How do you know whether a client is genuine? This question is quite tricky. There is no denying the fact that there are a lot of people in the freelance industry who deceive others under the guise of a freelance work. It is important to know what kind of scams are going on in the freelance industry and how to cope with such kind of clients who want to cheat from the very beginning. So it is of utmost importance to know whether a client is genuine or not.

I have long been working in the freelance industry and I got deceived by different persons. Then I devised some rules which have always been in this article, we are going to highlight some of the most commonly used traps to deceive freelancers. In the later part of the article, we are going to discuss the tactics, using which we can do away with scammers on freelancing websites.

Types of Scams on the Internet

• You worked for someone and that person does not pay you
• You worked as per requirements and client says you did wrong and does not pay
• Client award you a project and takes you out of freelancing website and does not pay later
• Unknown person contacts you via email and offers a fake opportunity
• Unknown person contacts you via social media and offers an opportunity
• Boys receive an email from a girl asking for friendship or Vice Versa

Legitimate Work Opportunities

• It is not fraud if someone offers you network marketing opportunity
• It is not fraud if someone offers you network affiliate marketing opportunity

Types of Unethical Works

• Spamming: If a client asks you to work for him and send unsolicited messages or emails.
• Ghost Writing: It may surprise you but, it is unethical because a wrong person takes credit.
• Academic Writing: If someone hires you to write assignments or projects of students.
• Fake Product Reviews: If someone hires you to write a product’s review, it is also unethical.
• Posting Ads on Different Website: It is similar to spamming. It is against the terms of use of websites to promote a product or service through posting ads to the wrong places.

How to know if a Client is fake or genuine

Before starting work with a client on freelancing websites, do check the complete profile of the client. Past history and payment method verification is an important indicator, which shows the reliability of the client. If it is possible, ask the client to submit the total or partial amount of the job to freelance website or some other reliable entity.

You can also ask the client to pay a small amount of money in advance. This is best to check the sincerity level of the client. If a person posts a job on a website, you apply for that job, and that person immediately hires you and asks you to start work immediately; chances are that person can be a fraud because such kind of persons does not pay later. After reading this article, I hope you are now in a position to guess whether a client is genuine or now. Thank you for reading! For more information, please visit the following article:

How to avoid scams on Upwork and Freelancer