Should We Just Avoid Craigslist for Freelance Writing Jobs?
Saturday June 27, 2009
I've been speaking on email with a reader, Scott, who is furious about Freelance Home Writers (yes, THAT Freelance Home Writers, with the supposed $2.95 jobs list). Apparently, they've got a new scam that all freelance writers should be aware of. Once you read that article, come on back here to the blog and let me know if there's anything additional that freelance writers can do to thwart this scam.
I answered a Craigslist ad for a senior copywriter (healthcare) and have been buried ever since in spam/scam emails–almost all with a gmail address.
They all had the Craigslist Ad Ttile on the Subject line. As quickly as I block them, another one comes with another gmail address. I sent a com[laint to Craigslist. I don’t know if it would do anything to write to gmail. I have the gmail address accounts. It’s driving me nuts!
The end of that article is right on point: AVOID CRAIGSLIST. I have never, ever heard of anyone getting anything wonderful from there, jobs or otherwise. As far as I’m concerned it’s nothing but a list of bogus ads. I’ve only ever been there once and I thought it was a joke site based on what I saw. It’s scam central. Run, run far far away…
Craiglist lists many awesome, lucrative and legitimate opportunities. I wouldn’t recommend boycotting or avoiding Craigslist. That’s sort of like treating dandruff by decapitation.
Scott also reached out the the FWJ community and as I told them, unless the wording of the ad is particularly spammy, there’s not a whole lot Craigslist can do. However, if all freelance writers complained to Freelance Home Writers’ web host and complained, they might yank their service.
LOL at the comparison. In reality, it’s those spammers that should lose their heads:)
I’m not sure about total avoidance either. I’m trying to remember if I’ve ever got any legit jobs from Craigslist, and I THINK that one of my regular magazine gigs was first through Craigslist… OTOH, there’s so very many job lists out there, I could probably spend enough time on others without purposefully avoiding Craigslist, but avoiding it all the same.
I think another good practice for the writing community to do is POST PUBLICLY any listings that end up in spam.
Here’s one that we THINK is a spammer, as someone at the PayingWriterJobs listserv said they applied to it and have got spam ever since. As far as I can tell, there is no Tony Walker or Debt Relief LLC. That’s just with a cursory Google, though.
Writer / Proofreader
———————————————————-
Reply to: job-byprq-1254291978@craigslist.org
^[Errors when replying to ads?
]
Date: 2009-07-05, 12:08PM EDT
“Hello and thank you for your interest in this post. We are a local
business in Providence and are looking to hire a couple of writers. You
will be required to write articles ( 500 words ) on various subjects.
Research online will be permitted beforehand so you can gain some
insight into the subject you’ll be writing about. Proofread company
documents as necessary.
Tony Walker
HR Manager
Debt Relief, LLC.”
* Compensation: $13.50 – $17.85 / hour DOE
* Telecommuting is ok.
* This is a part-time job.
* This is a contract job.
One of my very best clients came from a Craigslist ad. My specialty cam get pretty technical but even at that I ran a lot of questions by him and then did the research before I moved forward.
But then the ad I mentioned above was directed at my specialty & sure sounded legit. It’s only resulted in tons of spam but that’s probably because I delete their responses and don’t click on any of the links.
I’ve always said if these people would use their creativity & brains for something meaningful, we could solve a lot of the world’s problems.
I found a decent contract job on Craigslist! It was for a technical position though and not writing. I imagine that writing attracts more than it’s share of scammers. I was glad I found that job on Craigslist. If you’re afraid of scammers set up a junk mail account.