I care about my fellow freelancers. It pains me to see so many of us fall victim to the con artists who prey on innocent people who just want to work and earn a living.
and frankly I’m fed up.
Fed up with unscrupulous characters taking advantage new freelancers, and fed up with falling for scams myself.
It’s time for us to get wise, my freelancing friends! Newbie freelancers are particularly vulnerable and are a common target for online scammers. I was very new to freelancing when I ran into a few unsavory characters, and was quite innocent, unsuspecting – and unprepared.
So after going through it myself and researching the experiences of other freelancers, there are a few things I’d like to say on the subject.
So here we go!
Be wary if someone tries to steer you away from your chosen freelancing platform..
While online freelancing platforms (such as Upwork, Guru, People Per Hour, etc.) and marketplaces are wonderful in many ways, they also come with some inherent risks. One of the most significant risks is whether or not people are who they claim to be. I would sleep better at night if these platforms would start to vet employers and job postings more carefully. Every single time that I’ve been approached with first contact in a way that took me off of the freelancing platform, it was a scam and a hoax.
And every time I was strongly encouraged to engage with the scammer off-platform, it was to communicate via Skype. So I’m really starting to get weary of even being on Skype at all. Actually, first the scammers contacted me directly through email, then they asked me to meet them on Skype.
Now that I think of it, it probably is not a good idea to allow just anyone to have access to your email address and phone number! So I personally am going to start being a bit more choosy as to who I give that information to off of these types of platforms…
To summarize my point here: genuine, real, honest employers will not hesitate to do business with you and correspond with you directly on the freelancing platform itself.
Every time I ran into a scam or fake client, it appeared that they had invited tons of other freelancers to apply to their “job”.
This by itself should be a red flag for all of freelancers out there! If you receive an invite and you are one of 80 other invites (or however many) that the “client” has sent, chances are they are going fishing for an unsuspecting victim. I mean… really ?? If I had a project that I was posting on a freelancing platform, with a general idea of who I’d like to work on it, I wouldn’t be sending a mass mailing of invitations out. Legitimate employers tend to be a bit more choosy about who they want to work on their projects, and typically send invites to freelancers they have worked with in the past.
A real-life example:
I ran into a con artist recently who had invited to apply to a job on Guru. I went ahead and responded to the invitation by taking time out of my day to craft a proposal. I spent a good amount of time on it too. It turned into a fiasco.
First of all, it should have been a warning for me right away when I saw this guy’s project listing:
Yes, believe it or not, I saw that he had already invited literally 83 other freelancers to apply to his ‘job’. And I still went ahead and submitted a proposal anyway.
Here’s what happened next:
A day or two after I submitted my proposal the ‘client’ (I’ll call him Jake to protect his privacy) responded and asked to set up a time for a meeting.
This sounded promising, so I responded through the Guru messaging system, providing a few different time/day options that would work for me. I asked him to confirm what works for his schedule. Then I waited about two weeks, received no response or confirmation regarding our meeting, then decided to give up on the job.
Then one day I happened to check my Skype account for a change and – lo and behold – someone had contacted me there. This person had waved at me with a big yellow smiley face, saying Hi to me. The only problem was, I had absolutely NO idea who this person was.
So in my confusion, I asked him what he was contacting me about. He then proceeded to chastise me for not remembering him, and claimed that we had a meeting set up. When I proceeded in my confusion and explained that I didn’t recall ever setting up a meeting with him, it finally dawned upon him that I didn’t recognize him because now he was using a totally different name.
My potential employer “Jake” had now turned into “Harry” (which is another false name I’m using to protect his already fake identity). Wow.. this was rich. He can’t even keep his identities straight and gives people a hard time about not knowing who he is… !
Anyway, after asking me some questions about myself and the nature of my work and business, my newfound friend Harry started probing into whether or not I freelance on Upwork: 
I didn’t respond to that right away and asked again “what project is this for?” To which he responded by asking me again if I work on Upwork.
OK … I’m starting to get a bad vibe here. But unfortunately I’m still not getting the whole picture and proceed to chat more and divulge details about my background, skills, work history, etc.
Then finally I guess he got tired of my cluelessness and just came out with it. He wasn’t from the US and explained how if I let him work off of my freelancing account he will give me a percentage of what he makes as a freelancer.
To which I promptly responded that it would be “highly unethical and the answer is no.”
Then he sent me the frowny face emoji… but no “sorry to waste your time” or anything like that. I had spent 45 minutes going back and forth with this character. Unbelievable.
However, there are plenty of real legitimate clients out there who use freelancing platforms. Here is a screenshot from a genuine job posted by a real client – note that this person only invited 1 freelancer to apply to the job:
Just days after my run-in with Jake (or Harry – whoever that dude is), I received another job invite from a fake client from Denmark. This time I did not respond in any way, and noticed that he had also invited many many other freelancers to apply. And it’s a good thing I didn’t submit a proposal because a few days later I received an alert from Guru saying how that job was pulled from their platform for violating the platform’s rules.
