Current Status

This blog is not frequently updated because most case-by-case scam reports are now listed in subordinate blogs. At this point in time, most of my efforts are targeted at documenting employment scams in the Suckers Wanted blog.

2008-08-14

Info: Freelance Home Writers

I've been asked a few times about whether "Freelance Home Writers" is a scam. My forte is outright fraud and crime rather than "dodgy business", so I'd first like to emphasise that this isn't (as far as I can tell) a front for organised crime.

Having said that, I still wouldn't trust them with a penny of my money. Why's that, you ask? Well, in addition to the informed opinion of an independent party, I note that "Freelance Home Writers" employs a tactic in common use by scammers who want to avoid the ill effects of a bad reputation: the progressive registration of multiple domain names. The image attached to this post is a snapshot of one of several identical "Freelance Home Writers" websites operating under different domain names that have been registered at different times. For example, "freelancehomewriters.com" was registered on 21-Feb-2007, whereas "freelance-home-writers.com" was registered on 29-Aug-2007, and "freelancehomewriters.biz" (which was misconfigured and causing a browser error when I tested it today) was registered on 29-Jan-2008. All of the above were registered using the "WhoisGuard" anonymisation service, so we have no idea who is actually behind this service, or where they are based. Would you trust an anonymous company with no address?

Bear in mind that these guys are selling a product, not offering jobs. They want you to pay to join. Are you going to trust them with your credit card details? Will you have any recourse if their "product" turns out to be worthless? Will you even be able to navigate away from their damn home page without being blocked by pop-up ads? Can you believe their claim on their FAQ page that they have "been online for nearly 6 years now" when the earliest domain name registration is dated 2007?

So, in answer to the question, "is Freelance Home Writers legit or a scam?" my answer is, "I really can't say, but there's plenty of evidence that they can't be trusted!" When you're handing over your credit card information to someone in exchange for a promise of goods or services, trustworthiness is what counts, isn't it? "Scam or legit" frames the question the wrong way: "trustworthy or not" is, I think, a better way to look at it. As fas as I'm concerned, "Freelance Home Writers" operates in a manner that shouts, "I can't be trusted!"