I’ve been chatting on email with a reader, Scott, who is telling me about a massive suck on his freelance writing job application time. It seems that Freelance Home Writers is not getting enough people to fall for their devious Google ads, in which they promise you a subscription to a high-paying freelance writing job list for only $2.95, but then continue to charge your account massive amounts of money, with little actual jobs or listings appearing from the service.
Now, Freelance Home Writers is posting realistic and legitimate-sounding ads on Craigslist. Writers (like Scott) fall for these ads. Scott tells me that they are written quite well, and that they truly appear to be legitimate jobs. “The ads vary. They are credible. Often, they have gotten specific about what is required for supposed articles. The ads would also be specific about an offer.” It is unfortunate that the ads include all these pieces, as these are generally the hallmarks of a real freelance writing job. Scott has also verified this in a later email, “Note that there are no distinguishing hallmarks by which a writer might notice that the fraudulent ads are posted by www.freelancehomewriters.”
Once a writer crafts a cover letter and sends it with clips and a resume (time consuming), he is then spammed with offers to join Freelance Home Writers, and so has wasted much time in applying for a freelance writing job that does not even exist. How very sad and infuriating!
Scott tells me that he is in talks with Craig Newmark of Craigslist about this mess. In addition, he has told me that he has spoken with a “Charlie Wellmore” at Freelance Home Writers. Charlie would not commit to stopping this dubious practice. Scott’s sleuthing has indicated that the hosting service that allows this devious company to continue is www.enom.com.
The Writers Weekly forum offers a post on Freelance Home Writers.
What’s a Writer To Do?
Writers need to be quite selective about the ads that they reply to. Unfortunately, Freelance Home Writers seems to know what pieces make an ad appear legitimate. The only element that seems to be lacking in these ads is a company or author’s name. Unfortunately many legit workplaces choose not to include such information for fear of being inundated with phone calls or visits from those seeking work.
Perhaps it’s time that writers avoid Craigslist? Is it really worth trolling Craigslist for work if they’re not going to deal with these violators? Here is a list of multiple other places where a writer can find freelance writing jobs.
Lastly, any email received from Freelance Home Writers in this manner is a Spam violation, and so it should be immediately forwarded to spam@uce.gov.
