Conference Bulletin Available!
Are you not yet excited enough for this year’s Annual Conference? Are you wondering what you can expect if it’s your first time? Are you looking forward to perennial events like the SLD Dinner or Newcomers’ Lunch and wondering about the details? Then you’re in luck: the SLD’s ATA59 Pre-Conference Bulletin is now available to answer all your questions!
You can find the bulletin on the SlavFile page or directly here. This year’s edition includes information on off-site events such as the SLD Dinner and Newcomers’ Lunch, links to past conference reviews, meeting minutes and other SLD business, and – new this year – a rundown of SLD Podcast interviews with conference session presenters. You can find the episodes themselves on SoundCloud, or subscribe on iTunes or Google Play.
Looking forward to seeing you all at ATA59!
How to Tackle an ATA Conference
By Natalie Mainland
Photo from Unsplash by Daria Shevtsova
It’s that time of year again! We’ve come back from vacation, summer is drawing to a close, and translators across the country are wondering, “Should I go to the ATA conference this year?”
If you’ve never been, and you’re on the fence, perhaps my experience as a newcomer to last year’s conference can shed some light on it for you.
I have to admit, I wasn’t sure about attending the 2016 ATA conference. I have a degree in translation and have been translating for a few years now, so I didn’t know how useful it would be, and I am—like I think many translators are—extremely introverted. Given the choice between getting a root canal or chatting up a room full of people I don’t know, I’ll take the root canal, please. However, I keep in touch with my former classmates, and not a single one of them has said that attending the conference was a waste of time or resources. I wasn’t sure if going would be helpful, but I figured it couldn’t hurt.
What next? Well, my personal philosophy is to always have a plan. Once I’d decided to attend the conference I immediately started planning so I could get the most out of it. I had a look at the first-timer’s guide in the ATA’s “Savvy Newcomer” blog, downloaded the conference app, and immediately began organizing my schedule. By the time I landed in San Francisco, I had each day planned for (supposedly) optimum effectiveness.
Educational sessions held throughout the day are organized into subject-specific tracks and are a major part of the conference. I’m trying to expand my business, so I planned to attend sessions in the “Independent Contractor” track. These were great, and I picked up tips and tricks for getting more work and running my business smoothly, but by the second afternoon I was feeling burnt out…so I decided to change things up. I went to a few medical sessions, even though they focused on language pairs other than mine. Were they helpful? You bet! Although the target language examples didn’t apply to me, I still learned strategies to improve my medical translations. Overall, I’m pleased with how much I learned, and in the months after the conference I even put that knowledge to use when I worked on a large medical project.
The other major part of the conference is networking, and that’s the part that worried me. I went to the Welcome Celebration on the first night, where everyone from the ATA divisions can mingle and learn more about one another, and I honestly felt a bit like a deer in the headlights. However, the whole process became markedly easier when I realized one obvious thing: everyone else is here to network, too! They want to meet new people and talk with them, and all the people that I spoke with were wonderfully welcoming. After making it through that first hectic evening, everything else—such as talking to agency reps in the Exhibit Hall—was no problem at all.
Now for the big question: do I think going to the conference was worth it? I absolutely do. I picked up new skills and met other people working in my field. This profession can be a solitary one, and having actual, face-to-face contact with other humans was, for me, one of the best parts of the entire experience.
So, now that I’ve (hopefully) convinced you to go, what are my suggestions for your first conference?
- Go. I was on the fence about going, but I’m glad I did. Although I’m no neophyte, I still learned a lot of things that will help me improve my craft. I also met a multitude of wonderful and interesting people, and found new prospects for my work.
- Leave. Just because you’re at the conference doesn’t mean you need to attend every single event. In fact, that’s a good way to wear yourself out. At the conference in San Francisco, none of the early morning events made my ‘must-do’ list, so every morning I took a walk along the bay instead. Not only did I get fresh air and exercise, I also got a chance to take a break from being ‘on’ all the time. This helped me recharge and gave me the energy to do all the other things that I wanted to do.
- Participate. If you’re introverted, never fear! There are plenty of ways for you to make connections without having to walk into a crowd of strangers and start cold. I signed up for the “Buddies Welcome Newbies” program, which partnered me with an experienced translator and conference-goer (hi Jen!) who showed me the ropes. She answered my questions, introduced me to people in the division, and was a very welcome familiar face in a sea of strangers. I also attended division events. The great thing about this is that people in the division know each other and know that you’re new, and they really do go out of their way to be welcoming. My worries of being the silent person standing awkwardly in the corner never materialized.
- Ditch the plan. Or rather, be willing to ditch the plan. I had my entire conference schedule laid out before I stepped off the plane. Yet, some of the best experiences happened when I deviated from that schedule—skipping a mass networking event to go to dinner with some newfound colleagues, for example.
All in all, my first conference was a resounding success. I’m glad I went, and I would encourage anyone else to do the same.
