There comes a time in every man’s life where he gets jipped. That moment for me was roughly a month ago when I realized a client I had signed a contract with went MIA and ran a scam on me. I felt very distraught knowing I had put my heart and soul into a project I worked endless hours on and not received compensation while the client had my intellectual property and free to wield it any way they pleased.
This company is none other than “Southwest BPO.”
This “company” also does business under the alias, “Shane Hempstead.” “Southwest BPO” claims to do business out of Tucson, Arizona. I performed work for them on a pseudo company called, “Capchun Media.”
There were many red flags that I overlooked while performing work for “Southwest BPO.” After contacting Freelance Switch, which is how I established a contract with “Southwest BPO,” I learned a thing or two on how to protect myself from scam artists.
I feel it is my duty to help other freelancers and the like out there to ensure they do not get taken advantage of and especially stay clear of the infamous scam artist company, “Southwest BPO.”
Here are some excellent (and somewhat obvious) tips to help protect you from being scammed:
1. Make sure the client or entity you are signing a contract with has a physical address or at least a phone number you can call. Doing things over email doesn’t guarantee they’re legit.
2. Make sure you are sent an actual tangible contract.
3. Lookup the company online for previous scam articles (like this one).
4. Get 50% of your money upfront in all circumstances. (*Courtesy of Freelance Switch).
5. Look for a website for the company you are doing business with. In theory, contact information and past work should be present on there to support their legitness.
6. Keep all written correspondence with the entity and write down any dates and times you contact them via phone or Skype. This is will help create a database file on them.
7. Set-up weekly or bi weekly status reports so both parties are required to provide feedback and present the work each party is performing.
8. If being featured as a client or writer on the entity’s website and that is built into your compensation, be sure to ask for an approximate number of views per week or month the website receives If the site receives little traffic, this is a poor form of compensation.
It is a sad truth that pseudo entities are out there who will take what you created and snatch it away for their own benefit without even thinking twice about it.
I am still frustrated at this time about what happened but how would I know how to prevent this unless I learn now? Hopefully by sharing my experience I can help other freelancers from feeling the wrath of scamming. Remember to protect yourself before you wreck yourself. If you have any other tidbits or advice to prevent scamming, please leave a comment. Let your ROAR be heard!