Scams and Cheats at oDesk

oDesk is a marketplace. Like any marketplace, it attracts the less than honorable, the cheat, and the outright swindler. In this article, I’ll show you some of the problem people and the scams they use so you can avoid them.

Caveat Emptor- let the buyer beware.

You’ve probably seen it in chat rooms. It’s epidemic on dating sites. You may have done a little bit of it yourself on a resume. Misrepresentation. A better word is lying.
How is it done by providers on oDesk?

• Profile inflation- posting other works or projects as your own.
• Cheating on tests- getting someone else to test for you in a subject that you don’t know.
• Lowering your hourly rate and then milking time by just running odesk while you do other things.
• Stealing articles for submission and representing them as your own original work.
• Claiming expertise in an area where you really have none.

All of these amount to lying. All of them will get you fired. Most of them will get you interviews and maybe a job offer. All of them piss me off.
Providers who scam the system upset me because oDesk works. It works when it brings willing sellers and buyers together. They get good product and I get money. But the whole thing is built on trust. When someone violates ethical standards to ‘game’ the system, buyers get upset and lose faith. It hurts me when I try to bid for their next job. It hurts me even more when buyers are driven away altogether.

Avoiding the problem provider

Ask these questions-

• Is the provider too good for the job? Someone with very high skill levels showing in their profile and a very low hourly rate might be a ‘milker’- underbidding on their rates and inflating their time.
• Does the cover letter match the provider? Someone who has excellent English skills isn’t going to type “I is now right for your job”
• If you are suspicious, ask for some small, original work sample. Good providers will be happy to show you what they can do.

Caveat exigo- let the seller be wary.

The job posting looks good. They are hiring 5 writers to do articles on candle making for their site; the money is good; you apply and get an interview.
The buyer wants to ‘see what you can do’ and asks you to write a couple of articles for titles they provide. Reasonable, right?
Not always. The buyer interviews 20 people, gets 40 articles for free and walks. No job. No money and you’ve wasted your time.

Investigate your buyer.

Buyers get ratings just like providers do. Look at them. Check out their website or other contact information. Look for these warning signs-

• First time buyer or buyer with lots of previous job postings but no previous hires.
• Buyer with low rating or with bad feedback.
• Buyer who interviews lots of people but doesn’t seem to hire anyone.
• Buyer who asks you to provide free samples of work they need even though you have similar work showing in your profile.
• Buyers who lowball their project with the promise of more work later.

There is no sure way to avoid all problem buyers. This is especially true when you are just starting out and hungry for work. But use your common sense. When you are suspicious, ask questions. A good buyer will be happy to clarify the project.
Working together, we can make oDesk what it should be- a place for honest people to come together and get the job done.


Well, I’m upset again. Someone is messing with my marketplace. And what’s worse, it is likely they will nail some new users with their scam, ruining what should be an exciting first job and driving hopeful, new-to-oDesk writers away.

How it works

The job asks for writers to do a sales letter. It offers some fixed price that’s attractive to newbies. So far, nothing special.
But then the interviews start. It turns out that this buyer wants you to work on commission, to ‘prove’ your sales letter works. He/she offers you a commission based on leads and sales for the letter. Again, suspicious, but not unheard of.
I have to interject here that working for a percentage of future sales is against all my instincts, but, since this is targeted to new providers who are looking for any job to get started, it might be attractive to them.

Something smells

The first real stink of ‘this is a crook’, comes when the buyer suggests that working for commission means that payment can be made directly, cutting out oDesk and oDesk fees. Someone so willing to cheat oDesk is showing you his true colors- bile green and vomit yellow.
The second and convincing tip-off is that to increase the effectiveness of your sales letter, he suggests/demands that you market it online yourself by posting on forums, chat rooms and sending it out to all your email contacts. At this point, an experienced provider will say, “No thanks. I am a writer and I don’t want to be your sales rep.”
Unfortunately, I fear that someone new to the freelance community might go for it.

What’s going on

Plainly, it’s a new sort of multi-level marketing ploy. Get someone to write copy for free and then recruit them as a shill for your ‘product’.
I wouldn’t mind it except that these folks are impersonating real buyers and soon, if they follow their typical herd instinct, wonderful oDesk will be clogged with other multi-level marketers copycatting the technique.
The only way to nip it in the bud is to turn it into a method that doesn’t work for them. If you spot this happening, post a message explaining what’s going on in the message board for the project. And let oDesk know when a buyer wants to do an end-run around the legitimate process.
By the way, the ad that had a fixed price of a million dollars seemed a bit scammy too, but at least it was obviously an ad. I only hope that oDesk keeps a tight lid on bogus job postings and keeps my marketplace on the up and up.
If you’ve been burned by a bogus job on oDesk or another site, let me know about it and I’ll post it here on the blog.