The simplest to find out whether that freelance site is a scam

Ok, you will find many websites like this one who will give you all the information about how to stay away from that assignment, or whether that particular website is a hoax, or whether this job opportunity exists and is as financially lucrative as expressed, but all of us are unable to give you one kind of service, unless we want to spend a lifetime in litigation - we cannot tell you whether this particular person is a hoax or not, unless it happens to me myself. 

Therefore, the best that we can do is train you how to find out whether the freelance assignment you got is a fake or not. Here is one simple rule that you should live by while on the online world:

Google is your friend

You can actually use Google, or any other strong search engine like Google to find out whether you are dealing with a scammer, be it a site or an individual.  Here is you can do it. 

Whenever you come across a site that seems scammy, just go to Google and type 'nameofsite+is+scam.' Once you do this, you will come across the search results. If you do find some search results for this term, you can be sure that at least someone has had the same allegations or doubts as you do. If you do not find any results, well, it may be a genuine thing or it might be a scam that has not been unearthed yet. It's all about how pessimistic or optimistic you are. 

This method might not be much useful if you are looking for a particular person or an account name, simply because account names are dispensible and a person might be able to change their account names within hours.

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Freelance Scams: How Some Subscription Freelance Sites are Duping Freelancers

Over the past few years, freelancing has become more lucrative than many low paying and stagnating 9 to 5 jobs too. Looking at this, there are several websites that are trying to make the life of a freelancer easier, as well as luring others who think that freelancing and getting a freelance job is quite difficult.  However, some unscrupulous individuals are using even this as  platform to bilk people of their money. Some websites that use to fool freelancers out of their money are some particular bid for work websites. Here is a brief downer on how they fool the freelancers:

The Seven Day Trial Period may be a Hoax:

Several sites offer a trial period simply because it makes for good ad copy, but the sites that are looking for some quick freelance scam do it because they have no other option other than that one to get at least someone into their scam infested site. A search on the net will tell you of real life accounts of how the site simply made the unsubscribe button high and well impossible to search on the sixth day, a process that would take the account automagically to the $40 + billing for the whole month. 

The Job Postings may NEVER Change:

There are some sites that in form the user that if signed up, they would receive fresh job postings almost every day, which turns out to be another of their countless false promises. Basically, these websites have some placeholder assignments, which are so low paying that nobody bids on them, and the sites uses them to populate their ads or their their landing page. Once the person pays the required amount, they would be surprised to find out that those are the only job postings that they ever had. 

Most of the Work Posted maybe by the Site itself:

Ok, it makes perfect business sense to use a freelancer's forum that you have to find freelancers who'd be able to take on that short them assignment that the site has. But would it not be weird if all the job postings were of the company that actually owns or runs the site itself?

So, What is the Option?

The free websites, it's that simple as that. There are several websites that offer free job postings, with a community that is vibrant and actually puts up new job posts almost each day. Simply put, the information and jobs that you would be paying $40 per month can be got for free. Of course, these sites have a payin option, but it is optional, and if you plan to keep bidding (and winning assignments) the money paid for the payin option is worth Gold.

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Why Fight Freelance Scams?

Ok. Let's face it. We all have situations in our personal and professional lives where we basically sign off some work that we did as bad debts or bad decisions - and in a freelancer's world, it's more often than not the quick job they were offered, or the long term job that was to pay only after three months, so on and so forth. But mostly, we think that freelance scams do not hurt people much and they are low in financial value. Here is an eye opener for those who think such:

The Biggest Cheat There Ever Was, Is And Will Be - Elliott Leee

I am sure what I am going to say now will shake off the socks of every content writer present in the world. This is the bitterest experience anyone can ever have, so be warned.I have been mightily cheated by Elliott Leee, and I call upon everyone to be very vigilant about this person. Here’s my story.

