Last Friday, Heather Boerner, a San Francisco-based medical writer, got an email from someone who said he had hired her through oDesk, a web marketplace where employers and freelancers can connect.
Boerner, who has written for The Washington Post, The Daily Beast, The Atlantic, and others, has never used oDesk.
She quickly realized that she had been the victim of identity theft. Somebody–a fake Heather–had gone to Boerner’s website, copied her resume, downloaded her photo, linked to her website, and created an oDesk account offering services as a writer.
“It’s an elaborate scheme. It’s really bizarre,” said Boerner, who has alerted some of her colleagues (which is how I heard about it). “The guy who notified me of this said he had hired Fake Heather to do some writing. Fake Heather then hired people to do the writing for her [or him].” The person who notified Boerner said he gave Fake Heather $1,000.
The man who had hired Fake Heather said that he communicated with her solely via Skype. Boerner signed on to Skype and found Fake Heather’s account. “It was the most amazing thing to see my name and my photo on an account in Toronto,” she said.
Boerner isn’t the first to be victimized by someone using exactly the same M.O. Last fall, Carol Tice, a Seattle-area freelancer who writes the blog Make A Living Writing, unexpectedly received several emails from writers in India applying for work as content writers.
Then she received an email from someone wanting to know if Tice wanted to continue the writing project they were working on. “I assured her that I had never started article writing for her, and certainly wasn’t going to continue,” Tice wrote in a blog post. “I didn’t even have any idea what topics she was having articles written about!”
As was the case with Fake Heather, Fake Carol set up a Skype account outside the U.S. (in London), and used Tice’s name, photo, and website to connect with clients on a freelancers’ website (in this case, Elance).
Tice was alerted by someone who was about to start working with Fake Carol but “had a strong instinct that something was not connecting,” as she told Tice. Fake Carol, like Fake Heather, was also subcontracting writing to others.
Tice was incensed at the possible damage done to unsuspecting writers and to her own reputation. Elance removed the imposter’s profile, but “I think it’s notable that there wasn’t even an apology made for the damage to my reputation here,” Tice wrote. “It just makes me sick to think about how these writers were excited to be writing for me, and then had to find out it was all a scam. Even though I’m only an unwitting participant in this ripoff, it really rankles.” (I’ve emailed Tice for any further comment.)
A public-relations firm that represents Elance-oDesk (the companies merged in December, 2013) said Friday, “We take fraud very seriously and have a dedicated trust and safety team that focuses on protecting clients and freelancers alike,” and “We redress the issue promptly when it is detected by our systems or reported to us by a user.”
Here is Tice’s bottom line: “This whole experience was a sad reminder that when you go on platforms where it’s easy for clients to mask their identities, you really don’t know who you’re dealing with. Which means it’s easy for that client to disappear without paying you. Just another reason to go out and find your own clients instead of hanging around bidding on Elance for gigs posted by clients who may not be who they appear.”
This is serious business; Tice and Boerner have suffered real harm, as have the writers who did work and didn’t get paid. As Boerner said, “I’ve worked for 10 years to build a career. I published a book this year. And then this yahoo comes along and tries to exploit it to try to scam people.”
But I can’t help but wonder what motivates Fake Heather and Fake Carol, who could be the same person. The bank robber Willie Sutton, as the story goes, was asked why he robbed banks. “Because that’s where the money is,” he replied. But what kind of person robs freelance writers? That’s where the money isn’t.
Meanwhile, back in San Francisco, Boerner is busy trying to clean up the mess that Fake Heather created. “I checked my credit reports. I contacted Skype and asked them to remove this fake person’s Skype account. That’s still in process. I filed an FTC affidavit,” she said. “People have told me I need to contact the FBI.” Her website and LinkedIn page now sport warnings, where she asks for “help to assist me in catching this fraudster who appears to have done this more than once.”
“I’m going to file the police report today,” Boerner told me yesterday as we wrapped up our conversation. “And get my flu vaccine. So I’ll be protected in every way.”
-Paul Raeburn
Stealing from the people who write for these sites. Why? Because nobody will try all that hard to catch you — the stakes are too small.
Thanks for helping to spread the word about this problem, Paul. I believe the point of the fraud is to be able to present yourself to clients as a top writer. It makes it easy to get clients. (Some told me how excited they were to be working with “me”!)
Then, the imposter lines up subcontractors to do the actual writing, turns in their work to the client, stiffs the writers, pockets all the client money, and disappears, as they’re discovered and their accounts are shut down by Elance and Skype. They make a chunk of change and don’t do much of anything for it.
Unfortunately, this is a devious scam that’s difficult for a platform such as Elance to shut down. The imposter uses one name on Elance (“Troy” in my case), and only introduces the top writer’s portfolio and identity once they start communicating with a client. This makes it nigh on impossible for Elance to detect until complaints come in.
My advice: Verify carefully who you’re writing for, if you use these platforms. Only write for escrow-based assignments, where money is being held. Make sure you carefully document your work or work hours, as required. If you do, that will enable you to get paid, even if the imposter is in the wind later.
Or better yet — stay off these scam-factories and get your own clients.
So many bad guys, making life hard for the rest of us.
Sure, freelance clients don’t have the money banks do, but it can’t take much time or preparation to rob them, and I suppose you could be robbing a dozen in parallel once you get going (too many, and website users would get wise ). Also: No witnesses or cameras, and I suppose there aren’t the stiff penalties associated with bank robbery. It reminds me of the counterfeiting of academic journals–exploiting a culture of trust operating in a nobody-knows-you’re-dog environment. I’m becoming nostalgic for our age of innocence already.
Beautiful pity Congratulations I wish you continued success
I’m unclear– exactly what harm did these writers suffer? I get the concept that the impostors could harm their reputations, but the article has no examples of actual harm done: lawsuits filed, assignments not won, bad reviews posted somewhere. Maybe that happened, but I didn’t see it above. I just see mentions of checking credit scores and FTC alerts and whatnot; nothing about actual damaged credit or theft of business.
I agree that what the impostors are doing is fraud, and also reprehensible– but it’s fraud on the companies hiring the impostors, and on the sub-contractors writing for the impostors. That’s a question of doing your due diligence on whom you’re working with or for.
As to avoiding e-Lance and o-Desk, etc.– that goes without saying. Deep, longstanding relationships with clients are the key to business, not quick tricks turned on a matching service.