Getting good-paying jobs is the major goal of any freelance writer. With the availability of platforms like Upwork, Freelancer.com, Problogger, LanreWriter, and lots more, connecting writers with employers has never been easier.
However, while freelance marketplaces are designed to ease the connection between writers and employers, employers with the intention of scamming freelance writers have also been taking advantage of these platforms.
As a prevention, most freelance marketplaces usually mandate that all connections and communication remain on their platform, including employers needing to pay into an escrow before freelance writers commence work on any assigned tasks.
However, Freelancer.com seems to have been a haven for many of these scammers. Why is this so? Well probably because victims are easier to find via the platform and the platform’s customer support are less helpful (based on the experience shared by some victims).
LanreWriter in a previous article narrated how IAPWE requested their new writers to sign up on Freelancer.com while also demanding a fee before they can be assigned tasks.
Similarly, in the article that narrated How I Got Scammed by an iWriter’s Writer: An African Writer’s Experience, the scammer was met via Freelancer.com.
This article was warranted after another scammer tried a similar stunt and reached out to me via email. Probably, they got the email details by posting a job advert that seemed legit but was for the purpose of extracting contact information to get their victims to work for free in disguise.
On January 31, 2025, I received an email regarding an “SM Application” I did not remember to have submitted.
Understanding the modus operandi of these scammers, I decided to play along to see how long they could try to fool me.
After contacting the said Jason McMahon via Google Chat, he narrated what is expected of me, thus:
Hi -----! I hope you are doing well! Thank you for reaching out to us about the social media posting position. We are hiring a few more team members to help us with social media posting and recruitment for our partner brands. Your first task will be helping to outsource job posting for our companies on websites like LinkedIn and Facebook. Each post takes just a few seconds per day and we pay $30 per week for each account, so we are paying you $30 for just a few minutes of work each day. There is no limit to how many accounts you can post with and no limit on how much you can earn in this position. We have team members using this as a part time position where they work an hour or two per week and earn several hundred dollars while other team members work full time and earn several thousand dollars per month. If you are still interested, please let us know and we will send you the details so you can get started. We only have two more openings remaining for this role and will be offering this to the first two people who respond to this message.
In summary, they want you to publish job vacancies which obviously are all probably fake and part of a larger scheme.
First, posting a job on platforms like LinkedIn is free, so, if the tasks advertised by the so-called company are genuine, they should be able to publish the same using their personal or company’s account. Secondly, they are sending a freelance writer to publish a job post seeking freelance writers. Hey! I’m super-available to work, but not with probably scammers, lol.
VERDICT
While Freelancer.com seems to be a genuine platform connecting freelancers to employers, it is flooded with lots of scammers more than can be found on many other popular platforms.
