Direct Publisher Scams and Frauds

Well folks, I ran into another interesting fraud just yesterday. I was applying for work through one of the job boards I frequent and got an offer about an hour after I finished sending in my applications.

Roughly an hour after sending an email is a good time for a con artist to send a reply. Most scam mailers are set to respond immediately after getting an email and these can be easily disregarded out of hand. But by waiting an hour the scammer gets within the time range of an actual employer and usually the most lucrative of the lot, a harried editor with a deadline hanging of his head. This means he’ll hire quickly and accept any standard of work as long as it has the right tone and takes up space. This is the best type of employer for a quick buck to a writer, so the scammer does a decent job of setting up the mark’s expectations.

When I scanned the email I realized it for what it was. First of all, there was far too much verbiage for a real job offer. A real employer typically gives one or two paragraphs the most, the majority of which entails what the employer expects of the writer. If any assurances are given or pay is mentioned, you should be a little suspicious, though this is not necessarily proof of a scam in and of itself.

Another fault the scammer made was the tone of the letter. It was far too positive and upbeat. Writers are by nature a skeptical and cynical lot. If the tone had indicated that the job was thankless dog’s work, then it might’ve seemed more legitimate.

Certain keywords should also be watched out for. Assurances such as “This is legitimate” or “this is not a scam” should be taken as strong indicators of a conscience trying to justify one’s actions. This means that there is definitely something wrong.

The biggest indicator that I saw was the USE OF CAPS and exclamation points!!! Real employers never do that. Twelve year olds flaming one another on forums do that. Car salesman and bad homemade advertisements do that. Spammers do that. Employers, by dint of being the ones with money and available work in a poor economy, will never be short of employees. The legitimate or decent paying positions need never resort to this tactic.

Despite all this the job itself was well described and not so over-the-top as to be immediately dismissed. Four hours of solid work at the computer each day. Flexible hours but had to be accurate and reliable, as well as html and basic computer function savvy. The pay was a little too high at $20 an hour to seem legitimate, but not so high for even the gullible to turn away from.

When in this situation the best thought to keep in one’s mind is “Where’s the money?” Getting free work out of an employee is typically not enough for someone to set up an employment fraud, so there has to be some way for the employee to get money out of you. I found it in smaller type at the bottom of the message. Upon employment the employee would be under a probationary period where pay would be withheld for a given period. The reason they gave for this is that this job is just one of many that the parent company lists in its patent “Secret Little Black Book” of telecommuting job leads, available for a one time payment of $19.99

If the employee liked the job up to that point they would be required to buy a copy of the book by mail order. Then and only then does the employer promise payment, which I highly doubt would ever occur. What’s worse, if you were gullible enough to pay with a credit or debit card, you might find that information was stolen and used to run up a huge bill before the end of the day.

My suspicions were confirmed when I went to their parent website, which made no mention of any job and only sold the book. A picture of the book was the site’s centerpiece, badly photoshopped I might add. Now why on earth would a site dedicated to selling a “revolutionary” piece of literature containing hundreds of leads on good telecommuting jobs not have a copy of said book of hand to post, instead making do with a badly digitized version?

I deleted the message of course, only to receive a follow-up mailer today offering the book to me outright for $19.99. Bottom line, this is an old mail fraud with a modern twist. It comes off trying to look like a legitimate job offer. I’ve no doubt a fair amount of work was put into it in order to make the mark feel as if she/he’s actually employed in a real job for the first week or two. One may even feel as if the viewpoint I espouse is overly harsh and cynical, and should give people the benefit of the doubt, this job offer being a case in point. Unfortunately this mindset of mine is one that has been learned through many bad experiences.

I once felt that everyone deserved a chance and should be offered that chance. I went out of my way to help people I considered friends as well as those I was only passingly acquainted with every helping hand I possibly could. In that time not one person truly deserved the chance for self or financial improvement that my presence and support might’ve given. Every time I was taken for every penny I had, losing many thousands of dollars I’d earned working minimum wage jobs as well as hundreds of man hours, weeks if not months of my life being stung along that I will never get back.

