Tag: Scam

  • I was Almost Scammed On Reddit With a Freelance Job Offer!

    As Covid-19 continue to claim lives and wreck havoc on businesses across the world, remote way of working has become the new modus operandi. Fraudulent business groups on social media are emerging everyday targeting new and existing freelancers who are desperate to make money online.

    In this blogpost, I will share my personal way of identifying a typical fraudulent Freelancer recruitment funnel on social media. This will in give you a picture of how the scheme looks like and how it is very hard to suspect. They will lure you to doing work for free or once you are in, they pay as they wish with false promises of increasing the pay.

    These rackets are all over Reddit. This does not mean Reddit is a bad social media network. It’s the bad motives by some of the users.

    If you have never been to Reddit, all I can say based on my personal experience is, it’s a good social media network where people share valuable information for free. Note the word FREE. This is the catch that fraudsters are using to get free service  from You -the user- without you suspecting anything.

    For the short time have been on Reddit, I have enjoyed every bit of information that I found shared on Reddit groups.

    It got even better when I noticed that people were posting work opportunities for Freelancers. Me being a full time Freelancer, I decided to respond to one of them by messaging the person who offered the opportunity.

    Here is a snippet of the offer.

    Hiring Freelance Video Editors

    Please take note of what the client is offering here. I have highlighted them in yellow so that you can see their hook.

    They offer $10-100 to edit 1 Minute Videos

    It means they will pay each editor that gets into their funnel based on how the negotiate for a given assignment. If you are confident enough to negotiate, you will be paid better. Sadly, many new and even experienced freelancers are afraid to negotiate because they fear being denied the opportunity. So if the client fixes a budget on a given video, they will accept. This takes me to the second hook.

    10-20 Videos Per Week

    This is very enticing to anyone looking for sustainable income. Any Freelancer will do a quick math using the average pay which is around $55 per video. If you do 10 videos a week you make $550 and if you do 20 videos a week, you make $1100. This is good money. Moreover, it will be recurrent work. One has a potential of earning $2200-4400 a month working directly with the client. In fact if you are paid $100 per video, you will earn $4000-$8000 a month.

    This is enough to blind any freelancer. I mean this is good money. One can do anything to get the job:-). This is where they begin their show now that they have your attention.

    The Screening Process

    Like any other interview, before you are considered, you are required to submit your portfolio. That’s what Freelancers do everyday right inside their cover letters when bidding for work.

    As you can see, they will first review your porfolio and if you are fit, they will ask you to do a ‘test project‘ to confirm your capability. Now, this is where one knows if its going to end well or it is going to turn out as a fraudulent opportunity.

    Trusted freelancing sites like Upwork have implemented a policy regarding to test project to protect freelancers from fraudulent clients who their sole purpose is to waste Freelancers time. The condition is; that clients have to pay Freelancers for any test projects.

    Having found this policy helpful is protecting myself, I apply it everywhere.

    Now, in the post, the client concluded that the test project will be paid-which is still in line with the policy.

    Next Steps After Submitting My Portfolio

    The client liked my portfolio and not elevated me to the next stage of their Freelance Recruitment funnel, a slack channel for Video editors working for them. The channel had more than 40 members.

    All instructions on how to go about the test project was in there. After, going through the files, I was happy. The instructions was very clear. Seeing that I had all that I needed to proceed, I contacted the team lead to clarify 3 things;

    1. How they pay editors – Is it via Paypal, or bank transfer e.t.c
    2. If they have an Non Disclosure Agreement to sign before starting work
    3. How much they pay for the test project which looked like everyone in the channel was supposed to work on.

    The VA could not answer that. This was the first sign that was something was not right. In response, she referred me to their accountant who deals with paying freelancers.

    She avoided the question on having and signing a contract before work. That’s was alarming. I mean, who works for a company without a contract in place especially when you consider the amount of money one will earn while doing the job?

    This is very important. Loosing $4000 a month is not a joke. What if they pay at the end of the month and after you do the job, they remove you from the slack channel or stop responding to your concerns. Anything is possible.

    Having a contract is a sign of commitment.

    Contradicting Statements

    In their video editing post, they said they were going to pay for the test project. But on persistently consulting the accounts clerk on Slack before working on the test project, I was surprised to learn from her that they DON’T PAY for test project.

    This is enough. If they don’t pay for test, withdraw from the interview and forget it.

    But how many Freelancers do this?

    If all of the 40+ Freelancers in the channel had started doing the job without confirming if they were going to be paid for the test or not, what does it tell you about their level of seriousness towards freelancing? Its vague right.

    Those are the same freelancers you will hear soon crying that they were not paid.

    Conclusion

    The only way we can stand out as full time freelancers online is upping our game based on our experiences for us to gain trust and respect from new clients looking to hire online.

    What do you think of the jobs being offered in reddit?

    Until next time, be vigilant and take care.

    Follow me on twitter @cheptiony.

  • Cases of Scams in The Freelancing World

    Being scammed by a new client is one case. But being referred by a client as a ‘scammer’ is another case. You can find yourself in both situations as a freelancer.

    In the past, I have found myself in both scenarios.

    During the early years of my Freelancing Career, I practically defined the term ‘scam‘ my own way after falling a victim severally.

