My freelance writing career started in 2012 after an ongoing formidable inner battle with my mental health and anxiety disorder.

Quite frankly, I didn’t want to leave the house. I never felt ready to socialize again. Human interactions scared me to the point that I couldn’t talk. Not about it, or anything to anyone. Not that I didn’t have anything to say, because I did; I was writing all the time.

Maybe my agoraphobic ways inspired me. But,

Working from home wasn’t my dream. It was my evacuation plan from doing what scared me and made me uncomfortable. I can admit that now.

Slowly and even still, I am peeling my protective layers away like I would an onion. I have too many, and I realized it was preventing me from reaching my real potential. Sometimes a shield that’s too heavy in battle doesn’t do you any favors.

Over the last 9 years of my career, I have learned how to build relationships, communicate, control panic attacks, handle stress, meet deadlines, and branch out. I have had children, got married, and I leave the house now, often.

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Over the last 9 years, I have also learned something I think others in my position should be aware of — how to spot a scammer on a writing jobs platform.

Trust me, scammers will go to ridiculous lengths to make themselves seem legitimate.

I have seen them take a real business name and website and pretend they are hiring you for that company. They will put you through hours of interviewing or bombard you with so much detail that you actually might trust what they are offering is real.

The old saying “if it’s too good to be true, it probably isn’t.” Believe it.

Freelancers looking for work on such platforms have been scammed out of thousands of dollars by falling for sneaky scams.

Here are a few tips to spotting a scammer.

They direct you off the platform.

Most platforms like to monitor conversations in either an inbox or some way to directly communicate to the client on the site. If your platform has certain terms and conditions and the so called client doesn’t follow them, that’s a big red flag.

If they provide you with a website of a legitimate company, investigate. I have contacted the company directly to verify that I was actually talking to someone from their company. Many times, I wasn’t.

Their tone changes.

They go from professional to inappropriate really quick especially if they thought you were close to doing what they wanted or believing them. They may also go from being very laid back to pushy.

They push you to cash a check, send money, or buy a product.

This is classic. Do not fall for it. No real company is going to send you money without having you complete paperwork or do actual work. This is a scam that could put you in a lot of trouble. The scammer may try to get you to cash a fraudulent check and either send money back to them or buy a product (equipment for your job.) Do. not. do. it.

They ask you for personal information.

Never give out personal information. A real company would have you fill out forms on a safe employee portal requiring login information for privacy, never in a chat room or instant messenger!

Maybe my skepticism has saved me from a few messy situations. If something doesn’t feel right, go with your gut. Scammers typically prey on new freelance writers so when I appeared on Upwork as a newbie even though I had years of prior experience, I was targeted by several of these scammers. So, if you have not even completed one job on the site and you are offered a big position, put your skeptical-s on.