Any writer cheated by customers before?

I am deciding whether to take action against one of my customers who paid using a fraudulent cc. Any other experienced writers care to advise?

A company cheated me friendly writers.

He/She didn't ask about companies writing sample papers for students.

I don't know a single writer (who is doing freelance writing professionally) who hasn't been scammed by their client. There are many ways to protect yourself; one is - don't accept credit card payments. Check, money order, bank transfer, etc. are much more secure for you.

There are a number of ways any professional writer can try to avoid dealing with a scamming client. However, to me, the most important strategy to avoid a scamming customer is to decide, right in the beginning, whether to work for someone or not.

Yes, it is the first few communications that can tell you about the seriousness of a client and whether they mean to pay you or not.

Generally, serious clients show the following characteristics (according to MY personal experience):

- They do a proper research about a writer before approaching them for their paper.
- They have a clear idea about why they are hiring you and why not other writers/companies.
- They are more concerned about the QUALITY of their work and practical guarantees for not being scammed.
- Once assured, they are ready to accept any method of payment that ensures the writer they will not scam him/her.

And some more.

On the other hand, a customer that is clever and thinks of getting away with the work without paying the writer shows the following characteristics:

- They are somehow hesitant in establishing a working relation with the writer.
- They try to drag the topic of payment on for some and place more stress on receiving completed research work.
- They want more and more work written as SAMPLE before they could decide they want to hire you or not.

And some more.

ANY serious writer would stop here!

On the other hand, from my experience, a fraudulent client is very accommodating. They know they are going to screw you up so they don't want you to figure it out before you send a completed paper.

That is absolutely the point. But if you read my point above, I have tried to point out a few characteristics of a scamming client in order to help others understand how to avoid them beforehand = before getting completely screwed up.

A serious client and a scammer cannot be the same. So, they never go about business the same way.

If you have completed the order according to provided instructions and by agreed deadline then you should get paid for your work. If you don't do anything to fight the fraudulent claim there are chances the scammer has more than one stolen credit card and will order again from you as a different client.

True. Some customers also have the nerve to demand that you complete the full work before they pay, so that they'll "determine" that the paper is satisfactory before initiating payment. LOL! I noticed that some 'writers' on Essay Chat offer to complete papers in full before accepting payment. I don't think ANY legitimate writer or company would ever do that. Students who look out for these kinds of ridiculous offers are most likely to fall victim to the sort of vicious blackmail/extortion rackets we read about here.

I've never had any client try to scam me, but some shifty characters purporting to be based in China, Turkey, and Australia have, at various times, attempted to lure me into joining their "team" of writers. They promised an endless supply of writing jobs and a bi-monthly payment routine. However, the laughably poor grammar, evasiveness, and other suspicious behaviour I discerned from their emails were always convincing telltale signs of their fraudulent motives.

Stop being so "racist"!

Apparently, one is "racist" only if issuing general warnings about Africans (more specifically, Nigerians). You're a painfully hypocritical J-A.

I worked for a completely legit Chinese company for a year and a half. Sure, their grammar wasn't the best, but administration doesn't write papers, and neither do webpage makers. This company, whose initials were RWC (this was several years ago), always paid me on time, sought the facts and sided with me in disputes when appropriate, and was also very polite in its emails.

"...And, in the end, they kicked my sorry behind for good". An excerpt from the book, Much to Edit About Nothing.

I guess you have nothing better to do than make sad attempts at snarkiness, MeowCon... times like these, it would really be better for everyone if you could just find a nice, young sheep and a private place. You don't have any experience with RWC yourself, since naturally, they frown on the hiring of sniveling incompetents. I doubt you could even pass their English grammar test.

Interesting. In my case, the Chinese company didn't seem legit; maybe I was wrong. Its website was pretty basic, it didn't have a job board, and the folks I exchanged emails with insisted that the preferred means of communicating and assigning orders would be via an instant messaging app called QQ. They were also evasive in their response to my inquiries. The whole set-up just didn't inspire much confidence.

like Editor75. :-D

Sometimes you just have to roll the dice and see-- I think a better avenue than giving up before you begin may be taking a few small orders at first-- say, under $20 worth-- and then waiting for a few payments to go through before you start taking larger, more time-consuming orders. Of course, even then, you can never be sure.

No I never faced any customers who cheated to writer. But I heard that there are many customers who are cheating to writers by not giving the payment in time or by some other problem. The writer has to take strict action on the customer who are cheated them.

No I never faced any customers who cheated to writer. But I heard that there are many customers who are cheating to writers by not giving the payment in time or by some other problem. The writer has to take strict action on the customer who are cheated them.

I see prepositions and progressive tenses mangled like this all the time-- mostly by lazy students who just want enough English to squeak by, but don't have the commitment or intellectual curiosity to approach fluency.

New to the forum, trying to put in a few useful posts... hi! Anyway, the advice above seems like a fairly safe policy to me, although of course that's not always an option--sometimes clients need help with a thesis or larger project, and they need it fast. Although in that case, I guess you're back to rolling the dice... in which case your best seems to be relying on MeoKhan's description of the characteristics of legitimate clients:

That happened to me once. The student received the paper, asked for numerous revisions, then decided to file a chargeback even after he had reported that he got a higher than average grade for the paper after he submitted it. Considering that he asked for 8 major revisions, which the company granted and I had to write, he probably sold the same paper 8 times as well. I tried to file a protest with the company and was told that I had to wait for the Paypal resolution to come out. When the Paypal resolution came out, I was fined 100 percent the cost of the paper due to what the company called a "complete refund" decision from Paypal, which I strongly doubt but I had to accept as a decision anyway.

