Online writing scams - how to avoid getting caught out

A lot of people have - but in many cases it could have been avoided. I'm a professional writer and I have been caught out myself, but luckily the damage was limited because I am always careful with a new client. Nowadays I usually ask for a deposit before taking on any new clients, but back then I didn't. So I agreed to write a couple of small blogs for a client that I never heard from again. I re-used the blogs elsewhere and they didn't take me long to write, but it just goes to show how easy it is to be scammed.

The more common types of online writing scams involve asking for a payment to secure a list of sites to submit to, or access to a wealth of different clients.  People get caught out by this every day, but what you need to remember is that you should NEVER pay money to get access to writing jobs.  You wouldn't pay money to go to a regular job interview, and getting jobs online is no exception.  Remember this and you can single handedly avoid many of the online writing scams out there today.

This is slightly trickier because you never know how an individual will behave. As I said previously I have been caught out in this department, and I am sure many other writers have been as well.

But that doesn't mean you cannot protect yourself more readily starting from today. The best way to do this is to ensure you ask for a deposit from every new client you find.  Fifty per cent of your overall fee is a good place to start, because even if they don't pay the balance it should at least cover your time and effort for writing the material in the first place.

And of course the other thing about asking for a 50% deposit on any writing jobs you take is that it completely discourages the scam artists from fleecing you.  Since they don't want to pay a red cent for anything you produce, you'll never hear from them again. 

It's a good idea to keep a note of all the people you come across who fall into this category. If you come across them again you'll know to give them a wide berth.

So there you have it - some simple rules that will ensure you keep the odds of getting caught up in online writing scams to a minimum.  If you keep your wits about you and your common sense in full view, you shouldn't run into too many problems.