OP You've raised a serious topic anyway I won't be committing to what your community members are doing but I would lie to say News posting with a special format is perfect spam.

A News Headline
A Screenshot or Thumbnail
A source
A typical comment on News

AFAIK  there's nothing wrong with translating the topics and getting reards from the OPs's even if they are using this tactic to rank_up at least they are putting in some effort and contributing something but the significant scenarios, OP you've mentioned using translating tools and minor edits on it should be wiped with some strong actions against such members by dropping at least Neutral for translation spam or even Negative if they've found guilt consistently.

Mostly Such tactics are used by the account farmers and it is not that hard in the local community to track them, TBH merit sources should double-check before sending merits.