One time, the company came across a student who used a fraudulent credit card. I was already working on the essay when the report of the company came in that the card was under investigation so I was told to complete the paper but not submit it. Then the second order from the company came in, I was to submit the completed paper to them instead. I did that then I received word 3 days later that the order was cancelled and I was not going to be paid for it. Funny, I think the company still used the paper that they ordered me to complete. I think I gave the company a free paper to sell to a student at that point. That's the life of a freelance writer who had no idea that the company was based in the Ukraine until it was too late.

I've told this story in greater detail before, but I once had a client who used me for all of her projects for 3 or 4 years, always paying in advance. When she asked me for a pair of projects for which she could only pay after she got her next paycheck, I didn't refuse, mainly because of how long she'd been a loyal client. Instead of paying me a week or two later as promised, she sent me a long apologetic email explaining how bad her financial situation had become and promising to pay me "as soon as possible." It turned out one of those projects was her very last project before graduation and the other was a statement supporting her child custody court battle against her ex-husband. Not only did she never pay me for either of those two last projects, but she also had the nerve to contact me again about a year later asking me for a law-enforcement job-application essay emphasizing ethics and integrity and never responded when I reminded her that she'd never made good on her promise to pay me for the last two projects I'd provided a year earlier. That's why I've never agreed again to "help out" anybody asking me to schedule (much less work on) any project before it's paid in full, regardless of how long someone's been a client or how many previous projects I've provided. I reference that particular experience when I explain why nobody should ever take offense at that.

Lolz, that's very clever. I am sure she thought you'd forgotten about that payment. But she know little that we can forget anything but the pay for the papers we write because it takes a lot of perspiration.

In the beginning of my career, I was fooled by a UK-based woman (I am not sure if she really was a woman or man). She had me write a smaller paper paragraph after paragraph while she, as she told me then, was trying to straighten things with the payment gateway I used then (it was very difficult for me to get payment then). After every paragraph, she said the payment was almost ready; she just called her bank manager; she was waiting for the verification email, etc.

Since I was much younger then, I didn't realize she was just pushing me to finish the paper (I think it was 2 pages in total) and had no intention to send me the dough...

She just disappeared as she got the paper. She even deactivated her email account (hotmail). Phew! Lesson learned the hard way I think!

But since then I have tried to closely study the interaction pattern of any client I come in contact with. I have developed my own theory about who could be a risky venture, and who is probably trustworthy. This guess can be made in a few initial emails while exploring the terrain. I think each one of us needs some sort of traction to ensure who we're dealing with.

I think it would be knowledgeable for all of us if we can pool such experiences about what we think who are upright, good clients, and who are the clever ones. What do you think? Shall I start a thread?

Actually, she didn't think I forgot at all. She made a point of saying that she'd pay for it in advance and still referred to paying me for those other two projects as soon as she "could." This was 7 or 8 years ago.

I see. A one of a kind case I guess.

I had a few clients who tried to trick me when I was still a greenhorn in this business. They tried to get a free paper out of me by cancelling the transaction after I had submitted the paper. This was after I saw the credit of the payment to my bank account. What did I do about it? First I tried to discuss it with them in the hopes of getting them to credit the money owed again. When that did not work, published the paper I wrote for them online and made sure to use social media to spread the essay so that it would be useless to the client. I even set up a special blog account specifically for that purpose. There was absolutely no way I was going to allow them to use the paper after stiffing me of such a notable amount of cash. Eventually, my regular clients learned to educate their referrals about how I expect to be paid for my hard work or they would miss their deadline and fail that assignment because I would make sure the paper would be useless to them.

That is actually a good idea and one that if more used it would cut down on the risks. Still, the risks will always be there. I believe that most of us to require payment upfront and even when we provide the best services possible, we get burned from time to time. I've had clients do chargebacks and disputes after graduating, assuming they would no longer need my services. However, many do not realize that simply because you waited until graduation does not mean there are no future repercussions. Just because one obtains their degree does not mean they can't have it stripped. Ironically, I learned that when researching a project on academic integrity for a client. ;p

I never accept CC payments because of the high degree of fraud involved in its use. I normally ask the clients to pay upfront, depositing the cash into my account before their paper is submitted to them. I hold on to the paper until I see the payment clear. They get the paper 24 hours before the submission date. That is because I make sure that I transfer their payment from my business account to my personal account immediately. I do not take any chances. My business account always carries a $0 balance on it. Specifically because I try to avoid the unwarranted chargeback and CC claims.

While clients have tried to refund their credit card payments to me after I have submitted the paper to them, I have successfully staved off those attacks by simply being honest with the credit card company during the investigation process. Since the CC does not involve itself with these sorts of disputes, they tend to wash their hands of the situation and leave the money with me since their only concern is that the transaction was legitimate and not involved in any form of fraud.