This is a WARNING to translators and translation agencies. Beware of scammers pretending to be translators or representatives of translation agencies. Scammers have now invaded platforms for language professionals and translation agencies; they are copying the profiles of translators from professional platforms and are impersonating the translators, and are responding to translation job openings using other professional translators’ resume details (CV), but using a different email address to contact the agencies to apply for job opening posts.
I’ve recently posted a job opening for BM language on a platform of language professionals, and a ‘translator’ applied for the job, that person was located in Nigeria, I know that much because this impersonator provided us with their whatsapp contact, and I checked the phone area +234, this is Nigeria country code! However in their resume details indicated as being Malaysian and living in Kuala Lumpur.
Assuming that they impersonate translators, they most probably also impersonate the representatives of translation agencies to get professional translators to do the job for them. If this is what's happening, this is a lose-lose situation for both translators and agencies, as translators will be scammed of their work and pay, and agencies will get the bad reputation of not paying, or worse, as confidential information may fall into wrong hands. It is a risky business for the agencies if this happens.
Now, my question here is; How do we (professional translators and legit translation agencies) deal with this? Anyone can fall for a scam. As an agency representative, I suggest that, before assigning/accepting jobs, agency representatives and selected translators should be interviewed via the zoom app which will be provided to the selected translators that respond to job openings. Other suggestions would be most welcome!