8 The Linguist Vol/64 No/2
ciol.org.uk/thelinguist
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"I knew it was a scam – but I needed it to be real."
Charlotte Hale-Burgess examines a growing problem
W
hen I left a successful sales career
to become a freelance translator,
I brought with me a sense of
purpose, excitement and the (potentially
dangerous) need to prove myself. I had
made a bold decision to follow a long-held
passion and turn it into a career, and I was
staring into the face of an unknown stretch
sans salary. I was sure I had the skills and
experience to build a business that worked
for me, but the industry was new and I found
a brick wall in the space where I'd imagined a
mountain of job offers to be.
No matter how much professional
experience you have, nothing prepares you for
the quiet desperation that can creep in during
those first uncertain months. You just need
that first paid project and the proof that you
made the right choice. So when the
opportunity arrived – big project, suspiciously
great rate, urgent deadline – I knew,
somewhere deep down, that it wasn't quite
right. And I said yes anyway.
The voice I ignored
I had set myself up on a few freelancing
portals as per the usual advice, but perhaps
a little too quickly. I hadn't taken the time to
understand how other professionals were
putting themselves out there. And then I
was contacted by someone who told me
they had a project for me. Finally! The
communication was off, sure, and the
spelling and grammar were questionable,
but I wrote that off as English not being their
first language.
The contract they sent over was little more
than a hastily thrown together Word
document, and the email address was
ambiguous. I searched for the business
online and found almost nothing. I knew that
wasn't a good sign. But I also knew what I
wanted this project to mean: the beginning.
So I waved away the myriad red flags in front
of me. Maybe they didn't have a strong
digital footprint. Maybe it really was an
urgent project. In my previous job, I'd
worked with lots of small companies that
were not hugely tech savvy, so I ignored the
hesitations, silenced the voice in the back of
my head and told myself: this could be it.
The perfect trap
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