When I first heard that scammers were targeting translators, I thought this could never happen. After all, would scammers know enough about translation work? We are really smart people, could they scam us? Could scammers even find us? Sadly, they do know about the translation business. They can fool even smart people. And yes, they can find us through the very channels we use to market our services.
I am always appreciative of the Japanese Language Division’s presentations on the business of translation. I felt that Noriko Nevin’s presentation on “Job Scams & Tips to Avoid Them” on February 17, 2023, was especially valuable to me.
Noriko described four types of scams and their potential consequences. What do you lose if you are scammed? Time, effort, lost wages, and money for a start. In even more serious cases, scammers steal victim’s CVs and impersonate them, stealing their professional identities, ruining their reputations, and possibly destroying their careers. And, as someone who was almost but not quite misled by a scammer, the experience of dealing with a scammer hurt my confidence in being able to judge potential clients.
In her presentation, Noriko offered several ways to spot scams in emails as well as how to check out inquiries on boards such as Translator-scammers.com, Payment Practices and Proz. Finally, she described what to do if you have been scammed, and how to report scams.
If the information prevents even one of our JLD members from being hurt financially or professionally (or both) it will be worth the hard work of Noriko and the JLD team.
–Patricia Pringle
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