If you’re new to freelance writing, not only can it be hard to tell a legitimate job from a scam, it can be downright impossible. This is because online freelance writing job scams are evolving. Like all criminals, the bastards behind them evolve as more and more people adapt to their methods. So how can you protect yourself? How can you prevent being taken advantage of? The following are three ways to do it.

1. Find contact information: You should not only search for it, but also try to contact the company through the methods they provide.

While many companies post anonymously on sites like Craigslist to avoid being bombarded by job applicants, sometimes a legitimate company will contact you to at least acknowledge receipt of your materials if you apply.

Scam companies, on the other hand, may contact you with “offers”, for example, sign up on our membership site for just $2.95/month; Sign up to get job opportunities delivered right to your inbox for just $1.95/month. Once they have access to your account, they will generally debit your account between $40 and $97 per month or more, every month.

2. Look for details: Speaking of submitting materials, scam companies operate on both ends of the spectrum, either asking you for specific things up front or asking for very little. It all depends on what your scam is.

Some want free content, so they can request “original” writing samples; others want money, so they will only ask you to submit specific (scant) information so they can get your contact information and spam you later with their scam offers.

3. Bulk content requests: If a company contacts you with a large content request and you don’t pay a certain percentage up front, it’s probably a scam. His game is to get free content.

I am an SEO writer. One day, I received an email from a company that wanted 40 articles. I don’t remember what I was on. They provided me with a list of keywords and asked when I could complete the order. I said within 3 days and that we require a 50 percent deposit to get started. They resisted; I walked.

Many times, companies will say that they will pay you after you have completed a certain number of articles. Only you’ll never hear from them after you’ve delivered the initial content.

There are more ways to spot online freelance writing job scams, for example, if they ask for money for job offers, or if they ask you to send “original samples” without payment, etc. Just do your due diligence and if it doesn’t sit well with you, for whatever reason, go for it. Do not convince yourself of something. Your subconscious is at work here. listen to it