NAATI translators are known for their professionalism and quality, attributes that government departments and businesses rely on when they require translated documents from customers and clients. Using your NAATI translator stamp on a document verifies that a professional has completed the work and that it can be trusted, which is why taking steps to protect your reputation are important.
There have been an increasing number of reports from practitioners and the public of requests to practitioners from intermediaries and translation companies requesting that the practitioner only places their stamp on already translated documents with no expectation of proof reading or post editing, or even more concerning “stamp only” services where there is an expectation that a digital stamp or copy of a physical stamp is provided to these businesses for their use with no oversight from the practitioner at all in exchange for a small commission (as little as $1).
A reminder that the Code of Ethics requires that the responsibility for translations rests with the translator whose stamp is applied.
To protect your certification and prevent fraud
- Do not give control of your stamp to anyone
- Always ensure that translated documents where you have sub-contracted some of the translation work or used translation tools are still verified and proofed before you put your stamp on them.
- If requested to just stamp a document, instead offer to do a revision based on the source text and provided translation, which can then be certified as your own
- Consider using the NAATI Digital Stamp (see article on its use here) as these stamps can be remotely disabled, ensuring if someone does try and use if fraudulently without your knowledge its use can be stopped once reported.
- When sending PDF files to ensure additional security consider “flattening” the document. A guide to this with Adobe can be found at https://www.adobe.com/au/acrobat/roc/blog/how-to-flatten-a-pdf.html
- Where you believe your stamp has been used fraudulently contact info@naati.com.au , it may be necessary to issue you with a new practitioner number to limit ongoing fraud if the physical stamp has been stolen.
- Although modern software can copy images, if you use your stamp over parts of text in the translated document this will make it harder to copy successfully. The digital stamp has a transparent background to allow this to happen as does the physical stamp. This can be used in addition to the flattening of the document.
- Beware of companies offering “easy money” for doing the translation work without your oversight, it could jeopardise your reputation and certification.
- Be generally aware to protect yourself online, there are other reports NAATI receives regarding companies asking for samples of work but actually using this as free labour and reports of companies asking for personal information including passports and bank account details to assign translation work but actually using this for identity theft. You can view information on general protection from the eSafety commission at Be-safe-Be-Alert-online.pdf
Online fraud and scams are a constant in today’s society so it can be hard to keep up, but by taking some precautions as listed above and being wary of deals that seem too good to be true you are able to help protect the profession from poor quality work.
