This blog is part of a series on transcription. If you haven’t read the other blogs in this series, make sure to check out the summary page for a listing of all transcription blogs.
Okay, no discussion of the medical transcription field would be complete without discussing the biggest scam out there: Transam. Transam is a company that preys on those who don’t want to complete their medical training and simply want to start working right away as a medical transcriptionist. After all, many people think that all an MT is doing is listening and then typing what they hear, so Transam’s on-the-job training appeals to this mindset. “Learn while you transcribe, and we’ll provide that training to you for free!” Of course you do. Note: The schooling itself is free, this isn’t a lie. Transam hasn’t been shut down yet, because they never flat out lie to anyone, sadly enough. I wish they did, so we could nail their hides to the wall.
There is a catch for this “free schooling” though, and that is, Transam requires that you buy their proprietary software and books in order to transcribe for them (read this page, second paragraph) which costs $400 last time I heard, although that price tends to fluctuate. Okay, well, $400 is much cheaper than any of the three programs I talked about on here, so on the surface this looks like a steal. The thing is, I have done transcription work myself, and there are so many choices for both software programs and books in the medical transcription field that there is absolutely no reason to buy their “special” software and books.
One way to know if something is a scam is to watch the money flow. Who is the company making their money off of? Who are their customers? In this case, Transam’s customers are their employees. No one can work for them unless they pay the company $400 so they can have the special footpedal and the special audio software. Considering you can get a nice footpedal for $80 and an audio player for free, $400 is way over the top. You should never pay a company to work for them. Never. Other companies require that you buy certain equipment in order to work for them, but they themselves are not selling the equipment, and it is stuff that can be bought from any transcription store. That the difference–the legit MT companies are not making money off of you buying that equipment, Transam is.
Transam doesn’t stop there though. The scam gets even worse–be sure to read onto part two where I talk about the second half of their scam.