Sep 23 2008
Scam/Spam Warning: FreelanceHomeWriters.com
From time to time on this blog, I intend to provide reviews of places geared toward offering services to freelancers or offering a place for freelancers to find work. Some of these reviews are going to help you find new places for great opportunities, while some are going to tip you off to scammers and spammers.
In this instance, I have found a site that pretty much is both of those things: a scammer and a spammer.
I won’t link to the site, so as to not give them linkbacks, but the name of the site is freelancehomewriters.com. I have seen advertisements and glowing endorsements for this website for a couple of years now, but I have never heard of a real writer making any money from this program. How can these glowing endorsements be real if no one has ever made money from signing up with these folks?
Turns out, they make money through their affiliate program, so those glowing endorsements are only to get people to sign up so the reviewer will make a quick buck.
Here’s what I know about freelancehomewriters.com:
At best, FreelanceHomeWriters or Freelance Home Writers, depending on how they are sending out emails this week - are spammers. At worst, they are scammers.
Here’s my short review Freelance Home Writers:
First, the website looks nice, great colors, professionally done - all well and good, but when you click on more information it takes you to a a really high pressured copy written sales page that is just not what a ‘writer’ would typically see for a business posting job offers for writing. It talks about how much money you can make - how if you write three article per day you can make 10,000 bucks per year - wow oh wow, whatever, and man, just think if you do 8-10 per day - you’ll be rich rich rich.
Yeah, BS. First, most people can’t write quality articles at the rate of 10 article per day every single day. Second, I’m really suspicious that they even have enough listings to cover that many per day for every person who wants to do that many.
So I decided I’d at least give them the benefit of the doubt and check them out before making any further judgments about them. I signed up - something I had to do before I could see job postings, and once I did, I figured I’d be able to see at least a partial listing of jobs.
Boy was I wrong. Instead, once they had my email address (thankfully I use a Yahoo! address just for testing sites like this one so they can’t spam my real email), I was then taken to a screen where I was told that TODAY ONLY! I could get my membership from them not at the high 99.95 they usually charge, but for only 49.95!
They even give a nifty membership card and all that other good crap. You cannot see the job postings unless you pay - so there is no way to see if there is even a job posting.
So I was thinking in my head: SCAM!
So what did I do? I went to read the FAQs and here is #1 listed on their Frequently Asked Questions:
” How do I know this isn’t a scam?
Answer: Absolutely not! We wouldn’t be able to do business online very long if we were only here to blindly take your money and leave you high and dry. We’ve been online for nearly 6 years now and are very proud to be legit!”
First - Absolutely not! didn’t actually answer the question that was asked, but you know - when it comes down to it, any place that has to actively tell you that they are not as scam are, indeed, usually a scam.”
Secondly, they charge a fee without even letting you look at what the site has to offer…
Okay, I wrote this article:
http://freelancing.today.com/2008/09/22/ten-tips-for-freelance-contractors/
Which is about tips for freelance contractors to protect yourself when freelancing, and with the exception of freelance bid sites, no one should EVER pay for a freelance job to the employer themselves. Freelance contract employers pay you - you don’t pay them!
Never ever pay someone money to give you job - EVER!
Then, they offer you special discounts - emails pushing you, and saying that you can do a ‘trial membership’ for a smaller fee - about $1.95-2.95 depending on which email you happen to get (they are different for different folks).
I’ve seen people pushing them and saying they are a great place. I discovered those folks are affiliates who are not actually writers, but are internet marketers out to make a few bucks from your membership sale - so when I contacted a few of them, some were honest enough to admit they never actually used the program - only the affiliate part.
They absolutely SPAM you - and you don’t really even have to sign up with them to get the spam. My fourteen year old son who has his own email and has never signed up for any work from home information received an email from Freelance Home Writers saying he had requested the info.
Uh, no, he didn’t.
I’m also pretty sure they either sell your email address or else they are affiliate marketers too and are sending out emails to the email you use to get more information EVEN IF YOU DO NOT purchase a membership. And most of the emails FROM them have NOTHING to do with freelance writing.
I have a mole who just signed up for the program awhile back who is about to try to take advantage of the 100% money back guarantee.
I’ll update with more info when that is confirmed that they likely don’t give refunds, even though they say they do. I’ll keep ya’ll posted.
For now, they are spammers at best and scammers at worst. Stay away!
You can get free writing leads from multiple places online, including the paying writing leads thread on my free writers forum. You do NOT need FreelanceHomeWriters.com to make a good freelance living!
Love and stuff,
Michy
