With freelance web design comes a sort of fierce protectiveness of your time, money, and business. Although there are many advantages to it, there can also be downfalls. Enter the web design and writing job scams. They happen here just like they happen to anyone looking for work on sites like Elance, oDesk, and of course, Craigslist. These types of scams aren’t just announcements that you’ve won the Nigerian lottery or that a stranger you’ve never met is in love with you. These are actual approaches for work that turn out to be bogus. So how do you spot them? Read on.
1. Phone/Texting Scam
This is the worst. Yes, we have a phone number listed on the site for legit clients only. However, we get harangued on a daily basis by telemarketers, which isn’t so bad. It’s a time waster, but it doesn’t cost any money to pointlessly ask them to put us on the no call list.
Unfortunately, we are now getting text messages asking if we are available for work. Is it strange to be texted instead of called? In a word: YES. Anyone who would rather communicate in a written form will send an email or fill out a contact form. Anyone sending a text is someone whose English is not well, i.e. not of this country, i.e. that much harder to get your money back from.
Here’s a sample web design scam text (errors are theirs, not ours):
“This is panny kay I am hearing impaired, can you handle website design for new company and do you accept credit card payment?”
My answer was simply this: “yes, I do accept credit card payments, but under no circumstances will I pay a third party on anyone else’s behalf.”
For the record, the number was listed as (323) 985-3582, aka known as “Patricia Melvin” who has been contacting freelance web designers all over the nation with similar requests.
2. Email Scam
These are slightly harder to spot, since we do get legitimate written requests via email (and contact form) asking for work and quotes. However, the request for credit card information remained the same on the most recent (again, errors are theirs, not ours):
“Hello I am Patricia Marr and i am hearing impaired i need to know if you can handle website design for a new company and i also need to know if you accept credit cards as form of payment ?
i have small scale business which i want to turn into large scale business now and the company is based on importing and exporting of Agriculture products such as Kola Nut, Gacillia Nut and Cocoa so i need a best of the best layout design for it. Can you handle that for me?”
The answer was similar to that of the text message, and for the record, this particular email was from “Patricia Marr” using patriciamarr08@gmail.com.
3. Elance Scam
Some of you may know us by working with us via our Elance Profile, and even though this site uses a sophisticated escrow system to pay freelancers, the scammers still try. They do so mostly by offering standard jobs and claim they are willing to pay above the going rate. Us poor freelancers are left to get hired, turn in the work, then get paid outside of Elance with a bogus check or credit card in return for a money transfer or wire.
This particular work was for a website manager, which is technically a web developer, but we overlooked it. The duties were very broad and didn’t necessarily fit, but we contacted the client with our list of services, and they responded. Long story short, they seemed more interested in the method in which we would be paid rather than what they were being charged, what services they would get, and even what the time frame would be – something that every legit client worries about first.
Even though we decided against being hired by them and told them so in writing, we still received a check from them signed by a “Kennedy Fran’ with the “TEMECULA VALLEY COMMUNITY EDUCATION ALLIANCE” with an email of kennedyfrann@gmail.com and phone number 845-444-6091. The check was written from Dignity Health on a Bank of America account. Out of sheer curiosity, we called Bank of America and confirmed the fraudulence of the check.
4. Phone Call Scam
Thanks to these jokers, we hardly ever answer the phone for out of state calls. No offense to out of state clients, we love them but can’t waste time dealing with all these scammers. They will either call to warn that our business is in danger of being blocked by Google or let us know that we have a large sum of money waiting, if we’ll only call them back at a different number than they are calling us from. We promptly put these numbers on a blacklist, which would fill up about a page worth of numbers, but it doesn’t seem to stop them.
Our apologies if we miss your first call, but if you leave us a voicemail with your info, we usually get back within one business day.
5. Writing Scams
This was probably the most damaging scam, since we actually performed work for this company for weeks before figuring out it was a scam. It was for a dating site for those living in the Netherlands, Belgium, or neighboring countries. Our work was to edit women’s letters to men given their English wasn’t that good. When it was time to be paid, the proprietors of the site used Chase Quick Pay, a legit paying method. However, Chase confirmed they pulled the money out 10-20 minutes after depositing it, and then the employer became angry with me for not receiving it.
If only they were based in America… A hint to men using this dating site: if the woman who wrote you a letter writes English very well, it was us.
6. Future Scams
What will the future hold for scamming? Probably more of the same delivered in an entirely new way. A few rules to remember:
1. If it’s too good to be true…
2. If they care more about getting payment to you than services to themselves…
3. If they ever offer to pay you more in exchange for help with a money transfer…
STAY AWAY!
Freelance Web Design in Houston
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