Signs You're About To Be Scammed

I do my best to weed out the obvious scams before posting job links, but I don't contact or research every employer before including them in the daily job listings. I would love to be able to do that for my readers, but I simply don't have the time. For that reason, there are some questionable jobs that slip through -- like one I posted yesterday, titled "Web copywriters" that linked to a Raleigh Cragslist posting.

I sent a short email response to the ad simply asking for more information. This morning I received a lengthy email asking for a lot of information. As I glanced through the email, it raised several red flags for me, so I visited the website it contained. The claims made on the site seemed over-the-top, so I googled the first company name, "Internet Illuminations." Nothing but job listings. I searched "Google news" and came up with nothing. Then I tried searching the name of the owner along with the company, "Internet Illuminations" James Mitchell. Still nothing but job listings. Finally, I tried searching the owner's name and city "James Mitchell" Boston.

Bingo! There is a lot of interesting information out there on "James Mitchell" Boston, not the least of which is this article in Boston Magazine.

Now it's possible that this new company is legitimate and that James Mitchell has started a legitimate business, but are you willing to bet at least 20 hours of your workweek, every week on that?

I write all this so that freelance writers, especially those just starting out who are very hungry for their first jobs, will always be on the lookout for scams. There's no point in getting a gig if you're only going to be taken advantage of.

So how do you know if what looks like a good gig is really a scam? In most cases there's no way to be 100% sure until you've been taken for a ride. But there are some good ways to protect yourself. If you start getting even a slight inkling that not everything is on the up-and-up, it's time to either take a closer look, or walk away. Ten minutes of research can save you hours of unpaid work.

To help protect yourself, watch for these red flags:

• Overly high pay rates (You aren't going to make $50,000 a year writing 10 hours a week for a single company.)
  
• Vague descriptions of work
• Requiring substantial amounts of work completed before payment will be made
• Payment by check (unless it is a large company that you are sure is legitimate, and even then be careful. I did a lot of work for a well-known large company two years ago and to this day haven't received a cent. Even though I faxed and snail-mailed the payment documents they asked for five different times, they continued to claim they never received them, so I couldn't be paid. Strangely, they received the fax containing the work product on the first try.)
  
• Demanding a lot of personal information
• Refusing to use an escrow service for large jobs
• Asking for custom-written "samples" before hiring (100-200 word samples may be ok, but usually those asking for an entire article are just looking to take your work and run)
• Being overly demanding and picky (some clients are picky, but some are looking for an excuse to deny payment, as you become more experienced, you will be able to spot the difference. Typically, the scammer looking to avoid payment makes unreasonable demands and asks for contradicting re-writes.)
• Asking you to complete more work than agreed upon, but at the same price
• Asking you to invest significant time into a project without guarantee of payment
• Promises of "write for free now and you'll make money later"

If you see any red flags, or get that "is this a scam?" inkling, take a moment to research the person or company you are considering working for. You might be surprised what turns up when you search terms like "superduperpayingemployer complaints" or "superduperpayingemployer scam."

There are also several sites where you can check out potential employers to see if other writers have had complaints. My favorite of these is Writer Beware, maintained by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America organization. The site also has a fairly new blog that lets writers comment about scams.

Another good resource is the Protect Yourself page at Writer's Digest.

Have fun writing, but protect your work! It's ok to write for free -- if you know in advance that you're writing for free. :)