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Writing Job Scam?

by LarryC
9 replies
I received an e-mail today that seems like it might be a fairly clever scam that I haven't encountered before. They offer to pay people "up to $100" for short 30-40 word reviews on insurance companies. Only you have to go to the insurance company's site and ask for a quote. This seems like too much money to pay for such a short review. So I suspect it may be some kind of blackhat CPA technique, where they get money for every person who fills out the form, and they incentivize this by offering a high "writing" fee. After all, they don't promise to pay you for the review. They claim they have many applicants and only accept a certain number. But if they are registered with a CPA company, they get money for every sign-up. Just seems a little too good to be true otherwise. Has anyone heard of this or received a similar offer?
#job #scam #writing
  • Profile picture of the author salegurus
    Looks like a definite scam, i have also noticed a increase in scam mail some cleverly disguised others that even a child could spot. It's incredible that people are still being caught by mail scam.
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  • Profile picture of the author jonbeebe
    I've seen a lot of scams, and that definitely sounds like one of them. Here's my suggestion, because if you have any kind of confidence with your writing ability, you're in a VERY good position to make money online.

    1) Choose a profitable niche that you're passionate about (or interested in if you don't have any passions).

    An easy way to judge if a niche is profitable is to go to Clickbank and look for products in the niche that are selling (I'd say products with a Gravity [Grav] of 25 and over). If you see some, then there is most-likely money to be made in that particular field.

    2) Create a blog, sign up for an autoresponder account (Aweber/Getresponse), and create a free report that is both relevant and useful (doesn't matter how long it is, just make it useful).

    3) Create a squeeze page, which is a one-page website that you'll use to ask visitors for their first name and email address in exchange for your free report (eBook).

    4) Promote your squeeze page like crazy by participating in healthy discussion within forums/blogs within your niche, guest blog on blogs in your niche, and take part in article marketing.

    5) Every six days or so, post a new article to your blog (make sure its relevant AND useful) and then send a mailer to your list letting them know about it.

    6) HOWEVER, every THIRD mailer, recommend a product or do a product review for something you're affiliated with. Make sure it is a good product if you are recommending it though! I recommend you purchase it, or ask the vendor for a review copy so you can give an honest view-point to your subscribers.

    7) Continue to follow this strategy consistently and you WILL make money online from your writing. Just stick with it. Most people can't, but those that do aren't sorry.

    Hope that helps!

    -Jonathan Beebe
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    • Profile picture of the author Kay King
      That would be 2.50/word - $25 for 100 words. I'd say clearly this is not a valid writing offer.

      The most I've ever charged for simple content writing is twenty cents a word and that's rare.

      I'd say the "up to" is the clue.
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      • Profile picture of the author AdamBartol
        That is pretty clever, and not a bad strategy really if they actually paid out. It could work if you figure only 1 out of 20 would completed the quote and actually take the time to write a review.

        The problem would be more the lead quality and screwing the insurance companies purchasing the leads since they would probably be worthless, incent leads.
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        • Profile picture of the author LarryC
          If I understand it correctly, they don't care about the reviews at all and don't ever have to pay out. They only want you to fill out the insurance company form, which gives them a CPA commission. At least that's my assumption.

          Originally Posted by AdamBartol View Post

          That is pretty clever, and not a bad strategy really if they actually paid out. It could work if you figure only 1 out of 20 would completed the quote and actually take the time to write a review.

          The problem would be more the lead quality and screwing the insurance companies purchasing the leads since they would probably be worthless, incent leads.
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      • Profile picture of the author LarryC
        Yes, I'd like to get paid $2.50 per word!
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        Content Writing, Ghostwriting, eBooks, editing, research.
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  • Profile picture of the author Underground SEO
    yeah, definately a scam, quite a clever one though!
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  • Profile picture of the author LarryC
    I received another creative scam a couple of weeks ago, related to domain names I'm selling. I know the "domain appraisal scam" is pretty well known, but this one was so personalized, and apparently from a company that specializes in this that I almost thought it was for real. But then they told me I had to pay for a domain name appraisal before they would do business with me, and when I replied that I had no interest in doing this I never heard from them again. I guess most of these scams are aimed at newbies, or people who want to believe in "too good to be true" offers. The domain offer, for example, fit this, as they were going to buy all of my domains for a price close to my asking price, which doesn't usually happen!
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  • Profile picture of the author Loren Woirhaye
    The CPA company would definitely like to know which of their
    affiliates is using this method.

    While I doubt you'd get any money for reporting it, the more
    this sort of B.S. marketing is allowed to go on the worse the
    reputation of internet marketing gets. If you found the ad
    on Cragslist, it's almost definitely in violation of Craigslist TOS
    and management advises you to report the post as a scam/spam
    and report the affiliate to his network for unethical practices.
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