Not everybody in the world can be trust worthy, and accounted upon. This is truth surfaces much more on the Internet as it allows the users to be anonymous and escape the consequences of their actions by simply clicking the “Connect to proxy” button. Today i will describe some of them to make sure you avoid working for them for enough of a long time to burn your own hands and pockets. You will learn how to protect yourself and you business by foreseeing the consequences that might be brought by working  / partnering up with these people.

The following might not always be a scam, but certainly a risky one long term.

The “You will get a share” Guy

If you have never met one, let me explain how this guy works. You post a job on your favorite hiring website like oDesk, or meet him in real life. Or you get a referral from one of your good friends.

The offer, sure, initially seems profitable. You finish the website for the guy, he waits until he gets like 200 – 300 visitors, and then you get a share from it. And if his site really takes off, you could get yourself a mansion, right? Unfortunately, we need to get a reality check in here, and realize that most web projects, if they survive long enough, no matter how original or cool, will not take off at all (bad marketing, user disinterest, not trust worthy, you name it)

Another big part of this is that, you will have worked tens of hours incessantly, excited about the project, your hands are hurting (you can get some RSI Gloves for that, on an unrelated note), and all your “partner” did was to spam your work on his Facebook page. Sure, he might be able to get you the first accidental four clicks for your page, but will you really work 40 hours to get 5 dollars a month of an income? I don’t think so. Just politely refuse him or at least try to get him to pay a part of the price (no less than 50%)

“Hit and Run” Client

I guess you can’t get every client to pay in milestones or upfront, but these are the ones that know how to exploit the system. If they smell on you that you are struggling with clients (even if you have a big, rich portofolio), they will offer to pay you at the end of the project, and when you finish the project, bam! They disappeared like Osama bin Laden when chased by the U.S Army.

The solution to this, of course, is to sample your product (whether it’s a web design, by watermarking it, or some code, obfuscating it), and then asking for the payment to be completed. If the client refuses, you have the product. If he agrees to make the payment, and you receive it, you can “unlock” the product and and it to him. Simple as a piece of cake. You don’t need to provide full work until you have seen the cheddar. Simple as that.

The Subscription Thumper

If you would meet a guy in real life, and he stopped you on the street, with a faux feeling smile, and he told you:

“Hey guy! Here is a business opportunity for you. If you pay me 5$ right now, you can get the best job in your life paying 2000$ per month!!! Do not miss it! I will hire you starting right now!”, you would probably either ignore him and pass along thinking “Oh my god , what a huge scammer”, punched him in the face for trying to dupe you like an idiot, which you know clearly that you are not, or reported him to the higher authorities preventing it for the not so knowledgeable people about pyramid schemes, right?

Unfortunately, we decide to lower our defenses on the Internet, and can be duped into this quite easily. This is the guy that sends you a long detailed email, with you full name, in a respectable fashion, about a good business opportunity. The thought here is:

“Who would offer someone they do not even know a very good opportunity for work?”

Your instincts are right, and you should ignore this guy from the time you have heard from him. Don’t fall for scams like this and get your pockets fired. Even if it is a small investment like 5$, you are going to be the smack of the thousands of other innocent and unknowing people, and in a good scam, the scammer might even collect 2000$ in a week if he reaches out enough people to be stupid enough to fall for this. An e-mail could look like this:

“Dear Your Name,

We have received a call from X company, and they want “insert your expertise field here, such as web development or data entry” , and they want reliable , hard working, and ambitious people who wish to make their future more beautiful.

The thing is, in order to get this job, and to prove your commitment, we require you to pay a fee of ten U . S dollars to start the job RIGHT AWAY. After you send us the fee, we will send you an e-mail with a more detailed description of the job. Please include your full portofolio, with examples of previous work, and all your areas of expertise. We will get back to you shortly.”

The unknowing loser here sends the scammer the ” fee ” of 10 U.S dollars, includes his portofolio, his previous work experience, and all areas of expertise, as well as some begging and cheap sweet words. He waits, waits, and waits, only to realize that he was scammed, and he will never hear from the scammer again.

What you should do here, is to copy paste the e-mail, and search it in google wrapped in he quotes, and in your search results, if you see “scam” in the domain name, you know for sure that this guy is trying to dupe people.

And if you don’t, then post it on a scam collection website so others stay aware of what is happening.

Read on!