10. Ghostwriting to authority sites
If you have writing and publishing access to some major websites, such as Mashable, Forbes, or Huffington Post, some potential clients may ask you to submit work to those sites in exchange for money. In effect, these clients are asking you to use your privileged access to secretly promote their product or service.
At times, however, this type of request can be a scam as well. The freelancer takes on the risk of not only losing their ongoing contract and relationship with the websites in question but also may not get paid if the content they write and pitch does not get published.
How to avoid authority site scams
The simplest way to avoid these scams is to never respond to them. If you get invites or requests to use your privileged access or relationship with an authority site to discretely promote a product or service, don’t do it.
Concluding remarks
These are some of the most common scams that freelancers face. But scammers are developing new tactics all the time. This is why it’s important to have a keen eye when it comes to looking for work and communicating with a potential client.
If something sounds too good to be true, it often is. Also, a certain job ad or the way someone communicates with you about work may feel suspicious. In these cases, it’s best to listen to your gut and not agree to any work until you feel assured about the legitimacy of the job.
Carrying out quick research into a company and getting details about the job can be enough to tell apart a possible scam from legitimate work.
Freelancing involves enough stress as it is. By being knowledgeable about scams and attentive when looking for work, you can avoid taking on any unnecessary stress.
What’s in this article?
If a company says that they will need for you secure equipment , but they will send you a check for it. Is this a red flag?
The next day, I was asked to send Zelle transactions to 2 accounts using Gmail addresses to purchase the equipment. We spent the better part of the day sending the money that was deposited into my account to these people.
My hairs raised and I called my bank to report thr Zelle transactions to see if they could be stopped just in case the check comes back to be fraudulent. Pray for me.
Thanks for the question. I’m sorry to tell you, but it is quite possibly and indeed likely that you have unwittingly taken part in a money laundering scheme. This type of fraud is common. Never accept jobs that require you to purchase your own equipment in this manner. Legitimate companies do not operate this way.
HI SAM. This company called Kwork that messaged me on freelancer told me to message them on whatsapp. I did so. They told me its a copywriting project. They are asking me to pay security fee of USD80 and after completion of the project, it will pay me USD2500 along with security fee. Should I take this offer?
Upon inspection, I have some doubts that the company that contacted you on Freelancer is actually Kwork. Kwork appears to be a legitimate company and freelance marketplace. It’s possible that they could be hiring people to do work for them on a freelance basis (Upwork does this, for example, as I’ve done freelance work for Upwork the company), but if that were the case they would likely be hiring through their own platform, not a competitor’s platform. No legitimate company hiring for freelance work is going to ask you to pay a security fee. This sounds like a scam, so I would avoid it. If you want to test the waters, tell them you’d be happy to do the work, but won’t be paying a security fee and that you want a deposit on the work upfront. If they back out or are unwilling to do that, examine the site it’s just extra confirmation about it being a scam.