I am a freelance writer and this Elliott Leee contacted me through one of them. His username is richuser2008 there (later I found out he has one more username richuser2009 also, on the same site). Okay, he contracted me to do 100 articles in 2 days for him. The articles were of 500 words each, and on various topics. The payment decided for them was $600. Normally, freelance sites allow for escrow, and I prefer that mode, but this Elliott Leee said he will not escrow because he didn’t have funds. Still, I needed the money, so I accepted the work. I have a kid aged 1.5 years and parents aged 61 and 73 years to look after. So I accepted. That was my mistake number one.

I put all my other work on the backburner and started his articles. It was unreal work, but I knew I would do it. He was bombarding me with emails. He wanted 10 articles every hour. I employed my wife and brother on the job too, and between us, we did the 10 articles in the first hour. I mailed him those. He accepted, said they were good, and said he wanted the next 10 within the next hour. I kept on sending, and with every mail he only said ‘Send me the next 10 asap’. There was no thanks, no decency in this person, he was only swallowing the articles without a burp.

After 50 articles were done, I indicated about the payment. I asked him to pay at least $300, which was the amount for the work completed. He refused outright. He said he would pay as soon as the 100th article was submitted. I had no option but to plow on.

Anyways, I will get to the end now. I finished the 100 articles in the stipulated 2 days. This guy was awake day and night, and didn’t allow me to sleep either. He wanted articles every hour, and would allow only a few hours sleep. But, he refused to give me any chat ids. Email was our only conversation.

So, 2 days, 40+ emails and 100 articles later, I asked him for the payment. His emails suddenly stopped. After about eight hours, he emailed me about a problem. He said that some other writer had fallen sick or something and could not complete her articles. He said her 29 articles were pending. And since those were completed, he could not send the articles to his client and his client would not pay. I told him this was unfair. He was almost like a dictator in his reply - do these 29 more, or there can be no payment. Really, he was so brutal. I had to do those 29 more articles. I took one more day to finish, not a whole day though. And I sent him those 29 also. The dues were now $780 and I was waiting for them.

After a few repeated reminders from my side, I got an email from him. He said he has paid on PayPal. I got a confirmation email from “PayPal” too. But the money did not show on PayPal. I waited four hours, thinking it might take time or something. But the money never came. And then I minutely scrutinized the “confirmation email”. It was a carefully planned out hoax. The email was a spoof. I reported it to PayPal immediately.

And then Elliott Leee stopped responding. No further communication occurred. In my last mail, I only told him how he was a criminal, and how I will expose him. He never replied to that.

Three days later, I was checking my freelance account where I first found this fellow. I was shocked to see the site had deducted $30 from my account for this project with Elliott Leee. I opened a dispute ticket with them.

Let me tell you also what PayPal and the freelance site did (or rather, did not do).

PayPal never replied to my report on the spoof mail. How can they not even be concerned about someone spoofing their emails? What’s the security for us then, when the biggest online bank of the world is so laidback about such crime? A couple of days later, I only got an email from PayPal saying that there’s no transaction of $780 on the said date. And they gave me a litany of preaching on what I must do to avoid phishing. Fat help!

The freelance site obviously did not help. There was no escrow, and that was their excuse to wash their hands of the whole affair. No escrow, no help - that’s the brutal dictum of these freelance sites. They replied about the deduction of $30 in 3 words - Project was canceled. Yes, you guessed it right - after making me slog like an aboriginal slave, after killing my sleep and appetite for two days running, this Elliott Leee took all the articles and canceled the project.

I got no justice in all this, and the infrastructure of the Internet is such that I will never get any justice. People like Elliott Leee will rule. And we honest hard workers will always lose.

Long live the phishers and scammers! The world’s online banks and freelance sites are there to help you do your thing.

PS: There is much, much more coming up on Elliott Leee as I am discovering more stuff from him. I have recently found out (without proof) that Elliott Leee is an alias - he has some other name. In fact, he has many other names.

If anyone of you wants to discuss Elliott Leee with me, and even take a look at our email convos and things like that, get in touch with me. I won’t take you at your face value though.

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