5 Ways To Separate Scam, Time-Wasting Freelance Clients From The Good Ones On Facebook
A 2014 survey revealed that 50% of the freelancers are able to find work via social media and online networking within three days of starting their freelance journey. One-quarter of the freelancers shared that they find work within 24 hours.
I know what you are thinking there — ‘I couldn’t find work that quickly?’ Or, if you are anything like me, you’re probably thinking that this is an ancient survey.
The truth is, I couldn’t find a more recent survey. And, the other truth is that most of us get burned once or twice as we venture into freelancing.
When I steered through the tricky waters of the freelance life, I began my hunt for gigs on Facebook. I was lucky enough to be scathed only once, but I noticed a lot of people were repeatedly being cheated.
At every turn I took, I came across people complaining that they didn’t get paid or that the client was a waste of time and the project was not worth all the hard work and headache.
However, I’ve always followed some simple but effective ways for separating wheat from chaff. If you are just stepping into freelancing, I’m hoping these steps will help you save yourself from monetary losses and time waste.
So, here goes:
1. Look into the job description
As a rookie freelancer, there is no shame in admitting that we’re all desperate to get started. And, that desperation can quickly translate into impatience, which, in turn, shifts into the reason why we turn a blind eye to obvious red flags.
Therefore, the first step is to go through the job description thoroughly. If the details are vague such as in the example below, there’s no point wasting your time on it.
Even if there is a pretty detailed job outline, read it at least twice and ask yourself if you can honestly handle it.
Apply only if you’re certain that you can handle the work. If you rush and apply immediately, you may get a reply. However, at the end of the day, you will only be wasting your and the employer’s time.
2. Survey the job poster’s profile
Once you are sure that job details are sufficient and you can work on the task, put on Sherlock’s hat and start investigating. Click on the profile of the person who posted the job and look how genuine his profile looks.
Some things to note are:
- The Facebook profile URL: This should match the profile name
- The profile name itself: A full name is a must here. Anything funny or witty such as ‘cute kitty’ is downright unprofessional and the first, screaming sign of scam
- Profile picture and cover photo: A recently updated profile picture and cover photo are green flags. Some may have not updated recently (if they’re like me, they don’t pay attention to uploading a new profile picture every month) and that’s okay. The point is to have a real face in the display picture. In certain cases, the profile picture isn’t that of the person but an actor. Either abort the (application) mission here or take the risk if the profile is otherwise authentic
- Signs of activity: An authentic profile is the one that has some updates on it. It works if the activities are some years old but there should be some genuine activity
- People interactions/Profile engagement: You also need to check out the comments and likes on the poster’s Facebook profile. This will help you get an idea of the personality behind the wheel. You can decide whether you want to apply or not just by getting a glimpse of the person’s activity
3. Note what is required for application
In most instances, there are two application methods suggested. First, we have the DM-me-with-samples option. Secondly, we’ve the email-your-details-here option. And there is nothing wrong with both the options.
The thing to take into account here is the email address given for application. Two things to bear in mind in this context are:
1. The email address should be custom. In other words, it should look like this: xyz@abcconsulting.com.
2. Not everyone is a fan of custom email addresses though. Or, they may simply be gmail fans. So, it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t apply when the email address is not branded. But, it does mean that you give the email address a long, hard look and check that it looks authentic. If it is anything like this: cute_kitty@gmail.com, drop the application plan immediately.
One last thing, don’t waste your time on those who insist on unpaid samples. Your portfolio should be enough for the prospect to decide if your writing is a fit or not.
4. Check the person’s reputation in other Facebook groups
There are multiple Facebook groups where people are constantly hiring freelancers. Here and here are two lists of FB groups for freelancers that you may like.
When looking for gigs, make sure you cast a wide net and expand your presence in not one but many groups. By doing so, you will be able to weed out scammers easily. I’ll give you my example here.
This person, let’s call him Pretzel showed no signs of scam but was a scam anyway. Why? Because, he had:
- An active Facebook page with regular updates
- An active profile that even showed his whereabouts
- An up and running website about travel
So, what went wrong you ask? The dude didn’t pay and was shameless about it. The blog posts on his site were my ghostwritten content and I couldn’t do a thing about it.
Months later, I learned where I went wrong as I was switching through FB groups. One of the groups had Pretzel’s name and the comments on his job post were from other freelancers he cheated with, warning others from applying.
So, who didn’t do her homework? Me! In my defense, I learned a valuable lesson. On your part, search for the poster’s name in multiple FB groups. Here’s where you can do that (marked in red):
5. Conduct some external research
You’re only going to reach this step once you’ve marked off all the other pointers in this scam-check list. In other words, you’ll only do some research once you’ve checked the job poster’s profile, job description, and application methods.
To this end, you need to check out the job poster’s life outside of Facebook. Let’s say, this person A who posted the job claims to work at XYZ branding (company name). Now that you’ve this information, you need to double check it.
Go to LinkedIn and search for the company. Look for its employees to see if this person A really is part of the team or not. Similarly, Google search person A. This should pull up at least something on that person.
Check other social media networks like Twitter for person A as well. One of the other things that I do here is to research the company that person A claims to be part of. You should be able to get the company’s name from three of the following:
- Job poster’s profile in the profile bio
- Job poster’s custom email address that has the company name
- Job poster mentions it in the JD itself
Searching for the client here is pretty much like what we normally do when applying for full-time jobs. Research by LinkedIn also agrees as it shares that 75% of the job seekers research a company before applying.
So, be smart and research before you apply so that you don’t land into a trap set by scammers or time wasters.
Wrapping it up
Each of these steps has allowed me to save myself from folks who are likely scammers. To recap, thoroughly go through a person’s profile details, search for him on other Facebook groups, other social media channels, and Google.
Don’t forget to carefully go through the job description and say no to unpaid samples. Happy freelancing!
