1) They refuse to make an advance payment.
2) They make an advance payment using Yandex money or Webmoney with protection, while promising to give you the code only after you submit the order. You will submit the order, but your advance payment will most likely go back to the client.
3) If you responded to a job offer on a large portal, and then a potential client writes you a personal message and offers to complete a free test task. Test tasks should be posted for everyone along with the job offer. Otherwise, this is likely a collection of free content: you will do the beginning, someone else will do the middle, and someone else will do the end of the file. And all this is free, in the form of a test.
4) If the client has an urgent order, but at the same time does not have enough time to transfer the money before the deadline. You need to be especially careful with urgent orders. Most of the scammers I came across begged for help with an urgent order. And then disappeared without a trace.
5) Fraudsters usually “ get confused in their statements ”. In other words, they answer questions in a confused manner, and it is difficult to get a clear idea of the project from them. Often, they give you only part of the order because it is, of course, large and urgent, so they give the other part to someone else. They do not care about the quality of the work; they care about speed, so that they can disappear faster.
6) Be especially careful if you are a beginner and your rates are quite low. The lower your rate, the easier it is for you to meet a scammer. They like to work with people who have not yet learned to value themselves.
So, what to do to avoid being deceived:
1) Prepayment, prepayment, and prepayment again. I make an exception only for translation agencies, because they have a different payment system. But I work only with proven BPs that do not offer extortionate rates and almost impossible deadlines. And with direct clin ts, I work only on full or staged prepayment.
2) Be sure to check all the customer’s details that you know. Enter their contacts into a search engine and see what information about them is available online. If your client has deceived people at least once, they will be written about.
3) Many freelance exchanges have special communities or services where you can find out information about customers. 4) Raise your stakes and establish yourself as a professional. Remember: the less you value yourself, the more likely you are to run into a scammer. And vice versa: the more you value yourself, the less likely you are to run into a bad person.
A small note on this point: some people try to establish themselves as professionals by constantly arguing with colleagues and trying to insist on their point of view at any cost. In my opinion, the best way to be known as a professional is to work on the quality of your work. And you need to live in peace with your colleagues. Firstly, it is much healthier for your nerves. Secondly, it is much better to be friends with people than to quarrel with them. And thirdly, there is also such a thing as “networking” or establishing professional contacts. If your colleagues find it unpleasant to communicate with you, they will not recommend you to clients, and it will be more difficult for you to build your client base.
