WONDEMAND - Amanda Miron

from an email:

I did work for Amanda Miron of WONDEMAND. Amanda gets work from Elance and from other sources, and then hires out people, such as myself, to do the writing. For months, I have gone back and forth with Amanda over payment. She put me off, said she had not been paid, and eventually asked if she could be on a payment plan. At that point, she owed me over $1,600, so I knew a payment plan would likely be the best course of action I could take. I agreed to the payment plan, which was $100 a week until the amount owed was completely paid off. Amanda broke her payment plan. Apparently, she had an unexpected business trip to Cuba. I'm not sure how many people who own a freelance business need to travel to Cuba for business. I'm also not sure how she can afford to go to Cuba, but she cannot afford to either pay me in full or at least make the payment owed on the payment plan, as she apparently has the money to go to Cuba.

Now, she owes me over $900, and I have found my work published online. I have not been paid for this work. Amanda is running a scam. Amanda has lied to me about clients. She makes her clients look as if they do not pay, when they have actually paid. Clients have left her feedback on Elance, but yet she acts as if they did not give her any money.

People need to avoid Amanda Miron and WONDEMAND at all costs. She makes you beg for payment and she also "forgets" that she has not paid you. I have reported Amanda to Elance and to the Better Business Bureau, but I will likely have to take legal action in order to get my money.

IRA Internet Research Associates?

From an email:
I want to know if anyone else has has problems with this company. Here is my story.

I have worked for IRA twice now. The first time I worked there, I was told that I was being terminated (out of the blue) becuase a client thought my articles sounded like they were written by someone who didn't speak English. I wasn't given any more details, and wasn't even given the information about which project it had been. I fought my way back, explaining to Clark and the editor I was working with that there was no way that could have been my writing - simply becuase I know I speak AND write English very well. After a lot of arguing on my part, I got an email from Clark, saying I could have one more chance, but I'd be fired immediately if there was another complaint.

Well, when I got back into the system, I went to the articles that I had done, turned in, and not been paid for, as they were the ones the client didn't like. I was able to access the articles, because this is the way it is set up - and the ones that were there were articles of mine that had been tampered with. The grammar was all messed up, punctuation was in the wrong place, and things like that. I didn't say anything, becuase I'd been warned I'd get fired if I caused any more trouble - but I worried.

Sure enough. I turned in a project the other day, and I got the same email back again - the client thought the article was written by someone who didn't speak English, he was ticked off, and was no longer going to order from IRA. Again, I wasn't told which project it was, or even which article, just given an ambiguous client number. From the number, I guessed that the client had been talking about a certain article, which I pulled up on my own computer. I couldn't find any instances of the article being written like I didn't speak English, so I can only assume the same thing happened again. I've sent numerous emails to Clark now, explaining what I think happened. I even attached the article I'd written, and asked him to check to see if that was the same article the client got. But I haven't heard back and its been almost a week.

I think that IRA is a great company, but there is obviously an employee working there who wants to take down other writers. Unfortunately the way the work side of things is set up, employees can have access to the articles that others are turning in. I know that Clark wants to believe the best of his employees, as I'm sure we all do, but the writing community has snakes in it just as any other community. Writers know each other, and if a writer is taking too much work, or getting to work before other writers, sometimes people get really mean, catty, and vindictive.

I lost a total of 86 dollars working for Clark. 50 from the first project that was tampered with and that led to my first firing, and 36 from this most recent one. If you add that to the 55$ worth of work that I had done for the site and hadn't had a chance to upload before I was terminated, thats $141. That's a day and a half of work for me - and a tenth of my rent payment. I can't afford that kind of treatment and I'm upset about the entire thing.

Jhon Rhineck

Hi

I'm really happy I bumped against your blog at present I've been cheated out of almost 30,000 Indian rupees. Yes, I know its a huge amount and everytime I think about it My heart burns.

But this is a warning to almost everyone who works with GAF. At present, there are a huge amount of job offers from buyers who are offering $3 or $4 per article but they are totally sham buyers. NOT A SINGLE ONE IS PAYING FOR WORK FROM WRITERS!