The ATA 58th Annual Conference is fast approaching! This year’s conference is in Washington, DC, on October 25-28, 2017. Register by September 15th to take advantage of Early Registration Rates.
Natalie Mainland holds an M.A. in Translation from Kent State University. She currently works as a freelancer, translating Russian into English (with a focus on medical texts) as well as Finnish into English. She can be reached at natalie@mainlandtranslation.com. This post was adapted and updated by the author from an article that appeared in the Fall 2016 issue of SlavFile.
Coming Out of the Shadow: Review of Madeline G. Levine’s Susana Greiss Lecture [from SlavFile]
Reviewed by Christine Pawlowski
Reprinted from SlavFile
Each year at the American Translators Association Annual Conference, the Susana Greiss lecture brings an eminent guest lecturer to speak upon some aspect of translation/interpretation related to the Slavic languages. ATA’s Polonists owe a debt of gratitude to Nora Favorov, who initially reached out to Madeline Levine, the 2016 speaker. Dr. Levine’s address, “In the Shadow of Russian: Forty Years of Translating Polish Literature,” proved a seminal event: Dr. Levine became the first speaker in the nineteen-year history of the Greiss lecture to address a Polish subject.
Graduates of Slavic Studies programs in the United States have often encountered the tendency to categorize the various Slavic literatures as “major” or “minor,” with Russian at the top. In 1963, Dr. Levine, a Russian specialist at Harvard, chose to study Polish as her secondary literature requirement. It turned out to be a serendipitous decision; the need for scholarly attention to and good literary translation of Polish was extreme. In fact, an American colleague of Dr. Levine’s once greeted her with the question, “Is there really such a thing as Polish literature?” Learning “at breakneck speed” to read Polish, Dr. Levine began a lifelong career translating this “minor” literature.
Dr. Levine’s early work was made more difficult by the lack of critical resources available. (She singled out Kridl’s “stupefyingly dull,” blue-covered, pictureless survey.) This situation was radically transformed by the publication of Miłosz’s 1969 work, The History of Polish Literature, which helped to provide a cultural and historical context for Polish literature in a “readable, even exciting” way. As I pulled out my 40-year-old copy of this book, heavily annotated in the early ‘70s, I found myself in wholehearted agreement. Miłosz’s work, with its determination to “avoid… scholarly dryness” and “preserve… a trace of a smile” must have created something of a Lazarus experience when it first appeared—Polish literature was alive after all.
Among other groundbreaking efforts for Polish literature in English, Dr. Levine explored the “labors of love” undertaken by Celina Wieniewska and Barbara Vedder. These pioneering women translated the works of Bruno Schulz and Tadeusz Borowski, two unknown writers whose influence now reaches worldwide. Dr. Levine has produced new translations of these works, and her translation of Bruno Schulz’s prose fiction is soon to be published by Northwestern University Press.
A primary focus of Dr. Levine’s work has been Jewish-themed literature in the Polish language. In translating works about the Holocaust and in her work as a university professor, she has delved into the question: “How is it possible that such horror can be captured and transformed into works of artistic beauty?” She has also taken on another wartime subject: her re-translation of Białoszewski’s Memoir of the Warsaw Uprising was released by the New York Review of Books in their Classics series.
Dr. Levine has had her share of good fortune: at a very young age, she obtained her first position as Assistant Professor at the City University of New York “sight unseen” after a phone interview. She enjoyed the stability of her position in the University of North Carolina’s Slavic Languages and Literatures Department (now Germanic & Slavic Languages and Literatures). However, she has also experienced the vicissitudes of the publishing industry and, as a result, seems to have developed the patience of a saint! After 40 years of sharing an unknown literary culture with readers and students, Dr. Levine leaves her audience with the firm conviction that she has only just begun. When I asked her at our communal lunch: “So what still needs to be translated?” She responded: “Everything!”
I encourage you to read excerpts from Dr. Levine’s talk on the next page to learn more about the fascinating and, at times, frustrating professional journey of a “student-teacher-scholar-translator.”
Christine Pawlowski is a freelance Polish and Russian translator with an M.A. in Slavic Languages and Literatures from Indiana University, “Tsvetograd.” She is retired from teaching elementary music and enjoys being called “Busia” by her 10 grandchildren. She is ATA certified (Polish-English). She may be reached at pawlow@verizon.net.
This article first appeared in the Spring 2017 issue of SlavFile. We invite you to check out the full publication for the excerpts from Dr. Levine’s talk referenced in the review, as well as a follow-up by Nora Favorov, “The List,” about the list of pre-1945 works in various Slavic languages that still need to be translated.
Going to this year’s ATA conference in Washington, DC? Then we encourage you to attend this year’s Susana Greiss lecture! “The Long and Winding Road to Becoming a Presidential Interpreter,” presented by Nikolai Sorokin, will take place on Thursday, October 26, at 3:30 PM. Nikolai Sorokin will also present a session on interpreting on Friday, October 27, at 10:00 AM, titled “Wow! How Am I Going to Interpret That?”. We hope to see you there!