    In this blog post, I share with you three places Online where you can get scammed as a Freelancer.

    I will also share with you various occasions where you never see a ‘scam’ coming your your way until .. the business transaction transitions to a scam.

    SCAM DISCLAIMER: Most people think that ‘scam’ revolves around monetary transactions .. while this is true, in this day and age, scammers have gone high tech. The most devastating scammers now are ‘time’ scammers. The ones that wastes your time.

    Back in the Days ..

    It starts with one searching on Google the keyword ‘How to make money online.’ And before they know, they are signing up on various sites that promise to show them -for FREE- how to make $100 a day or more.

    To date, the keywords still works magic. You can tell by the number of video views they get on YouTube on how to make money online.

    In the year 2013 when I started freelancing, I was a victim. I fell into one that promised to show me how to make $3000 every month.

    I stumbled into it after I signed up with 10 other sites that promised to make me money online.

    They required me to fill in different surveys on what I thought of different computer games. Each survey paid $10. In two weeks, I was done with 100 surveys. This was equal to $1,000.

    I was eligible to withdraw the money to paypal. Now, here is where the game started. I was required to pay $29 to withdraw the money.

    Out of desperation, I paid it and I was asked to wait for 2 days for my payment to be approved. A week later, the site had disappeared. I could not access it.

    And that is how I knew I have been scammed both my time and money. This was one among the many scams I fell into in my early years of freelancing.

    Scam Revolution

    Everyday someone is being scammed. One need to know that jobs requiring them to do simple tasks with no clear terms and promise to pay highly is in most occasions are ‘all scams.’

    With this in mind, I narrowed down my search. First, I identified the skills I had that I could monetize online. It turned out to be ‘video production’ and ‘writing.’

    What followed next was identifying ways in which I could sell these skills. I had two sure options to do it. First, was building a website where people could buy my services.

    Secondly, was searching for freelance jobs online. At the time, most freelancing sites- Upwork ( formerly Odesk and Elance), Freelancer, Fiverr – was coming up.

    From these two marketplaces-website and Freelancing sites, I have seen scam bugs emerge and evolve. Scammers innovate ways to take away something from you everyday.

    They have relative behaviors, so if you are keen enough, you will detect them early from the first mail they send you.

    Typical Scams From a Business Website

    Guaranteed Website Traffic

    The most common scam pitch I get from the website is ‘targeted website traffic.’ They use key words that many can easily fall into like cheap, get clients e.t.c.

    If you are a beginner, you will be tempted to try this. To me, I tried many of them in my early years of establishing my site and none of them brought me a client.

    Trial Before Hiring

    I have many videos that I need produced but you must do this one first for us to gauge your skills-don’t worry we will pay

    When a client contacts you directly from your website and tells you this, you will agree. I have fallen into this trap a couple of times.

    The clients pays for the first order in advance to buy your trust. What follows is him/her ordering in bunches.

    Owing to the trust and first impression the client gave you earlier, you complete the order hoping you will now be receiving payment in lump sum.

    After you deliver and the client is happy, he will ask for an invoice. And weeks later, he/she stops replying to your followup e-mails.

    That’s when you realize you have been scammed.

    1,000 videos needed – can you give us a bulk price per video?

    This one is really tricky. If you are not careful, you will loose 20-30% per video. In accumulation, you will have lost a lot of money.

    It works this way; after you have given them say 20% discount, the client ends up ordering only 10 videos.

    So to save yourself from this mystery, first, gauge if your prospect really wants 1,000 videos by asking them to order the first say 50 videos at the original price.

    Scammers From Freelancing Platforms

    Scammers from Freelancing sites vary. Freelancing platforms do not compromise with them either. So to keep up with the changes, they verify themselves as serious clients. And there and then, their show begins.

    Now, if they catch you- you both suffer suspension from the site for failing to keep up with the platforms terms. So how do they scam you?

    Request for Free trials

    For those who have been freelancing for a while, they know that doing this is violating the terms of service and will get you suspended.

    But not withstanding your desperate need for the job, you agree to do a free sample to demonstrate your skills.

    At the end, the client hires someone else and you are left out. There are many reasons why it is not a good idea to offer free samples for video services.

    One common reason is that the client may be using it to pitch- then sub-contract the project to you.

    If his/her pitch is not accepted, you both loose.

    Additional Small Tasks in the Middle of the Project

    Don’t dismiss small additional tasks that comes in as you accomplish a task assigned to you by a client.

    If you do, the client will take advantage of it. They will assume that this is part of the package.

    Don’t be scared that by asking for more pay, you will lose the job. You both know that it was not included in the package.

    Asks you to take the conversation outside the site

    This was ok 3 years ago because the video and voice call features had not been incorporated into the platforms. But now, it is.

    So why take your conversation outside when you can have it directly on the platform? Well, they know you will fall for it.

    Here they will suggest that you work with them directly and save Freelancing Platform fees.

    This is risky. Don’t ever accept to work outside the Freelancing site that connected both of you.

    These are few among the many techniques used by scammers to fleece freelancers. Do you know of any? Let me know in the comments below.

    If you need help to create professional screen-cast video tutorials for your SaaS application or website, let me know here.

    Until next time, bye bye and take care.

    Follow me on twitter @cheptiony