They promise to pay you weekly and I have a strong doubt that all of them are from the same person. They promise you money but after a week they land up not giving you anything. THEY JUST UP AND DISAPPEAR. I'VE HAD THREE EXPERIENCES ONE AFTER THE OTHER. THE WORST PART IS THAT GAF CAN DO NOTHING! ONE SUCH PERSON IS

clapclap@munich.com called as Jhon Rhineck

I wrote over $90 of work for him on time in 24 hours and I have his emails commending me for my work and originality. But ask for payment and he disappeared even after repeated emails. I have only the strongest of words to tell him and it appalls me that some one is capable of doing this to poor hardworking writers. I live with my inlaws and the time I spend on my work takes me away from my child and my husband and my inlaws are not that appreciative or supportive either. I desperately need that money for a separate house.......I can only think that GOD will look down on them one day for what they have done to me.

I needed a place to vent and sorry, but you turned out to be it. Thank you for letting me vent here. I am also willing to retract these statements if I get paid but I seriously doubt that payment is going to happen anytime soon :(

Thanks anyway

scammer warning! Nicolene Van Der Poll

Hi

I came across your blog . I was scammed about 10 months ago. I was completely lost. I thought i would wreck her name by posting on forums and even SEO'ing her name to come to my sorry story, but i was in debt and had my work to worry about. Here's what happened:

My name is Krshna, and i am an Indian student writing part time with a team of article writers. We churn out articles and seo articles that are plagiarism free(we check with copyscape), have good grammar, incorporate the keywords @ relevant places and every other normal thing that a good copywriter puts into an article. As you may notice from my English, it's kind of understood that I would not employ incoherent babblers to work with me and expect them to do quality work. Anyways, me and my team used to work for one Nicolene Van Der Poll from Cape Town, South Africa. We started work with her in January this year, and though she was paying weekly initially, she said bi-weekly after two weeks and then kept postponing and delaying citing various reasons. So finally it became monthly payments, and she would ignore my mails to her regarding contact details like address and phone numbers. All this while she kept sending in work for us to do, in order to give us the impression that she was still around and that she would definitely pay up if she wanted so much work. It gave us the impression that she focussed on the work at hand and was motivated etc. So finally, she owed me a lot of money, and i owed all my writers. So i ask her for payment and she said her lcient was on vacation. She replied to my mails after long gaps, and i repeatedly told her, in the softest ways i could ever imagine, that i was getting worried about payments.Finally, she stops replying to all my mail, my work and my team's work is on her clients sites, and there is no response at all. In between this whole fiasco, she paid me half the money she owed, from a paypal address with the name "Shaun Van Der Poll". Of course, her husband- I googled the couple out. And also, they sent a message on Paypal that said "Here is more of what i owe you for Jan - the rest coming soon...." in the exact same words. She owed me $220 US odd. I was of course a student(still am :) ), and i had just moved out of home to continue college. Maybe $200 is not a lot of money in the West. But $200 is 8000/- Indian Rupees. And I can survive on that money for two whole months, confortably!!! So thats the gravity of things. She used to pay me 50 cents for 100 words, and i thought that was fair. So, then I had to pay all my writers by sitting and writing articles myself. I had to write scores of articles to earn that money again. My writers belief in me was broken. It was insane. I skipped dinners and lunches and slept at the oddest hours possible to stick to deadlines and give her work on time. I even tried getting her number but the number i found by googling her didnt work right. I have been more careful since then. This lady has a young daughter, imagine how that girl would feel if she realized her mother was a thief? I even have emails from her accepting that she owes me money and saying that she will pay me soon.

Here are her various email ids:

shanickeye@telkomsa.net
nickyvdp@openweb.co.za

I think she uses the latter email ID now.


She posts on GAF, rentacoder etc, under shanickeye.

Getting a bit emotional"

Nicolene Van Der Poll, I will get you one day, or someone will put you out of business for two months the way you did to me. And when your daughter asks you why you dont have money to feed her, you will remember that engineering student you decieved.

Man, if you were so poor, you could have told me. I would have helped you. What's worse than a beggar is a thief."

:)

I have proof of her shifting payments from project wise to weekly to bi weekly to monthly. I even have her emails. I can submit them for cross reference or publishing them online at your own request.

