Just got scammed

D

DavidM19

BANNED
Sep 15, 2010
169
18
I freelance to make money off to the side. These last two weeks I have been working for an outsourcing company writing articles. I wrote over 90 articles for them, and I was told that they would pay me yesterday. I've never had any problems before while freelancing and I've always been paid on time so I guess I didn't expect to be scammed.

But sure enough I logged into skype yesterday and they've blocked me, I have rent to pay and school to pay for as well, I have enough money saved up that I'll be fine but still I'm ticked. Most of the articles that I wrote were over 1,000 words, some up to 3,000.

I have a few of their emails and their skype ID. Now I know this isn't a place to ask to do anything malicious to them but this is a blackhat forum, any advise on things I can do to them? I worked for them exclusively this last week so I'm out of a whole weeks pay which really sucks.

Or if anyone would like to tell me to suck it up and walk it off please do so. I got dumped by my girlfriend recently and she just got engaged to some other dude, I'm dating someone else now but this was not a hit that I needed right now.

Thanks guys.

Note: I didn't meet them on this forum nor am I calling anyone out, just wanted to set this straight this isn't a post for the shit list.
 
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DavidM19 said:
I freelance to make money off to the side. These last two weeks I have been working for an outsourcing company writing articles. I wrote over 90 articles for them, and I was told that they would pay me yesterday. I've never had any problems before while freelancing and I've always been paid on time so I guess I didn't expect to be scammed.

But sure enough I logged into skype yesterday and they've blocked me, I have rent to pay and school to pay for as well, I have enough money saved up that I'll be fine but still I'm ticked. Most of the articles that I wrote were over 1,000 words, some up to 3,000.

I have a few of their emails and their skype ID. Now I know this isn't a place to ask to do anything malicious to them but this is a blackhat forum, any advise on things I can do to them? I worked for them exclusively this last week so I'm out of a whole weeks pay which really sucks.

Or if anyone would like to tell me to suck it up and walk it off please do so. I got dumped by my girlfriend recently and she just got engaged to some other dude, I'm dating someone else now but this was not a hit that I needed right now.

Thanks guys.

Note: I didn't meet them on this forum nor am I calling anyone out, just wanted to set this straight this isn't a post for the shit list.
Click to expand...

That's why freelancing sucks ass sometimes, clients can burn the workers just as much as the workers could burn the clients. My very first job on Elance was actually a fail, I wrote multiple articles but he had insisted that I send them over Skype (which I did). Elance sided with him during the dispute due to lack of evidence on the site itself.

Cut your losses, like the other person said share the articles (or even try to sell them off at DigitalPoint) before the client can make use of them; that is if they haven't already.

- A
 
do what lord said and create a site and put all of the articles on it and get it indexed then message the person and tell them you want the money now or you'll share the articles.
 
Well, if he uses them, you know how to find his websites. While I'm not a fan of neg SEO, scamming might be a good reason for someone to deserve it. You should try to contact him again and insist to send you the payment, because if you share the content or discover all of his websites he could lose more than he "won" by scamming you. I'm not saying to blackmail him, just present him what he's risking by deciding to scam you.
 
This is easy, so here's what you do, go on fiverr, they have lawyers there in the US, they basically give advice so they can buy starbucks.

So you tell them your situation, tell them to write a legal letter with the scammers recipient address, demanding the amount owed to the client (you), in 14 days or further legal actions will be taken.

You'll see your balance restored to what you were meant to get.
 
Oy, that really sucks.

Where did they hire you?

For future reference, you should really require payment at the halfway point.

And never put all your eggs in one basket. Meaning, you should always have other projects going so that even if one falls through, you still have other income coming in.

For this particular guy, you could certainly use these articles elsewhere. After all, he didn't pay you for them, so you still own the rights. Put them up on a website of your own or resell them to someone else.
 
Numbuh362 said:
do what lord said and create a site and put all of the articles on it and get it indexed then message the person and tell them you want the money now or you'll share the articles.
Click to expand...
This is actually brilliant :) Nevermind what I said, do what he said :)
 
Haha thanks guys, yeah that's what I'm doing uploading the articles onto a website right now. I don't know if I'll be able to get them to respond though, I've been talking to a computer whiz buddy of mine about ummm doing some stuff ;)

I doubt I'll get my money but lesson learned, from now on I take half up front instead of taking some at midpoint. I'm also no longer going to use stuff like Elancer, from now on I'm posting my offers on forums (not here, the articles are way under priced here, although sometimes I wonder about the quality).

I still can't believe it though. I feel stupid, I was so excited to get paid too, haha lesson learned though. I'd have no problem doing neg SEO to their sites except for the fact that they don't own the sites I wrote for, instead people just outsource to them, I am trying to figure out how they get their clients though and I'm going to see if I can't cause some trouble for them.
 
Make sure not to remove the original articles from your HD or edit them in any way. Open Explorer and take a screenshot of the creation date (using details view) of the original files. Get a copy of a DMCA notice as soon as you find the articles anywhere online and be sure to send the screenshot along with it. You can do this to the agency even before they go live, but instead of a DMCA notice, make it a small claims action letter. If you've ever screenshotted a hospital letterhead to get out of a days work then it should be easy enough to "find a lwayer".

PS. What I do is post all of my finished freelance articles in a blogger blog as drafts as soon as I write them. It gives me date proof, and an easy way to get them posted in one click two seconds after payment is due but not recieved. All of my articles on this blog have a fotter that explains that I am a freelancer and never got paid on this article. I support good business practices. If you support good business practices, I would like to do business with you. (link to writing order page).
 
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Why in the WORLD would you write 90 articles without collecting money?????

Freelance doesn't mean work your ass off and hope to get paid. Sounds like a costly learning experience.

As people mentioned post all 90 articles on a site and ping/tweet/FB share and +1 the shit out of them. Install WMT and have Google bot fetch every single link. Then send them a email and tell them to suck it.
 
Damn, Nothing to say. Just sorry.

I suggest you to take advance payment before you start. Better Be the Jr.VIP & make a sells threads here so you will not be scammed. You can also do in oDesk.
 
Why in the WORLD would you write 90 articles without collecting money?????

Freelance doesn't mean work your ass off and hope to get paid. Sounds like a costly learning experience.

As people mentioned post all 90 articles on a site and ping/tweet/FB share and +1 the shit out of them. Install WMT and have Google bot fetch every single link. Then send them a email and tell them to suck it.
Click to expand...

This is a very good question, one I've asked myself a few times.

The problem was I've just never had this problem before, I've always been paid on time by previous clients no problem. I got lax and just figured why not.

But yeah, I sure learned my lesson, it was a costly lesson to learn but at least I've got money saved up so that won't be a problem.
 
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