Beware the scammers...

Most of my clients are lovely, responsible and professional. I rely on them to be so because I work on my own and depend on regular payments. I hear frequent tales of trouble from other freelance translators, editors and journalists and I've had my own to deal with.

Translators are often vulnerable because we work with clients worldwide, and we face the occupational hazard of bad payers. We tend to rely on Word of Mouth. One woman advised me against working for a notorious translation company, Nestor Systems, based here in Montreal and which owed thousands of dollars in unpaid invoices. They have since gone bankrupt, forcing dozens of translators to take them to court. They did call me once for a job but I had already been warned. 

A few years ago, I did some editing and translation for an agency who had been commissioned by a local "Urban Culture" magazine, called MOB. This is their MySpace page: http://ca.myspace.com/mobmagonline

Most of the articles were about rap artists, fashion, music, and concerts. The writers were inexperienced and probably working for free. I was working with a small translation agency and had had a cordial, respectful working relationship with Melissa, the project manager. I submitted the work in July and in October, Melissa contacted me and asked me to look over the work again. Apparently MOB had complained about inaccuracies. I went over my copy with a fine toothed comb but found only one or two small imperfections- a missing period, extra spaces. They'd had 3 months; why were they only noticing this now?

Alas, it was a scam that they had pulled on two other agencies. Once the work was done, they would refuse to pay because we had promised 100 percent accuracy. I thought that was ironic, since much of the copy I had edited was near-illiterate and their magazine website was riddled with errors, bad spelling and grammar suited to fourth graders. They refused to pay, even though I and the other translator had been paid, but Melissa was not paid by them. She said had she known, she'd never have worked with them. She did take them to court but I have yet to hear of any solution.

Another woman, named Jennifer Kayal, contacted me a couple of years ago. It was a slow time of year and she needed a translation. She was in France, where I have several agency clients. I translated about 2300 words and invoiced her. She would be on her honeymoon for a couple of weeks, she told me.

After a month I contacted her but she said it would be 60 days, not entirely unusual for a French agency. When 60 days passed, I contacted her again. I never received any response: I emailed and Skyped and once, managed to contact a friend who was using her Skype. She had no idea where Jennifer was. I was never able to track her down and realized that I was probably not going to get paid, about 350 EUR. About a year later, I was contacted by a woman who had also been scammed by Ms Kayal, in the same way. She gets people to translate for her then pockets the money. In her case, she contacted the end client who were embarrassed and paid her part of the fee. I tried the same thing but no success and I had to write it off as a scam.

I was annoyed at feeling like a dupe but took a tiny bit of comfort in knowing I wasn't alone. I know of translators who have been scammed for thousands of euros or dollars. It wasn't really just the money.   It was how she just lied so brazenly and continued to do it. I've known people like her in person; they chew up their victims then move on. They're sociopaths who know their targets.  All you can do in cases like this, where your nebulous con artist is out of your reach, is just warn others.

As for Jennifer Kayal, I put a hex on her. If she really was on her honeymoon, I hope she enjoyed it.  Let's just say...it won't last.