14 Comments
User's avatar
Rachel Cox-Vineiz's avatar

Thank you so much for posting this! I just received the same email today through my website. I was so excited for the job and was about to start the process, but I thought I would search the name of the webinar first, which brought me here to your article. I'm so sorry you went through this, and I am so grateful you told the rest of us about it.

Expand full comment
Miriam Calleja's avatar

Phew! This is precisely why I wrote the substack (& in detail).. I'm sorry "she" tried to get you too, and for the disappointment. I'm glad you had the idea to do a quick search before getting into the work.

Expand full comment
Laura Jo Provost's avatar

I received this same exact scam. When Karen didn’t respond to my schedule terms I thought either she found another writer or it was a scam. I googled the assignment word for word and found your post. Now she is pestering me to deposit the check (I haven’t been to the mail box to pick it up). The upside is I found another writer on Substack— so I win 2x over. Thanks for posting!

Expand full comment
Miriam Calleja's avatar

Another save! Yes!

Expand full comment
Jenn Epple's avatar

I just got this email, too. I looked at the pay and said, "Well, that's suspicious." Your post was the first result when I pasted the email into Google. I am so angry that they're doing this. How demoralizing, seeing the scams floating around, despite the financial turmoil going on.

Expand full comment
Miriam Calleja's avatar

I'm glad the post help you too. It is such a low blow. I'm repulsed by this kind of behaviour!

Expand full comment
Leah Welborn's avatar

Thank you for writing and posting this! I got the exact same email yesterday and you just saved me a lot of irritation. I really appreciate this.

Expand full comment
Miriam Calleja's avatar

So glad my post helped!

Expand full comment
Kenneth Scicluna's avatar

So sorry you had to go through this :(

Expand full comment
Miriam Calleja's avatar

Thanks, I'm glad I noticed when I did... phew!

Expand full comment
Betsy's avatar

I fell for this same scam five years ago. It was a huge lesson to me in paying attention to those “icky” feelings and the numerous red flags. I lost $3000. One of my mistakes was relying on my credit union for telling me whether the check was good or not. They held it for a couple of days, and then released the money into my account. I figured that meant the check was good. But it did not mean that. I found out that banks can only hold a check for a certain amount of time, and it may take longer than that for the check to actually bounce. Another huge lesson learned as a freelancer.

Expand full comment
Miriam Calleja's avatar

I am so sorry Betsy. They sure go through a lot of trouble to cheat you. It seemed so legit in a number of ways. But yes, let's listen to our intuition more closely.

Expand full comment
Betsy's avatar

It was excruciating at the time, but I view the experience as a major life lesson in boundaries. I realized how often I was deferring to someone else's needs or wants or ideas of what was right, how things should go, etc. I knew there were things wrong with this whole proposal and the way it unfolded, but I didn't want to say no, didn't want to disappoint someone. Someone I didn't even know! And who wasn't even who they were telling me they were! I think it's something that freelancers need to deal with. We always need work, and it can be hard to say no even if things don't feel quite right.

Expand full comment
Miriam Calleja's avatar

I also felt very icky and I knew that the fact that I didn't lose money and time was circumstantial. I was traveling and visiting family, otherwise I'd have started on the work immediately and would have been more invested in the process. I feel you, though. I am such a people pleaser and would have been accommodating too. I'm learning to think before saying yes.

Expand full comment