Beware: FreelanceHomeWriters.com
July 1, 2009 by Deb
Filed under Writing Gigs
This letter is printed with permission. I’ve been aware of FreelanceHomeWriters for some time, since I blocked them from my Adsense for placing ads making it look like they were from FWJ. Since then many in the FWJ community have complained about their ads, which are disguised to look like legitimate job ads. After filling out a lengthy application, candidates are informed they have to pay for the service. It appears some of these jobs are showing up in the listings here and for that, I apologize profusely. It should be noted that I neither endorse nor recommend FreelanceHomeWriters.com.
Dear Deborah:
Over the past few months, I have been repeatedly duped by misleading ads placed by www.FreelanceHomeWriters.Com.
Many of the ads that duped me, I found in your newsletter.One person connected with the company is cc-d in this message. The company is some sort of paid subscription service. It attracts people to its sign-up-and-pay page by posting varying help-wanted ads for writers. The texts of the help-wanted ads keep changing . .. sometimes it might be “Article writers needed, $300,” another time “Professional writer needed,” et cetera.
But the posts never state that what is being advertised is a paid subscription service of some sort, not a job and still less a writing job.For your reference, the scammers’ company’s home page is here.
I have wasted hours and hours and hours of time, crafting application/responses to this company’s help-wanted ads, only to receive in response the link to their commercial sign-up–and-pay-page. Obviously, I am not the only victim.
Today, I complained to Craig Newmark of Craigslist about this company. I let the poster cc’d in this e-mail know I was angry over having been victimized in this manner. Obviously, henceforth if I respond to one of their misleading ads, as they know who I am, they will no longer respond to me. So, for the sake of the other recipients of your “Jobs” newsletter, I am requesting that you consider letting those other recipients know of this situation, and encourage them to report the company to Craigslist if and when it makes fraudulent posts in the future.
“Charlie” at the cc’d address sent me messages stating he never intended to deceive anybody, blah blah blah. Funny, that when I told him I wanted an e-mail message from him committing to never again posting a misleading ad, I received no answer. It is not correct to continue to let this company place misleading ads. If they want to post for their pay-to-join service, they should post clearly stating that the “opportunity” involves paying to join the service. The freelance community should join to stop these unethical people from wasting freelancers’ time.
Sincerely,
Scott Rose
Thanks for having our back, Scott.
Thanks for posting this. I recently received an email from them, congratulating me on being qualified to write for them. Or some such. I Googled the company name and came up with all kinds of complaints. I hope Scott is successful with Craigslist; this place is trouble.
Guess I should check to make sure they’re not advertising on my sites. I rarely click on any Google ads about jobs–unless I just feel like clicking to give the site owner a little money.
I also have sent “applications” in, only to get this link sent to me. Glad to know that you are letting your other readers who may not know!
Keep up the good work.
I answered an ad a while back that turned out to be these guys. When I found out they wanted money, I left them alone. I have been getting emails from them ever since.
Thanks for this article. I have come across them often when applying for online writing jobs. I knew right away that they were not legit.
Thanks so much for letting others know about this shameful company.
I now believe that if you get an “@gmail” address you should just forget it. If the e-mail is coming from a business then their e-mail should reflect that. I’m not saying it’s 100% accurate, but if you already suspect something fishy, you should move on if you see an anonymous e-mail address from a business owner.
@Lisa – I use a gmail address and I’m not scammy.
I was finding and applying to several of these postings on my local Craigslist and on job boards too. I am now regularly being spammed by them in my email as well. I have recently sent a complaint to Craigslist about them and flagged them as spam after finding out about them. Nothing seems to stop them though.
I agree. I use a gmail address and I’m absolutely a viable business. So do about 50% of my clients.
Perfect timing. I received an email from Charlie just yesterday. However, the link he provided me does not open up outside of the United States. I went through the back door and it is the one and the same.
I too answered an ad and received a link to this website. I filled out the application: until I got to the part where I had to pay to have access to their website. I now receive e-mails from them constantly, trying to get me to join.
I have come across them several times as well. We must always be vigilant and sharing these stories helps tremendously! Thanks!
BTW—here’s another recent problem I had. I answered a Craigslist ad & ever since I have been receiving bogus e-mails almost all with g-mail accounts. As quickly as I block them in my spam, another one comes along with a different username@gmail.com. I hate that I am on lis smapm list. Is there ANYTHING I can do to stop it? I don’t want to block gmail as I have too many legitimate contacts on gmail.
Thanks.
Geez – my fingers must really be bloated today with all the typos…should read “this spam list.”
These guys are really aggressive…they’re all over Craigslist and other places on the Internets.
Any outfit that wants money from me up-front for ANYTHING…startup kit, ebook, software, disc, lists, whatever…can just go straight to hell. That’s just got “scam” all over it, and there are enough desperate people out there right now that are going for it, I’m sure that “FreelanceHomeWriters” is cleaning up on it.
I agree with all of your sentiments. This place has to be stopped. It’s one thing to advertise yourself as a subscription based job finding service. It’s quite another to place a bait and switch. The problem is, how can Craigslist regulate and ban when they don’t know that many of the ads lead to freelancehomewriters?
I think rather than complain to the job boards, disgruntled parties should complain to the web host. Enough complaints about scams and the host may yank their service. It’ll take some digging though because they registered anonymously.
I agree that gmail is a red flag. Not to say that it is by any means a definite, but if the ad already sounds weird or too good to be true, and there’s a gmail addressed attached, I’d skip it.
Deb:
Maybe I will try complaining to the web host. I sent a complaint to Craigslist but do not expect to hear anything. I just blocked my 400th bajillion gmail address associated to this bogus ad and it is making me nuts! I have all the bocked gmail addresses so that’s a start. I just wish I could stop them but other than blocking gmsil (which I can’t do since so many of my contacts use it) I just don’t know what else I can do. Thanks, all! Hope you are having a great 4th.
Cathy
BTW–like I said mine was in response to a Craiglist listing. The gmail didn’t come up until I received the emails. the reason I knew it was the Craigslist ad is that it had the ad title–Senior Advertising Copywriter (Healthcare) (boise)–in this case in the Subject area.