Freelancer.com Scam: What to do to Avoid Being Scammed

Despite painful experiences I’ve had with the site, I can still say that there is no Freelancer.com scam. If there are any employers who scam freelancers through the site, they do not represent the whole site in general.

I thought of sharing some of my experiences on Freelancer.com not to be emo but to share what I’ve learned based on personal experience and hopefully make a difference.

Freelancer.com scam

I’d like to talk about the scam and sham in GAF or Get a Freelancer as it was called before and how you can avoid them. Although I also find work through another major freelancing site, it was in Freelancer.com where I’ve been badly introduced to the world of dishonest people. I am no longer bidding through the site and the issues I’ve encountered happened a few months ago when I started in the site back in July.

1. Test articles

It’s not that all employers who ask for you write test articles are a fake but a majority of them are. If you already supplied sample articles from previously written work, I believe that there’s no need for test articles. Even if the samples show up somewhere on the web, the application letter alone will be more than enough to distinguish great writers from spammers.

In relation to spamming, while many apply with generic applications, I make every application letter as personal as possible. I write the cover letter based on what the project demands. I don’t copy paste a single phrase for all applications. This worked well for me. So when it was my turn to start a writing project, I looked for the same personalized cover letter when selecting people.

As for the test articles, I wrote UAW (Unique Article Wizard) test articles and was told my grammar was bad so it was rejected. A few weeks later upon performing a copy check, I saw my articles posted on an article directory. If it was so bad, why was it not edited and published exactly how I wrote it? The answer is simple. Some employers ask for test articles so they can get as much articles as they can and complete their projects without having to pay for anything. Anyway, I contacted the web master of the article directory site in question and they obligingly took down the articles without delay.

2. Project not awarded

If an employer awards the project, both you and him/her pays Freelancer a fee. If a project holder is not willing to pay a mere sum of $3 to $5 for fees, then there must be something wrong.

3. No milestones

If you intend to work without milestones, make sure that the employer is trustworthy enough. I understand that despite the minimal fees for awarding projects, there are also additional fees just to deposit funds alone whereas, you can send and receive money without fees through PayPal.

But it’s not always like that, I’ve been writing about a scammer in my previous posts. The guy actually had good reviews in Freelancer.com but it was probably only in the beginning. When he asked me to write, he did not award the project, he did not setup milestones, and he did not pay as well. So working with milestones is still most recommended.

4. Delayed payments

Another indication for a scam is delayed payments no matter what the reason. My first taste of this was from the very first project I won by bidding. The person only paid an amount that can pay the Freelancer fees but not the project. I’ve sent numerous follow up emails that were not answered. When she finally did, she was still full of excuses. She never paid me to this day. If I mailed her now, she will still probably write an excuse.

It was only a meager sum. I slapped her with the fact that it wasn’t about the money and I can easily earn the amount overnight taking calls in my previous job. It was the effort I exerted writing. Not to let it go just like that, she’s all over scam reports site now and even if I removed most of them as per her request, there are some sites that do not remove files from their database. Think I went too far? I probably did but it’s the only way I could vindicate myself.

What to do when you’ve been scammed

I doubt if anyone would bother spending time and energy to do what I did, but Freelancer.com can’t do anything much. They only offer arbitration for projects with milestones involved. I’ve reported the fraudulent person I've been talking about numerous times but they didn’t do anything about it. So although I say that Freelancer is not a scam, they still harbor criminals by not removing his account on the site. What most writers whom he also scammed did is to write scam reports about the guy, like I did. I searched for his information recently and there are new scam reports about him. He’s still at it.

In case you’re interested to do what I did, submit the unpaid articles to various websites online long before the scammer does. In that way, you can report the copied content once he or she does post them online. Also, even if it was already published online, you can still do something about it. See previous post about Google copyright infringement.

Despite several issues, Freelancer.com had still opened doors of opportunity for me. I have met wonderful people in the freelance writing world for whom I continue to work for to this day. I’m sure you’ll experience the same thing if you put to mind some of the reminders mentioned earlier. These will help you in distinguishing scammers from the genuine providers.