Once you have decided to dive into the wide world of freelance writing there are a few things you might need to know to protect yourself, your new business enterprise, against all of the tricksters and criminals out there in both the United State and foreign countries that will likely at some point or other try to get some of your creative services for free through the employment of some act of fraud. The first thing to remember is even the brightest and cleverest of us can fall for a scam. The people can be extremely smooth and often have developed an extensive and elaborate on line presence to trick freelancers into submitting work which no payment will ever be forthcoming.
Freelance Scam Prevention
When an freelance ad sounds like an interesting business opportunity and association for your freelance enterprise and you choose to respond to it by submitting your resume data or similar freelance business information it is important to use care to verify that the potential business in fact and truth exists.
Ask the freelance job poster to identify the name and address of the business that will be paying your fee for services. Verify that there is a business existing under the name and address you are given and take a moment to telephone the individual who is the business contact concerning collection of your creative services. If an on line client won’t give you this information or you can’t verify the information they have given you immediately drop them from your potential client list. “Confidential employers” may be scammers just waiting to collect your hard work, edit it, and use it for free.
Always check a potential freelance business contact’s email correspondence data to determine if the IP address sending you that freelance business opportunity is the same name and address being used to connect with you. Scammers are highly skilled at creating an online business façade on line which appears very legitimate in order to readily repeat the scam again and again on others. Often a scammer’s IP will turn out to originate from a foreign country. Take a moment to file an online complaint concerning this type of scammer with the Fair Trade Commission in order to help stop the scammer from harming other freelance writers.
Work for hire contracts concerning large freelance projects may appear to offer a great job opportunity but be careful to make sure you verify the name and address of the contractual employer before submitting work to them. A valid work for hire contact must state at minimum the name, address and telephone number of the employer. Beware; scammers often use fake contracts to gain the confidence of the freelancer and trick that individual into to submitting creative work for which contractual payment will never materialize.
What to Do If You’ve Been Scammed
First of all it is important to know that no matter how smart you are, no matter how high level your business savvy and street smarts may be, we all can fall for a cleverly laid scam. Patch up your wounded ego and begin to develop the scheme to stop them from using the same scam on others and potentially recoup your business loses.
1. Call your State’s Attorney General’s office to report the scam to the consumer protection and fraud division. Remember, a scam involving consumer fraud is a crime. The only way to stop these scams is to report them your State’s policing authorities.
2. Determine if your State has consumer protection laws under which you may write the scammer a formal letter demanding payment for your services and then file a complaint in your local small claims court based on that letter asking for a judgment against the scammer.
3. If you believe the scam involved violations of federal copyright laws, misuse of the mail, or federal law regulating the use of the internet then it would be important to file a complaint for criminal investigation at www.ic3.gov. The Internet Crime Complaint Center access the investigative forces of the FBI and the NW3C or the National White Collar Crime Center and the Bureau of Justice Assistance.
4. With that small claims court judgment in your hands hire a collection attorney to secure full payment of the judgment against the scammer. An attorney can often hold the scammer responsible judgement collection legal fees.