Translators are often independent contractors, working for a variety of employers. That makes those in the field used to seeing an odd variety of requests from various sources - including those who are attempting to pull Translator-specific job scams.

Now, these scams are the same scams used over and over on job seekers no matter what field and not precisely new.

These job offers appear on job boards, but also places like Telegram (always a warning sign!). They promise a large amount of money for a lot of translation on a tight deadline or otherwise offer you a job despite never asking you what your qualifications are for this kind of project. Currently, the scam seems to be sending prospective victims an old movie script to translate.

When you’re supposed to get paid, they either send you a check - but sorry! They sent too much or have to cancel the job, please send the money back to them - or they require you to pay a certain amount of money to release the funds. Sometimes they send you to a bank you’ve never heard of online to get the money, and then that company will require you to pay a fee to get the money out.

How to protect yourself
Legit companies don’t hire nobodies off the street without knowing their skills and capabilities. They may require you to prove you have a certification/take a test. They’ll certainly require you to sign paperwork like NDAs before sending you a confidential project. (You’re not going to get a random movie script to translate in 4 days! Nobody’s going to release things like that without a NDA).

So if you’re suddenly asked to translate a large amount of text without the client checking to make sure you’re capable of it - yeah, that’s a scam.

Now there are scummy translation companies that do screening etc but fail to pay you - but that is a legit company being scummy and not part of this scam.