I write this in the hopes that I can help prevent somebody out there from experiencing the same loss and sadness which I did. Sadly it seems some people can’t just take someone else’s word for it, and must experience the hurt for themselves. If that’s the person you are, a so called optimist, then by all means apply to this job, order this book and prove me wrong. I would dearly like to be able to trust someone again.

The question is will I be able to take your word for it?

A Genuine Problem Rapidly Devolving Into A Pointless Rant

I just received a message that has me in a bit of a puzzle. I was hoping perhaps someone out there would be kind enough to respond so I could get the benefit of their opinion and point of view.

I've just been offered my first paying writing position. Unfortunately its not all I'd hoped for. The organization that's interested in hiring me (Which shall remain nameless as there is a possibility they might read this and not appreciate any bad press) specializes in providing clients with "sample" essays and research papers made to order. I do have a great deal of experience writing such things, though they've only ever been for my own grades before.

They offer between eight and twelve dollars payment for every three hundred word page written. I must include all my sources of course, in whatever notation format the customer specifies. Deadlines are very strictly enforced and they will not pay for late papers. It's a genuine organization, no scams involved. It does sound like a lot of work. I would have to average more than ten pages written a day to make more money than I previously did.

That's not really my concern though, I know I can write enough to make a profit. The question is what sort of research will have to be completed on my part before I can begin writing, and how much time is that likely to take up? I suppose if they had multiple subscriptions to online libraries and magazines it would save time trying to track down the appropriate research material. But if they don't, then there might be a problem as I live in a pretty small town and the local library is an absolute joke.

I guess what I would like to ask is; if anyone reading should have experience with this sort of thing, could they please respond with any information about their experiences in this situation? What this sort of job is like, how difficult and in-depth the requested papers typically are, etc. It would be much appreciated.

Also I'm very much aware of the morality issue at play here. Is it right to compose other people's reports and papers for them? In all honesty I would have to say no, but then again I never had enough money to afford this sort of service when I was in school, so I can't really say whether or not I would've used such a service. What I can say is that nowadays morals are a luxury. They're for people who have enough money to live comfortably for the forseeable future or who have some deep seated need to make a martyr of themselves. Not that I'm against that exactly, if people want to make themselves miserable for no good reason I'm happy.

Why, you ask? (Well probably not, I suspect of people couldn't care less, but I'm on a roll here so don't interrupt me.) Well to put it this way, mankind has always seemed to equate (or mistake) pain and suffering with sacrifice, divinity, and a higher purpose. Just go to any church, mosque, or synagogue and you'll get the point.

Please don't think that I'm bashing religion. I have absolutely nothing wrong with it and consider it, in most forms, to be a good thing. It can bring out the best in essentially good people. What I'm simply trying to say is that anything, taken to an extreme, can cause harm to oneself or others. Something as powerful as religion also has the potential to bring out the worst in essentially bad people. And I'm quite certain there are more bad people out there than good. If you don't agree with me then either you're made of much more optimistic stuff than I or have yet to experience the pleasure of their company. I know its a bit simplistic to label people as good or bad being that these concepts are relative.

For example a person may take vermin off the street, grind them up and give the meat to soup kitchens. You're killing two birds with one stone here. You're getting rid of pesky critters that dig through my trash cans and you're feeding the needy. It might be considered a good thing that person did to the observer, but from the point of view of the people in line at the soup kitchen, it would probably be a bad one.

So from the point of view of a pathetic little worm like me on this earth who has to rub shoulders with the crowds of effluvia that makes up the modern day gene-puddle on a daily basis (as I'm sure many of you do too), I would say that people blowing themselves up, castrating themselves and each other, fathering fifty bajillion children by a group of fifteen women who're all sisters and then defiling said children all in the name of (God, Yahweh, Jehova, Buddha, Allah, Jesus, Vishnu, etc.) is a bad thing.