Table of contents for Scams
- Scams and Cheats at oDesk
- A New Scam
Well, I’m upset again. Someone is messing with my marketplace. And what’s worse, it is likely they will nail some new users with their scam, ruining what should be an exciting first job and driving hopeful, new-to-oDesk writers away.
How it works
The job asks for writers to do a sales letter. It offers some fixed price that’s attractive to newbies. So far, nothing special.
But then the interviews start. It turns out that this buyer wants you to work on commission, to ‘prove’ your sales letter works. He/she offers you a commission based on leads and sales for the letter. Again, suspicious, but not unheard of.
I have to interject here that working for a percentage of future sales is against all my instincts, but, since this is targeted to new providers who are looking for any job to get started, it might be attractive to them.
Something smells
The first real stink of ‘this is a crook’, comes when the buyer suggests that working for commission means that payment can be made directly, cutting out oDesk and oDesk fees. Someone so willing to cheat oDesk is showing you his true colors- bile green and vomit yellow.
The second and convincing tip-off is that to increase the effectiveness of your sales letter, he suggests/demands that you market it online yourself by posting on forums, chat rooms and sending it out to all your email contacts. At this point, an experienced provider will say, “No thanks. I am a writer and I don’t want to be your sales rep.”
Unfortunately, I fear that someone new to the freelance community might go for it.
What’s going on
Plainly, it’s a new sort of multi-level marketing ploy. Get someone to write copy for free and then recruit them as a shill for your ‘product’.
I wouldn’t mind it except that these folks are impersonating real buyers and soon, if they follow their typical herd instinct, wonderful oDesk will be clogged with other multi-level marketers copycatting the technique.
The only way to nip it in the bud is to turn it into a method that doesn’t work for them. If you spot this happening, post a message explaining what’s going on in the message board for the project. And let oDesk know when a buyer wants to do an end-run around the legitimate process.
By the way, the ad that had a fixed price of a million dollars seemed a bit scammy too, but at least it was obviously an ad. I only hope that oDesk keeps a tight lid on bogus job postings and keeps my marketplace on the up and up.
If you’ve been burned by a bogus job on oDesk or another site, let me know about it and I’ll post it here on the blog.
I agree with Bill, if you’re a writer you want to leave the sales jobs to sellers and put your efforts toward the writing jobs. You’ll be much more successful that way.
Also, and we can’t stress this enough, never deal with anyone who wants to work around oDesk’s or any other site’s established payment systems.