The Ailments of Global Translating (Part 2)

The Ailments of Global Translating (Part 2)

Infamous Translation Agencies, the Unsolicited Solicited Emails and Defamation Know-Hows

By Jana Paripovich,
Professional Editor and Translator for NMBooks Australia
Melbourne, Australia

Tel/Fax: 61(3)98780207

Get the List of 4,500+ Translation Agencies Now!
No Recurring Membership Fees!

See also: Part 1, Part 2.

While global economy has helped many legitimate businesses expand, it has also allowed a rapid proliferation of tiny, bogus businesses that defraud clients and contractors. This trend is particularly strong in the international translating market. Anyone can create an appealing, convincing website, pose as an agency, and defraud thousands of translators worldwide.

There are several types of infamous translating agencies:

Those who are founded by amateur translators, starting up, unaware of the ethics and standards of the profession, aiming at establishing their business long term.
Those who are not translators, amateur or professional, who exclusively recruit from translators’ directories, databases or yellow pages, and who are exclusively there to get rich fast, short-term. They often include ‘looking good’ agencies, with some convincing names and titles.
One person agencies, the most notorious type, founded by someone who has a sound knowledge of information technology put to the purpose of defrauding other agencies and translators. More often than not, the same person would have created a number of websites, each with a different name, each purporting to be a translation agency.

They set the translation rates down, disseminate substandard work to their clients without being aware of it, defraud contracted translators, and use translators’ directories to obtain translators’ emails, solicit their CVs for client theft, then sell emails to marketing agencies, and spam translators with dubious offers. They do not understand the profession, have not made any personal investment in obtaining the education, skills and accreditation, seek fast profits, and lack ethics.

What can you do: check the properties (Message Source) of their emails, read their emails carefully, check for the tone, spelling, grammar, the message itself, the closing; check their website for the same, check all their sections but most importantly their ‘About Us’ or ‘Our Team’ section and ‘Contact Us’ section; give them a call or email them with some tough questions and watch their punctuality and the substance of their reply. Your questions should first address their verifiable physical address and business registration number, their professional memberships or associations, the qualifications and accreditations of their translators, their payment and non-payment policies, their legal team or the name of the institution that would mediate disputes/complaints, and the maximum timeframe for their reply or payment. If you are asked to do a sample translation, agree to only a paragraph of two different texts. Non-negotiable. If they need a page or two, refer them to the websites offering free translation software.

Unsolicited Solicited Emails: The reason I say unsolicited solicited emails is that by providing your contact details (including emails) in translators’ directories you have agreed to be contacted by potential clients. Therefore, any emails you receive would (in part) be solicited. However, you will also receive a lot of emails that are simply mass spam mails, and hence unsolicited. Most of them would ask if you are interested to be added to the sender’s translator database, or seek quotes, or your particulars including a current CV. Most of your particulars would already be in the directory so it should alarm you. You won’t hear from them again for a while but you will start receiving a lot of other spam in the weeks to follow.

Defaming the Infamous: most reputable translators and agencies feel strong about exposing the wrongdoers. The law of defamation is supposed to protect people's reputations from an unfair attack or bad exposure. In practice its main effect is to hinder free speech and protect powerful people or fraudsters from scrutiny. There are two types of defamation: oral (called slander) and published (called libel). Examples: you tell someone that your agency evades tax (a slander); you write a letter to your local newspaper (a libel even if not published). Anything that injures a person's reputation can be defamatory. How to avoid defamation suits: always state facts not conclusions, let the readers draw their own conclusions; send a copy of what you plan to publish to people about whom you are writing or who might sue (if there is no reply, it’s unlikely they will successfully sue later; if they complain, request specifics); ensure there is a sound base of people asserting similar claims. Three ways to defend: what you said was true; you had a duty to provide this information; you were expressing an opinion.

Note: India still doesn’t have an anti-spam legislation, but you can contact the TRAI (Telecommunications Regulatory Authority India) regarding the spam originating from India.

Useful anti-spam contacts:

European

Euro CAUCE - www.euro.cauce.org/
Spanish Association of Internet Users - www.aui.es/contraelspam/
Yugoslav Anti-Spam Initiative - www.uzice.net/yasi/
Turk Anti Spam Organisation - spam.ku.edu.tr/
Russian National Coalition Against Spam - www.spamtest.ru/asc
Contact Network of Spam enforcement Authorities (CNSA) - europa.eu.int/

Central and Latin-American

CAUCE Argentina - wiki.cauce.org.ar/cgi-bin/moin.cgi/
Argentine antispam site - www.antispam-argentina.8m.net/
Brazilian Spam Fighters - www.spambr.org/
Grupo Brasil AntiSPAM - brasilantispam.org/

North-American

CAUCE - www.cauce.org/
CAUCE Canada - cauce.ca/
Canadian SPAM Task Force - e-com.ic.gc.ca/epic/internet/inecic-ceac.nsf/en/h_gv00248e.html

Asia-Pacific

APCAUCE (Asia-Pacific) - www.apcauce.org/
CAUBE Australia - www.caube.org.au/
CAUCE India - india.cauce.org/
CAUCE Korea - www.cauce.or.kr/
CAUCE Malaysia - www.icauce.org/
China Anti-Spam Alliance - www.anti-spam.org.cn/
China Anti-Spam Coordination Team (ASCT) - www.spam.com.cn/
Hong Kong ISPA Anti-Spam Code of Practice - www.hkispa.org.hk/antispam/

The ISP industry can have much influence in curbing spam:

SpamCon Foundation - spamcon.org/
IRTF Anti-Spam Research Group (ASRG) - www.irtf.org/charter.php?gtype=rg&group=asrg
RIPE Anti-Spam WG - www.ripe.net/ripe/wg/anti-spam/
ITU Activities on Countering Spam - www.itu.int/osg/spu/spam/
ISIPP - www.isipp.com/
IIA Spam Virtual Taskforce - www.iia.net.au/spamvt.html
Anti-Spam Technical Alliance - postmaster.info.aol.com/asta/
London Action Plan - www.londonactionplan.com/news/