What is Scamming in Freelancing and Ways to Avoid it?

Scamming is a horrible word in direct freelancing but there are certain ways to avoid it. When there are many earning opportunities on the internet, there is a good chance of scamming too. Daily a lot of freelancers lose their money due to fraudulent activities. If you don’t know freelancing then read this first “What is freelancing”. The main source of providing them this opportunity is direct freelancing i.e. via Social media websites. On the other hand, there is less chance of scamming in direct freelancing. Wanna know the difference between direct and indirect freelancing read this article “Difference between Direct & Indirect Freelancing” Let’s come to business.

How Scammers target innocent people in freelancing?

It is a properly organized way to do fraud to make people fool just for money. Normally, there are two types of scamming in the freelancing world:

1. forcing to invest
2. taking work without any payment

Scamming in direct freelancing by forcing to invest

It is a red signal when anyone asks you to invest some money to earn money. A freelancer must know that the basic purpose of freelancing is to earn not to invest. If you are intimidated to invest before starting any work then there is a good chance of scamming.

Usually, there are different package offers by scammers to start that work. For example, it is said that their company is registered and they have three packages like starter, intermediate, and advanced. Their prices may also vary and according to them after making payment they would be able to give daily work.

However, after getting payment, they run away from the scene and block all contact details. Be aware of them and never invest and be remember that you are there to earn not to invest.

Scamming by avoiding to make payment to freelancers

It is also very common in direct freelancing. A client can take work from you without making any payment. Most of the time they offer you monthly or specific period salary based work. In this scenario, you work for them during that period and after that, they do not pay you. They can either reject your work without any solid reason or make some other lame excuse. They can also even block you.

How to avoid scamming in Direct Freelancing

It is the most important question and obviously, it is not a solution to stop working via direct freelancing. As there are thousands of genuine employers who intend to post their work via direct freelancing like Facebook, Twitter, etc. For instance, there is a group of International Freelancers on Facebook. It is also a fact that many freelancers earn only through direct freelancing as they don’t want to give a fee to other platforms.

There are several signs of scammers and by knowing them we can judge their scams. For example, as mentioned earlier, if an employer forces you to invest money, never do that. Secondly, check the veracity of a client before starting work for them. For example, we can check their profiles and their earlier projects. The posting of content on the profiles of a client is also a good sign to judge their credibility.

Moreover, at the start, we should ask for payment of our work in quick succession. For example, if we are doing article writing then after completing one or two articles, we may ask them to send a payment for that work just for mutual confidence.

Conclusion

It is important to identify scammers to avoid scamming rather than leaving work from direct freelancing. It is a very good way to earn money without involving any other platform. We just have to be careful and a bit of spy work is needed before starting a project in direct freelancing. Be positive and start your freelancing career!!