So You’ve Been Scammed…

Whenever you work on a contract basis, there’s always the potential that someone will try to take advantage of you. And when that happens – believe me, it will happen – you’ll ether be able to stop them or you’ll be a victim. Careful contract planning, which we’ll talk about later this week, is the key to making sure that you never get scammed in the first place…but it happens to the best of us. Maybe there was a loophole in your contract. Maybe the amount isn’t worth going to court to get back. Maybe the scammers used a fake name and just *poof* disappear. Maybe all three happen at once.

This is how being scammed makes me feel. Image:sxc.hu

Once bitten, twice shy. Today, I’m a pretty wary contractor, but that wasn’t always the case. I like to believe the best in people.

Let me tell you my story:

About two years ago, a few months after I started freelancing full-time (I had only done it part time before that), I got hired to write some articles for $50 a pop. For the length of the article and the number they wanted, that seemed like a lot. I signed a contract to get paid within 30 days of publication, and  got my first batch of 10 titles. I completed them, sent them in for review, and she loved my work – so I took a second batch…and then a third batch.

All of this work was really cutting into my time with other projects, but the money was too good to pass up. At least, it would have been. About two months into the project, the lady who was my contact stopped replying regularly, and then not at all. Soon she sent out a mass email to all of the writers on the project, telling that that no one’s work was going to get published and that no one would be paid. She then closed her email address, so questions just bounced.

Cue Allison’s panic attack.

I found out that she was supposedly shut out also – and that she also got scammed out of a lot of money. Others say that she was in on it. Who knows? To date, none of the articles I wrote have appeared anywhere that I can tell, so the client didn’t actually break the contract. Plus, the contract said that legal claims had to be in a state other than my own, so it would have cost a lot to travel there and try to plead my case. Of course, that’s if anyone could find the guy. He suddenly disappeared and some of the writers who did try to sue reported that he was using a fake name and an address that went to some random old lady’s house.

It was an all-around bad situation, and a lot of writers were hurt even more so than I was. To this day, I’m still not sure what he got out of the scam. He didn’t use or sell our writing anywhere…basically, all he did was waste a lot of people’s time. The only thing I can figure is that maybe he used our writing to show to an investor and stole that person’s money…or maybe he had scam plans that fell through…or maybe he legitimately wanted to start up this business and when it looked like it wasn’t going to work, he ran.

In any case, this whole issue was actually rather publicized in the freelance world. I won’t post old links because I don’t want to dredge up bad feelings for the people involved, and a lot of what was reported was misinformation anyway. I will say this, however: for a few months, I was worried that I wouldn’t survive.  I had counted on that money for rent and other bills.

Here’s how I made it, even in the face of a giant scam:

• I didn’t panic. I allowed myself one day of freaking out, and then I started working on fixing the problem. It helped that my best friend bought me a happy meal and made me go to the park for a walk to calm down. :)
• I re-sold the articles. Just let that a** try to use my work without paying me, I thought. In the meantime, I sold some the articles to another client that I thought could use them (I was right), and I sold some of the others on Constant Content. I still have some I didn’t sell, and I didn’t make $50 a pop on all of them…but some money for them was better than no money for them.
• I contacted the Better Business Bureau and other such organization. No use this happening to other people.
• I emailed past clients and asked if they had any immediate needs. You don’t have to tell them the whole sob story, but many people are willing to throw you a little work if you let them know you need it.
• I took some jobs I wouldn’t have normally taken. If you need the money, suck it up. We all have to, from time to time, no matter what the industry. Do a crap job with a smile on your face instead of getting evicted.
• I gave up some “extras.” No, I really didn’t need to eat out every week. Cutting some costs for a few months helped me make up the money I lost.
• I finished up some jobs quickly and billed clients. If you normally bill people once a month, just let them know that you’re billing them because the work is done, but it isn’t due until the normal date. Most of the time, they’ll just pay it early, giving you the cash you need for immediate bills.

Most importantly, however, I made sure that this wouldn’t happen again. Tomorrow, we’ll talk about how to make sure you have a great contract so that scams aren’t a problem.

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