Slavic Languages Diversity and the SLD
Post by Jennifer Guernsey – originally published in 2014
As far as language divisions go, the Slavic Languages Division is by far the most linguistically diverse. Most language divisions are monolingual. The only other division that comes close to the SLD is the Nordic Division, which encompasses five languages. Slavic languages, on the other hand, number more than a dozen. Not only that, but our division also welcomes members speaking any language of the former USSR. We are a diverse lot, indeed.
The Slavic Languages Division was originally founded as the Russian Language Division, and though the name was changed a few years later, in 1996, the Division’s origins and its preponderance of Russian speakers meant that it initially offered little to the speakers of other (i.e., non-Russian) Slavic languages. Fortunately, during my decade as an active member of the SLD, I have seen the other Slavic languages become much more active and better represented in all aspects of the Division’s activities. This has been the result of two major shifts: a more encouraging and welcoming attitude on the part of the Russian speakers, and more speakers of other Slavic languages willing to step up and become active in the Division. Both of these are key to ensuring that all Division members are able to reap the benefits of Division membership.
What opportunities exist in the Division for the speakers of other Slavic languages, and how can the Russian speakers continue to foster their continued inclusion and involvement? As the Leadership Council member responsible for outreach to non-Russian-speaking SLD members, I’d like to provide some suggestions:
Conference presentations: Last year we had one Polish session and one Serbian/Croatian session; the year before we had a Polish session and a Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian Greiss lecturer. These sessions would not have taken place if not for the presenters’ initiative and effort. If you want to see presentations in your language, make it happen. Propose your own presentation, recruit a colleague to present, or suggest suitable Greiss lecturers. For further information, contact Lucy Gunderson (russophile@earthlink.net) and Fred Grasso (frdgrasso@satx.rr.com).
Blog postings: Write your own post. Blog postings are short- to medium-length articles on any topic of interest to the Division. Posting is a great way to get name recognition within the Division and particularly among your same-language colleagues, and to ensure that the Division blog contains material relevant to your specific language. For more information, contact our blog administrator, Sam Pinson (sjpinson@pinsonlingo.com).
SlavFile: Write an article – it doesn’t have to be long, just relevant. You can also suggest topics for future articles or recommend articles from other publications for reprint (with appropriate permission, of course). If you’re interested in taking it to the next level, serve as a SlavFile Language Editor, recruiting people to write articles related to your language. As with blog postings, writing for the SlavFile is great for name recognition, networking, and ensuring that the SlavFile contains articles relevant to your language. For more information, contact our SlavFile editor, Lydia Stone (lydiastone@verizon.net).
LinkedIn Group: Post a comment relevant to your language to the SLD’s LinkedIn group. For more information, contact Todd Jackson (todd@moselytranslations.com).
Listserv: Aside from the Russian listserv, there is a Yahoo-based listserv for only South Slavic languages. To join that listserv, go to https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/ATA-SSLI/info. If you are interested in starting a listserv for your language, contact Lucy Gunderson (russophile@earthlink.net) and Fred Grasso (frdgrasso@satx.rr.com).
Twitter feed: Just launched! Subscribe and/or tweet something relevant to your language @ATA_SLD.
Certification: Among the non-Russian Slavic languages, certification is available for Croatian<>English, English>Polish, and English>Ukrainian. For more information or to register for an exam, go to http://www.atanet.org/certification/index.php. It is possible to establish certification in additional languages, but it requires a certain critical mass of participants and considerable time and effort. For further information, see http://www.atanet.org/certification/abourtcert_new_language.php.
Web page: Your language group can create its own web page, which can be linked to the SLD web page provided it undergoes the normal review required of all ATA-associated web pages. For further information, contact webmistress Zhenya Tumanova (eugenia@tumanova.org).
Leadership Council: Serving on the Leadership Council is a great way to get involved, learn more about the Division, forge closer connections with other Division members, and ensure that your language is represented. For more information, contact Lucy Gunderson (russophile@earthlink.net) and Fred Grasso (frdgrasso@satx.rr.com).
For the Russian speakers:
Remember that the lingua franca of our division must of necessity be English.
When possible, make your contribution – whether a blog post, a SlavFile article, or a conference presentation – useful to all SLD members. Obviously, some topics do not lend themselves to this: a discussion of idioms or legal terms, for instance. But some topics are of interest to the entire division, while others can be expanded to encompass multiple languages. When John Riedl and I did a presentation on pharmaceutical translation a few years ago, we decided to “pan-Slavicize” our presentation. It took a bit of effort and coordination, but our non-Russian language colleagues readily responded to our request for aid, so we were able to include multiple Slavic languages in the exercises we used, and we offered participants a multilingual glossary.
For questions or suggestions related to this blog post, contact Jen Guernsey (jenguernsey@gmail.com).
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