Let's begin with the title of the discussion: "NEVER trust an anonymous freelance writer from Africa. They will try to rip you off." I think it stands to reason that you shouldn't trust an anonymous anything from anywhere. Doing business with a nameless stranger is asking to be ripped off.
Now, I don't know how you operate your business, but if your methods make it easy for people to falsify their identities and rip you off, then you need to look into conducting business a different way. Ask for proof of identity, ask for references, ask for a portfolio. Interview them. Put every essay through a plagiarism checker, and only pay the writer if it turns out to be original. You can't just hire people and trust in the heavens that they will do the right thing. You have to put checks and balances into place to make sure that they do what they are supposed to do. If you don't have the time to do this, then hire somebody and pay them decently to do it for you. I can sum this up in one sentence: You need to improve your management skills.
It also seems to me that if you're hiring people who accept low payments, you should either expect poor quality work or funny business. People who are skilled at what they do tend to ask for reasonable amounts in payment. That's because their talent is readily recognizable and they are bound to find somebody who's willing to pay them the amount they deserve. In other words, you get what you pay for.
FWIW, I am a Kenyan writer and editor, one of many who pride themselves in doing honest, original work. You have never hired me, nor have you hired the hundreds of talented Kenyan writers I personally know. So you clearly don't know what you're talking about. Just in case you're wondering- yes, I joined this forum for the express purpose of responding to this irritating post.
It seems to me that you have an excellent opportunity to learn something valuable from your negative experiences, but instead you're taking the lazy way out and blaming all of Africa for your woes. What are we? All-powerful magicians? If you want to do business in the real world, at some point, you have to snap out of the blissful, naive dream, and realize that some people will exploit you at every possible opportunity. It's not a Kenyan or African thing, it's a human thing. That is exactly why you have identity verification procedures in place at banks and places of employment. That is also why such a thing as internet security exists in the first place. People lie, cheat, and scam. If your solution to being ripped off is to avoid Africans, then I am sorry, but you will continue to be ripped off. Only, this time, the folks ripping you off will be people who look like you, using the same methods that you seem to think are linked to "African blood."