Another real-life example:
About a year ago I encountered a scammer on the freelancing platform People Per Hour. This came back to mind as I was having that Skype conversation with Jake/Harry. It all sounded way too familiar. That one happened to be from China. But basically everything else was the same. Chatting me up, asking me to communicate with him via Skype, being really nice… and generally wasting a lot of my time.
After I finally asked him what in the world he wanted, he started asking if I was on the Upwork platform. He then came right out and told me “I posted fake job, coz I cant tell the truth in pph”. Hmm… Ok …
In retrospect, I wish I had remembered this interaction and took it to heart when it happened. If I had I would have been able to spot a Jake or Harry a mile away. But my nature is to trust and try to see the good in people, which isn’t always a good thing I suppose.
I for one am going to start being much more careful about who I virtually interact with. I’m getting really tired of taking time to craft and refine proposals to fake jobs. It’s horrible that this happens to often to good people who just want to work.
Be very careful with freelance gig postings that ask for free or very cheap work.
It isn’t a good sign if it states in the posting or job description something like “when sending your proposal, include a mock-up and wireframe of your proposed website layout.” OK hold it right there! That’s either a sign of a scam or a really inconsiderate employer if someone is asking you to do work that extensive — merely to apply to their job. And coming up with a whole layout and website concept and setting it up in a wireframe is a lot of work. I imagine it would be easy for someone with less-than-stellar morals to take your ideas and run with them. And you would never hear from them again.
No thanks…
(I’m not making this up – I have seen postings just like this).
Lately I’ve been noticing a lot of freelancing listings that seem at best shady and at worst are borderline illegal. This type of “employer” will state that their budget is very low, but there’s a good chance of “ongoing work” in the future. 
This particular job might be legitimate, but I’ve just seen way too many of these types of jobs listed, so I’m skeptical here. Generally speaking, I would advise against practically giving away your professional services on the promise of “future” or “ongoing” work.
That work might never materialize in the future.
I saw a posting just last week that went something like this:
“We are a new startup company so we will not be able to pay you at first, but we would like you to be with us for the long haul. We can give you a share of the profits in the future.”
Please, please do yourself a favor and stay far away from any job that begins with a statement like that!
Don’t allow yourself to fall victim to a scam. Be more aware and wary of the jobs or gigs that you’re applying to, and watch for warning signs such as:
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- the job/project posting contains almost no details, requirements, scope or other descriptive information. With that fake job from China I recall now that his job posting literally consisted of “I need a website.” In my opinion – even if a job is a real, legitimate one, if the person posting the job can’t even be courteous enough to include at least minimal details about what’s required – this sends a LOUD and clear message about what kind of employer they might turn out to be.
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- the person posting the job has invited LOTS of other freelancers to apply.
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- scammers will often send you an invite and then try to initiate contact with you, even if you did NOT respond yet to the invitation. This was the case with the scammer from Denmark that I encountered. He sent me a direct email, which I ignored. The email is often cryptic, vague and very short (in my case the Denmark dude’s email just said “Hi Angela” and that’s it.) This is a common tactic that I’ve experienced several times, and is used in the hope that you will take the bait.
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- if you do fall for the scam enough to engage them in conversation, the fake client might ask you lots of questions about yourself but will offer up very little about themselves. Often they won’t have details about or even reference the ‘job’ itself. Sometimes they even forget they invited you to their “job” in the first place.
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- scam artists are usually looking for individual freelancers and NOT agencies. So they’ll try to get that information out of you too.
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- avoid job postings that ask you to pay to apply. You should never have to pay to apply to a project or job.
One more word of advice:
Lately I’ve witnessed an upsurge in the number of Upwork notices coming into my inbox that say something like “An Upwork Plus client wants to chat about their project.” First of all, I’d like to note here that these requests have not been accompanied by an actual (established) project. The details are almost nonexistent and the inquiries that I’m seeing are vague and are along the lines of “I’m interested in working with you in a long-term partnership”.
And secondly – these types of “job requests” by interested “clients” have all turned out to be fake.
I recently made the mistake (yet again) of allowing myself to be immediately taken off of the freelancing platform to communicate with a complete stranger.
To reiterate: just to be on the safe side, try to keep all of your messaging and communication with a prospective client ON the platform itself. That way you will be protected; if someone is trying to take advantage of you, they will avoid announcing it directly inside the platform. But if they do have a legitimate job for you, they will be happy to message you inside the platform.
This is part of the response I received from one of these fake Upwork Plus clients:
I’m looking for a reliable person from US who can create & share his/her Upwork account with me to get jobs and share profits.
I was given a false sense of hope by the fact that he’s an “Upwork Plus client”… but perhaps that is part of the overall scheme in how scammers seek to gain trust and are given access to freelancers.
Hey – be careful out there, folks. And remember – if you do run into a fake job or client on a freelancing platform, you can take steps to report them.
Then consider it a life lesson and use your newfound wisdom to get out there and find some real, awesome clients!
Have you ever encountered any clients or jobs that were fake, misleading or downright unethical? Please share your experience in the comments!
