An unfortunate side to internet freelancing is the presence of scams. The scams seem to bombard freelancers from every corner of the net. The truth is, scammers are hard at work trying to steal every bit of money they can get their hands on. They use flashy websites, videos, and other forms of online promotion to make themselves look as legit as possible. There are simple and easy ways to avoid online scams.
Online Scams: How Freelancers can recognize scam websites
Scam websites are usually very typical. It's usually one page that looks like a bad template, plenty of bold and red over-sized text, yellow highlighting on words, flashy red text, and seems to go on forever. Scroll down to the bottom and there will be a box that wants information such as a name and email address or even a phone number.
Even if a website does not look like a scam site, proceed with caution. Scammers are getting wise to the fact that people are now able to recognize them and are making more legit-looking websites.
One of two things will happen from this point. Either they will sell the provided information to various companies that sell marketing lists or they will make an unauthorized transaction from a debit or credit card that may have been provided to them via the registration process, or both.
Online Freelance Business Scams
Craigslist is a hotbed for all scam activity. Many freelancers post in the services section and many scammers respond to those posts. What's worse is that newer ones are popping up every day. So while most freelancers may have all of the common scammers' emails thrown into the spam folder, these people are working hard to recruit more scammers, often promising victims of poverty from foreign nations a lot of money that they'll never see in order to get them to further their schemes. They'll use email hoaxes and similar phishing scams to try to obtain sensitive information.
Criagslist scammers typically use phrases such as:
- "This website is great! I made $xxxx! It's amazing! You must try it!"
- "Did you lose your job?"
- "I am interested in your services, may I please have your phone number?" – Notice how they offer no specific or relevant information regarding what they want other than a phone number.
- "Are you looking to make money? Try x."
The list continues to widen as scam artists find more and more creative ways to try to scam small business owners. They even go on the other side of the track and post in the jobs section.
The following elements are red flags for scam ads:
- Ads promising more than the going rate
- Ads that require paid registration at an external website
- Ads with very little detail regarding the nature of work and/or pay
This type of user-misconduct is not just limited to craigslist but can occur on social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and Myspace. These sites all have their own ways of dealing with this issue. Unlike Craiglist, social networking sites have an authority figure that is easier to access, therefore making it easier to report these scams.
Online Scams Want Money
Scam artists either make money by selling private information or by stealing money directly. Keep an eye out for these types of scams.
Some helpful ways to avoid scams are:
- Look for the red flags mentioned above
- Never sign up for a website that requires a paid registration or a "membership fee". There are dozens of free websites for freelance jobs.
- Use "captcha" images on any forms on a business website
- Never respond to offers for bank account transfers or wiring money. People from foreign countries such as Nigeria have been using these email scams for years to try to obtain sensitive information.
Reputable Freelance Websites
There are several reputable freelance websites that offer legit opportunities.
Some of these sites are:
- Odesk.com
- elance.com
- rentacoder.com
- scriptlance.com
While these may be some of the more popular websites, there are also some websites that aren't as popular that may offer freelance opportunities with less competition. Be sure to search for each new website using Google to be sure that the website does not have a negative reputation.
Online Scam Reporting
Victims of internet crimes can contact the Internet Crime Complaint Center for assistance.
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