How to Identify Scammers on Freelancing Sites

Freelancing has become a common employment opportunity in recent times, with platforms attracting millions of freelancers and clients. As with any thriving market, scammers have set out to plunder freelance websites.

What started out as a unicorn event has quickly spread widely and threatens to overwhelm the once-noble industry. Clients are nervous and suspicious, while freelancers work with their hearts in their hands and fear falling victim to a convincing scam. This article describes freelancer scams and how to spot and avoid them. Here’s what to look for:

1. Daring Links

Phishing links have been present on the Internet for many years. Receiving links in messages is fairly common for freelance websites, which makes such scams all the more difficult to spot. However, if you look closely, you should be able to identify them.

Whether it’s a regular customer or a new customer, you can save yourself the heartache by using sites that verify link safety. These pages help resolve shortened links and show each listing’s final destination, so you can tell if you’re dealing with a scammer.

2. Communications with Third Parties

Freelancing platforms typically ask their users to limit their interactions within the confines of the site. However, clients and freelancers have disregarded this rule over time, creating a loophole for scammers.

Although freelance websites provide the necessary communication tools: messaging, text, and video, sometimes users prefer to run their business outside of the platform. Scammers are quick to join the bandwagon by:

• Soliciting engagement outside of the platform: Users are outside the confines of freelance websites without proper protection and oversight. Knowing this, scammers usually recommend interacting through apps and platforms with shady stories like Telegram, Skype, email and more. Once they trick you into interacting on these platforms, you are more vulnerable to their tricks including phishing links, malware and viruses.
• sending files: Like links, files are endemic to freelance sites. Clients would typically send one to freelancers at the start of a project. The latter can only participate by downloading and opening the document. This can be a way for malicious software to get onto your device. And the fact that clients can send documents to multiple freelancers further increases the likelihood of someone becoming a victim. However, you can use email security software to protect your inbox from viruses, malware, and other malicious attacks.
• Poorly worded gigs: If you’ve ever read a phishing email and laughed at the bad grammar, then you’re not their target audience. These messages discourage the more discerning reader from getting in touch with the scammer. While it may be easy to tell these scams apart via email, freelance websites pose another challenge: language barriers. Not every customer is fluent in English, so you can expect the odd grammatical error that unintentionally allows scammers to thrive. So next time you see bad grammar, please treat it carefully.

3. Huge financial incentives

It’s not what you want to hear, but a lot of people are on freelance sites looking for bargains. Can’t you get the graphics shop around the corner to make a design cheaply? Find websites to help you connect with freelance graphic designers. Any freelancer in the industry has known long enough that high-paying clients are often far apart. So if you see any of the following clues, it may be an indication of a scammer:

• Booking high budgets with ambiguous projects: If the client offers an extravagant amount but reveals little to no details about the project, you are most likely dealing with a malicious person. If they don’t provide factual information about the project and their intentions with it from the time you bid on the project until the time you start interacting, be careful.
• Promise payment after gigs complete: The point of a freelance website is to have a third party act as a trustee to ensure both parties – client and freelancer – are doing their part of the deal. So when a customer promises to pay upon completion of an order, roll your eyes and move on.
• Request free trials to prove your worth: There’s a reason freelancer websites allow freelancers to upload samples of previous jobs. Therefore, clients who want to convince themselves of your skills should peruse your portfolio. It’s not uncommon for clients who want a test run from you to disappear after receiving the submission. This means that all your hard work will go unrewarded.

You may also want to see what types of scams are most prevalent on a site like Upwork. This video describes some of them for web developers.

• Promises more jobs across the board: Don’t let anyone talk you into taking a free job or lowering your prices by promising future jobs. Their bills won’t wait until said future, and there’s no telling if these jobs even exist.
• Not verified payment methods: Freelance platforms like Upwork let you review client profiles. One of the most important details to pay attention to is the payment methods. The platform typically uses “verified” or “unverified” to indicate customers who have deposited in escrow or made successful payments in the past. While it’s possible that some new clients who don’t fully understand the platform may have the unverified tag, it’s best to avoid gigging from such accounts.

4. Reviews

Freelancing is based on reviews. The more positive and enthusiastic reviews you get, the better your chances of attracting customers. However, did you know that reviews aren’t always organic?

There is a black market for freelancers and clients to buy reviews. The way it works is that the latter creates a fictitious gig, the former accepts and carries out the process. Then they reward themselves with rave reviews, automatically making clients and freelancers appear more attractive to their respective markets. While there’s no way to tell reviews apart, keep an eye out for new accounts with impressive reviews in a few days of operation.

5. Multiple requirements

Some things automatically make customers appalling, even if they are not necessarily scammers whose main thing is multiple requirements. It’s not unreasonable for clients to expect you to be a writer and editor. However, it’s a red flag if they want multiple unconnected reels at once. So boycott any offer that wants you as an editor, videographer, programmer and aviator in the same breath.

Oftentimes, these clients offer meager wages with the promise of higher incentives upon completion of the job, which is quite odd. Worse, when you try to protest the workload, they come up with compelling reasons why you’re right for the job. Don’t fall for their gaslight. After all, with many requests, they easily slip into phishing links or viruses disguised as files.

Stay safe and avoid freelance scams with these tips

It’s enough hard work being a freelancer without worrying about scammers breathing down your neck every other day. While you might expect these freelance sites to be as tough on security measures as they are keen on their percentage of your income, they seem to only focus on freelancers, while scammers get away with it due to the low barriers to entry for clients.

These are some pointers, gleaned from freelancers’ experiences and how they deal with scammers in their field. If platforms don’t respond with agile measures, you owe it to yourself to stay safe.