Thank you very much. I am proud that you have taken up such an initiative. its a pity that people get cheated. But i read this quote and moved on

"Just because a deer is vegetarian, it cannot expect a lion to be a vegetarian and not devour it. The world is mean, and just because you are good, it doesnt mean that the world should be the same to you"

I'm now heading a much bigger team, and we churn out upto 50 SEO articles everyday! And I'm still a student! :)

Cheers,
Krshna

Prefab Marketing, Hope Digest

From an Email
I had a contract with these people and everything was fine until around May or June when the checks, which werer contracted to go out on the 5th of every month suddenly started getting later and later. When I inquired I was told the signed agreement was not a contract but "merely guielines" and I could leave if I didn't like it. Myles Weaver, the CFO got nastier as the weeks went on when I disagreed about the obligations the instrument held them to. I was told my services were no longer needed. It has been more than a month the check has been due. I wrote the CEO who has not responded. I am in the process of notifying their advertisers of their unfair practices and my only alternative is to bring the company and those who support them to court.

Calvin Dee

From A Comment:

There is a guy by the name of Calvin Dee. His email id is mistermotivation@gmail.com

He does not pay for the work ho gets written from writers like us.

Please avoid him at all costs. Well, if you work with him, you are not going to get paid anyways.

Sign-Up Scams

This one has been floating around for quite some time now on freelance writing . com and other work sites. An ad is put out for a freelance writer - sometimes saying they need articles of a certain type, sometimes mass articles and sometime just a few. Any emails sent to apply for the job are responded to with an email telling you that you have been selected as a finalist for a job, and that in order to be put "in their system" you need to go to a site and fill out information. This is anything from a book club to a site about online schools and degrees. Turns out you're being put onto mailing lists, and as soon as you do fill out your info you'll be contacted by people from the sites. Here is an example of the email that one person received:

"Greetings, thank you for applying for this position! I have reviewed your work and think it looks good. We are going to continue to review applicants at this time and we ask you to visit our website and register by getting information on one of the schools, the link is http://www.justdegreesonline.com/. We will wait for you to do this and then contact you for next and final part in order to work with us. Thank you, we appreciate your interest.

Sincerely,
Robyn Stone
Just Degrees Online "

It is obviously a scam to get as many people to sign up as possible. No one has been offered a job from these people yet, that we've heard of. Let us know if it has worked for you!

Meisha Parrott, Two Write hands, MLP Writing and Editing or Sharon Parrott

** From an email**

I have been dealing with a non-payment issue for over a year. I am curious if anyone else has reported having problems with payment from Meisha Parrott, Two Write Hands, MLP Writing and Editing or Sharon Parrott. This is all the same individual, that has published or sold work I did without payment. I was able to track down an individual that was sold many of my articles, after a long relationship with this individual. I was informed my articles were paid for. A completely different story than I was told. If I am not the only one that has been wronged by her, I feel obligated to get the word out. I am actually hoping this is an isolated account.

Andre Steele

From an email:

Classic scam. The "gentlemen" lures writers with a $700-a-month promise, then sends a list of "test" subjects to write about, upoon which completion the writers "might be selected". I wanted to go through and see if it was a scam, and sent a perfectly well-written article. Alas, I was right- Mr. Steele refuses to reply to many emails following the article submission.

Here is a sample of the email Mr. Steele sends when writers reply to his adds. Note the section where he warns-off scam busters.

Thank You for expressing interest in my position. I would like to start off by saying I believe you have made the right decision in looking into this position. This is a permanent position and will have more work than you can handle. You will earn your pay in this job. You will be doing 10-15 300 word articles a day and also 5-10 700 word articles. You will be paid per article batch you turn in. I want to make this clear up front that if you miss a deadline you lose the job no questions asked. With that said I will also inform you that each pay we will withhold a percent that should cover any costs we may occur if you should miss a deadline. I will give you enough work to make the $700 plus or more.

Now that we have a little information about the position out of the way lets look at the second phase of the application. Attached you will find a list of jobs that you will submit one writing sample for. If you are hired you will be paid for it. All decisions will be made within 24 to 48hrs. For those of you who think that it’s a scam to get articles and run you need not to even reply. I do not need someone working for me that feel that way. I will pay each writer that works for me every time on time. Please look over the attached file and select a job and respond back to me with the topic. You have 5 hours to reply and you have another 5 hours to submit. The 5 hours will start at 6:30PM EST.

Scammer uses the following known addresses:

andrewsteele31@gmail.com

customwrites4u@gmail.com

Please help make it impossible for him to further abuse writers.

Brian Wall (Taken from freelancewriting.com)

Has anyone ever worked for Brian Wall? I wrote a number of articles for him last year which he never paid me for and I am now finding these articles published online. I plan on posting this info where ever possible. Many writers that hang out at this job site are here because they desperately need the money. I am tired of seeing those that can least afford it being ripped off by others for personal gain.

