A New Scam Targeting Freelancers *BEWARE*

If you’re a freelancer, you have to careful when finding private clients. If you aren’t working with a reputable web site, you don’t really know what you’re getting into. Web sites like Upwork.com allow you to find clients to do work for, which can drastically increase your income if you’re proactive about it. So what happens when you find someone who is just looking for a freelancer to scam?

I came across a job posting on Upwork the other day for an accounts payable/receivable job. As a writer, it’s out of my realm, but not something I can’t do. Here is the original job posting that I applied for.

When I received an invitation to interview, I was very excited. The interview was via yahoo messenger, which I found odd. Maybe other people use it, but I’ve always done them through Upwork (Odesk) or Skype. However, I downloaded the app and proceeded. The person who claimed to be the hiring manager asked me some questions about accounts receivable/payable. Thanks to my article writing experience, I knew the answers. I was told I would do training for two weeks at $10 an hour, then I would make a whopping $18.50 an hour. Who could pass that up? I was ecstatic, but at the same time, I felt like something was off. I got the job way too easily. I thought maybe they fire people during the training phase if they don’t do well, so I pushed my concern aside.

I was told the job is through a company called OM GROUP. It’s a legitimate, publicly traded company. I checked them out. My problem was that I had no proof that this person was actually with the company. Before we finished the “interview”, the major red flag was waved. The “hiring manager” told me that I need some software to do the job, but no worries, they would send me a check to buy it. Here’s the kicker, I had to buy it from their vendor. My thought was, if they had a vendor, they could send me the software. Why would they had out large amounts of money to people after a short interview, and hope the money is spent on what it should be spent on? All this happened on a Friday, so I figured I would just call the company’s corporate office Monday morning and ask them myself if the whole thing is legitimate.

I received an e-mail to sign and send back. It was supposed to be the company offer letter. It was some typed up information with a sad attempt at sounding professional with a copied and pasted image from the company’s web site at the top of it. Here is the first page of the letter.

I’m not sure what’s better, the first page or the last. The entire thing was about 4 pages long, and then signed by my superior, Johnny Depp.

While the “offer letter” was eyeroll-worthy, I still wanted to call the corporate office. I called first thing Monday morning. I got about one sentence out about what I called to ask and the lady at the other end said, “Yeah, it’s a hoax. We have IT working on it.” I asked her for her e-mail and sent her what I have, which isn’t much since these creeps use different names and e-mails constantly. I only hope there aren’t freelancers out there that are so desperate for bill money, they’re ignoring these red flags. I got back on yahoo messenger and told off Mr. Depp or whatever his name is. He signed off and probably deleted that account.

The hoax was most likely this: They would send a bad check to buy the “software”. The fake software site would accept the transaction and take the money before the check bounced, taking all the victim’s real money and leaving them in the hole with a bad check. Luckily, I knew better. If you find a similar job, please run far, far away. Spread the word. Not everyone is aware these scams are out there, or they need money so bad they’re hoping for the best until it’s too late. Share this post and make it so these idiots have no one left scam! Stay safe fellow freelancers.

Here is another scam job posting from the same people.