The writing industry is booming and full of legit and ethical professionals who provide quality services to diverse clientele. Nonetheless, we have a few "rotten potatoes" (for lack of a more definitive term) that are evidently blackmailing their innocent customers. In light of the heightening "blackmailers" in the writing business, I found it crucial to offer tips helping students identify the legit service providers and avoid the scammers.
1. From my experience, I find that conducting in-depth research on the service provider for insight on their background allows one to make a more informed decision. As an illustration, for freelancers, probably ask for credentials or social media profiles to check out their activity - more often than not, scammers are called out by other writers or clients they've previously worked with. Also, make a habit of scanning the threads in this forum before securing writing services to identify the "already busted scammers". To play it even safer, why don't you post the name of the writing site or freelancer you would like to work with here to get the opinions of trusted individuals?
2. Avoid sharing personal identifiers like your actual name, school email address, your affiliate institution. I find that most of my clients send assignment materials with all these details - while legit and ethical professionals will uphold your privacy and confidentiality, this offers scammers an opportunity to blackmail you. So, until you build trust with your preferred writer or site, why don't you edit out all details that could compromise your identity when seeking online services?
3. If the writer or site you are working with has fully met your course expectations, why don't you stick with it or the writer for long-term basis? As a student, if you have to work with a new writer or site every time you need writing help, this may automatically increase your chances of coming across a scammer.