ME Consulting

Do any of you readers have a take on ME Consulting?

We've been looking around the internet and have found a few posts about problems with this company. It seems that they are NOT a scam, but have major problems. First of all, they pay very low - 2.50 to 3.00 an article. Some people take lots of work for this amount, and it doesn't bother them. However, not only do they pay this low, but they expect constant work. At least 10 articles a day. Some might say that this is good, solid, and constant work. However, they also only pay you the full amount of money if your articles are "accepted" by them. Not only that, but they don't tell you whether the articles you sent in were accepted or not. You just have to wait until payday to see if you are getting your full amount of money or not.

I don't have anything to link to, so please, if you have information about this group, post a comment!

Rahul Valia

We had this guy's name up here for awhile, and then it was taken down. However, we have gotten more and more complaints about him and not paying for work that has been done. This is an email from a person who has been scammed by him. He is very angry - and from the email you get the idea that even 24 dollars is a major deal to writers.

PAY THE WRITERS. EVEN SMALL AMOUNTS. Employers who do not pay writers will end up with major problems. Like this guy.


i just realized that the concept of being a gentleman and being a man of honor does not mean anything to you. I am not a man who would fight over a measly $24.00 but it is the principle of fairness that I need to meet your calousness head on.

You have had 24 hours to tell me to cancel the assignment but you did not. You even received the second installment and you still did not tell me anything. You only told me you're not going to use my articles after i sent the third batch. You even have the temerity to insult me as being lazy.

Unless you pay me for my trouble and apologize for the insult, I will reveal to the entire writing community all over the internet what a dishonorable person you are. I am not debasing myself by running after that $24. I am upholding my sense of honor. But then again, you may not understand such concept.

I am a writer, and I can write hundreds of articles about people like you.
I WILL. and I assure you that I will reveal your name and your different identities and e-mail addresses. I still have the transcript of our conversations and they speak a lot about the kind of person you are. It will be a worthwhile quest that will be picked up and followed by others that may have also been victimized (perhaps by you, too!)

It will be a worthwhile quest on the internet to expose this kind of brazen callousness. This brazen callousness that will also be written about by others will have a name: RAHUL VALIA a.ka. ailav_blossom, a.k.a champfreelance.

I am a writer, and I can assure you how effective i will be with words and evidence in this quest of exposing the kind of a person you are.

Don't be complacent if you see that I remain honorable with my choice of words in this correspondence, as I am giving you one chance to rectify the trouble you have caused me.

Tarang Bhargava

From an email:


"This person, who I have successfully received one payment from work completed for similar projects, has failed to pay me for over 135 articles. This individual owes me $337.50 and no amount of communication is getting through to this guy. His name is Tarang Bhargava and is from India, with an email address of itarang@gmail.com. He may change his email but his name still stands.

Apparently, he has failed to pay his partner for all the work he had completed and has since walked away from it to start a new business enterprise."

LCP - Laray Carr, Etc.

If you've been around the sites at all, you have probably heard about the issues going around with Laray Carr, or with LCP. There are many sides and facets to this story, but as far as we can put together, LCP posted some adds asking for writers at the end of August. They wanted writers to write articles for magazines, and they wanted them fast. MOST of the writers were asked to choose their own article titles and subjects, from a list of magazine titles. They were told that they would be paid 25$ for articles of 500-1000 words, and 50$ for articles of 1000-1500 words. MOST of the writers were given a contract as well. At the beginning ,the writers were told that payment would be made around the 20th of September, which was the launch date for the magazines. Later, SOME writers were told the launch had been pushed back - October 1st was one of the dates mentioned.

The writers got into a very heated discussion over at FWJ and other places as well during this time frame. There was a lot of research done into the websites that LCP owned, the people who worked for them, and everything down to the contract and the emails from the contact person, Hope Hunt, was scrutinized. Things got angry, heated, and very strange, for awhile.

September 20th came and went with no payment for writers. A few days later, a mass email was sent to ALL writers, (at least all that have come forward to say so) claiming that all of the work that was done was going to be scrapped and that no one would be paid for it.

The debate/question is thus: The writers had a contract that stated that they'd be paid on publication of the articles, and the articles, supposedly, aren't going to be published. However, the writers who have come forward on other sites have claimed that Hope Hunt told them they were NOT querying articles or assignments, but rather they were being ASSIGNED articles, and therefore payments WOULD BE MADE.

