Colleagues, I have been solicited by this apparent scam a couple of times, and recently I have been made aware of many more instances (i.e. just do a google search for exact text, and you will find many hits). It is not clear what the scam is - perhaps some form of Article Spinning - but since the text of the solicitation is identical among instances (with the exception of the language involved, the article to be translated, and the name of the translator) it must be from some sort of bot. Even if responding is harmless, you probably don't want to diminish your productivity by responding to the solicitation. I'd be really curious if anyone has been able to track this down further - or whether it has some sort of legitimacy at some level. We all appreciate the free flow of information, but I doubt any of us want to fall prey to scam artists. ---Mike Palmer
The text follows, with the variable fields indicated by asterices (*): Subject: The translation into **(language)** Hello, I am interested in your publication ***(url) *** and would like to translate it to **(language)** language, so I can share it with the readers on my blog. For doing that I need your written permission. Of course, I will credit you as an author and your webpage as a source. Certainly, I will be grateful if you do the same when I'll be done with translation. The translation is non-commercial and will be posted only on the Web, no print copies are planned. Do you prefer email or IM for contact (if any questions regarding the translation arise)? AIM, MSN, Skype? Regards, ****name****
