So, I made a mistake. A rookie mistake. A mistake that shows my naiveté to the extreme. I’m not asking for pity or anything else. I am simply owning up to my mistake. I also hope that other freelancers will read this and it will help them not make the same mistake that I did.
I am a member of several websites that freelancers can “bid” on independent projects and the site takes a portion of the profit as a service fee. I bid on a project and the client contacted me and asked if we could message over skype. That should have been a red flag. The site has a perfectly good messaging system. I agreed, though. And we messaged on skype and set the project. The project: 50,000 words divided up into various articles and websites, to be paid at the end, by my price. The client negotiated my price, which is why I felt comfortable trusting him.
That’s where the project went to hell, to put it lightly. Without notifying me, the client expected me to write nonstop 12+ hours a day, but not on my own clock. I had to wait for each project to be sent to me individually, which could be hours between projects or minutes. I couldn’t go anywhere, cook, or do anything else. I asked several times if he could send several projects at once so I could work more efficiently and he said no. And still, I plundered on, because the paycheck was going to be worth it. I was exhausted. I should have called it off, as soon I as I got weird feelings about the client’s work ethic.
The work itself was fairly easy, if exhausting. Each piece required a fair amount of research and some pieces were out of my personal comfort zone. I would try to work from 10AM- 6PM. As soon I would message that I was finished for the day, the client would ask me to continue working. I started sending the last piece and logging off. There were days I couldn’t work all day and he would bully me into writing up to the second I had to leave. I had hand cramps all of July. My brain felt numb. I kept going, though, because I needed that money.
I was in a minor car accident in July and had to pay for car repairs. I haven’t been able to pay my student loan payment for several months now, because of my current low-income status. This project was going to pay for my car repair, two months of my student loan, and two months of my health insurance. I was proud of myself for working so hard.
When I hit the 50,000-word goal, I immediately messaged the client, because I expected him to ask for more work. And he did. He asked for two more pieces that night. I said no. In the morning, I sent the Xcel spread sheet I had been keeping of all the pieces and their word counts and the time spent working on them, along with my PayPal. He messages back that he can’t pay me for three more days, so can I write 10,000 more words? I refused to work without payment. He asked again if I could write 10,000 more words. I told him I would message him in three more days, expecting payment, and logged off.
Three days pass. I message with my PayPal and the amount owed. No answer. That was four days ago. I have sent messages on Skype, on the freelancing website, and pay requests on PayPal. Today, I reported the “client” on the freelancing website. However, because I broke the safety rules of the site, it is likely my account will be terminated. I do not want anyone else to be scammed by this person. I was scammed. I was scammed out of time. 132.5 hours to be exact.
Obviously, I made some stupid mistakes here. I feel like an idiot for trusting this stranger and not staying within the safety confines of the website. Is it my fault that I got scammed? Should I have backed out when I had the chance? What do you think?
I’m picking myself up by my bootstraps, finding my next project, and letting it go. I don’t mean I’m
not angry. I am. Whatever happens now, is out of my hands. What is in my control are the next choices I make. Fellow freelancers, let this be a cautionary tale.