The debate in this whole thing is over what rings true in the end. The contract (that some claim was copied off of existing sample contracts on the web) or the emails from the contact person, stating that the articles were assigned and would therefore be paid?

Please debate.

Beware of Leann Garms, a PR trickster

I would like to address a PR agency and the owner who
scammed me out of $800 for services rendered. This
happened a few years ago but I've noticed she's still
online and practicing PR.

This woman is a trickster and a scammer. She's based
out of Dallas, TX and I just want to warn contractors
and writers NOT to work for this woman. I have a
degree in Journalism/PR with ten plus years experience
working in non-profit fundraising. This woman is vile
and gives PR practitioners and all those who work in
this industry a bad name.

Beware please!

Write Media

Has Scammed a writer out of 156$

The writer was given two assignments from "write media". One was to write some home improvement articles, and the other was to write a series of motivational speech articles. Both assignments were turned in on time. The writer was told that the motivational speech articles were not long enough, even though they were written within the specifications that write media had given to the writer. The writer told Write Media the motivational articles would be fixed WHEN the home improvement articles were paid. After not getting payment, the writer decided that she needed payment in FULL for all of the articles, and has not had any correspondence since.

The worst part is that this particular writer voiced concerns to Write Media about the fact that the name "write media" had come up as a possible scam on freelancewriting.com. Write Media assured the writer that this was simply one disgruntled writer, and that the writer would be paid right away.

PAYMENT NOT RECEIVED. NO CONTACT FOR THREE WEEKS. Currently owes $156.

****UPDATE

Recently Write Media started contacting (at least one) writer(s) to say that she was very sorry she had not made payment. The excuse that was given was that another writer/employer who owns a freelance company, had stolen all of her personal information including her paypal account and her bank account. This writer, who will not be mentioned, denies that he has stolen anything from Write Media and instead claims that Write Media is angry with him because Write Media owes him money and he is not very happy about it. Write Media insists that she will be making payment as soon as she has regained control of her assets. We will keep you updated.

UPDATE: It has been posted once that Write Media is in conjunction with the Laray Carr, LCP "scam" - This has yet to be verified with anyone else. At current time, it is our belief that Write Media and LCP are two completely different entities. If anyone has proof that they are the same operation, please comment and post on it.

Email Addresses to Watch Out For!

According to a person posting at freelancewriting.com, the following email addresses belong to scammers that ask for work, assign it, and do not pay. According to several sources, these email addresses are addresses to be wary of! Please post a comment if you have any news or stories about them!

shinnex4real2003@yahoo.com

joey.pinkney@gmail.com

Sanjay - reflection6666@gmail.com

SpokeMedia

*this comes from the "scams" board at freelancewriting.com

SpokeMedia, who owns h2daily.com, duidaily.com, vaccinerx.com, timesharesdaily.com, identitytheftdaily.com has not paid for work done.

The writer did almost 600$ worth of work and has not been paid. Spoke Media cannot be contacted and does not reply to emails.

Sunmade/12 Tribes

*this comes from the "scams" board at freelance writing.com

summie50@hotmail.com
12 tribes, Excel, or the Vine
or a person named Sunmade.

Owes clients money currently for projects done. Also has sold articles to associated content that were written by others and that were never paid. Also, creates deadlines that are impossible to meet and takes money away from writers who cannot meet them.

Solaris Media and Rob Solaris

Owes writer a total of $750. Write has not been able to get payment for work done and sent.

Sarah Small

Failed to pay for a set of 7 articles. Was contacted over the course of 4 months, and after being threatened with legal action, replied to emails claiming the money would be sent via paypal. Money was never sent, and has since stopped responding to emails. No contact for 1.5 months. Currently owes 52$.

Promo Basics

Asked for 10 articles at 2$ each, and gave specific instructions about how the articles should be written and sent. After the articles were sent, did not reply back to the writer and has never sent payment. The writer has sent multiple emails asking about payment, but has heard nothing back over the course of 5 months. No contact for 5 months. Currently owes 20$.

Den Miller

Asked for 5 articles to be written at 3 $ each. Articles were sent, and Mr Miller responded that payment would be made soon. Payment was never made. Writer has been emailing Mr Miller to ask about payment for 7 months. Twice Mr Miller wrote back, telling the writer that payment would be made soon, and asking the writer to do more work in the meantime (which the writer did not do). No contact for 2 months. Owes 15$.