Anatomy of a Freelance Writing Scam: Warning Signs and Prevention

The scammers are out in force in 2025, and freelance writers seem to be prime targets. Plenty of my colleagues are on the hunt for new projects right now, and unfortunately, they’re falling for these freelance writing scam jobs and losing money.

A fraud job like this hit my email inbox a few months ago, during a moment when I had a little free time. Rather than just blocking and deleting the note, I decided to put on my journalism hat.

How does the scam start? What are the warning signs? What’s the end game? These are the questions I wanted to answer. (And I also wanted to waste a scammer’s time in the process.) Here’s what I found out.

How the Freelance Writing Scam Works Step by Step

Fraudsters use a long-game technique to steal money from freelancers. Several steps are involved, and they can all be time-consuming. Here’s how this particular scam works.

Step 1: The Outreach

I got an unsolicited email from someone named Natalie Carlsson at Skill Mosaic. She claimed she found me online and thought I’d be a great fit for a content marketing job. She sent me a link to a website (which is no longer live) and asked me to overhaul the content on every page.

The site was thin, so we’re just talking about 10-15 pages worth of content. It wouldn’t take more than a week or so of focused work, and it’s the type of project I handle regularly.

She proposed a total fee of $4k—and here’s where the alarm bells should go off. This is a huge fee for a few weeks of work.

Step 2: The Specifics

This scam relies on pressure. The thieves don’t want to give you time to think about how strange the project is, so they use unreasonable deadlines to force you to act without thinking. In this case, she wanted the work to be done within a few days.

Natalie also mentioned that they would only pay via direct bank transfer. Remember: I knew this was a scam and had a backup plan in place. This backup allowed me to play along.

I told Natalie she could pay me via my Wise account. Wise isn’t really a “bank,” per se, as my account didn’t have anything in it and isn’t connected to any of my real financial accounts. If Natalie wanted to steal from me, she’d be out of luck.

Step 3: The First Payment

I used simple AI tools to mock up nonsense content to send along. I figured no one would ever read it, so it didn’t make sense to spend too much time crafting anything fabulous. But I needed the scam to keep moving, so I took an hour or so to make the documents look semi-valid. I sent them along.

Natalie responded within minutes to ask for an invoice. Now, we hadn’t reached a payment milestone at this point, so there was no reason to ask me for an invoice. But she wanted to skip ahead to her payday, hence the request.

After she got my invoice, Nataline sent me a formal-looking document stating that money had been transferred to Wise, but that it might take several days to appear. This was clever, as the document certainly looked real.

Next came a round of me dragging my feet and slowing things down so I could see if the money actually appeared. I figured it would not.

Step 4: The Payment Isn’t Valid

Lo and behold! Within a few days, Wise told me the transfer wasn’t valid. Essentially, the first document sent to me was a fake, so no money would ever appear in my account. (I told Wise what I was up to with this faker, including confirming the name of the bank, so future freelancers using Wise would have added protection.)

Step 5: The Verification Request

At this point, Natalie had no idea that I knew her first payment was a fake. But she began pressuring me to complete the job to get the rest of the money we’d agreed on. So, back to AI I went to work up more fake documents.

After I sent them, despite the lack of a final invoice, I got a very strange email message from a bank called Summit Trust Holdings (Google has since flagged this site as deceptive). The bank told me I was required to complete an “anti-money laundering compliance check” on their site.

Surprise, surprise! That check involves making a “deposit” of $224 to verify my identity. The bank pressured me to make the payment within 10 minutes, and they assured me I would be refunded.

Step 6: The Panic

Obviously, I’m not going to give the bank any money, and I figure this scam has come to a natural conclusion. And here’s the funny bit.

Over the next week or so, I got nearly 10 email messages from Natalie asking me if I had completed the payment. She seemed genuinely panicked that I wouldn’t make the deposit to get my money. All of her hard work went to waste!

Warning Signs to Watch For

From the moment I got the very first email message, I knew I was dealing with a freelance writing scam. However, I know other freelancers haven’t been so lucky.

Natalie and her friends at Skill Mosaic ripped off many writers and translators with this scam. During the past month or so, the team has faced a few consequences. Their fake sites are down, as is the phony bank they set up to steal money.

However, fraud still exists. Here’s what to watch for.

Fake Names

My email came from Natalie Carlson at Skill Mosaic (as listed in her email signature). On a quick website search, I found two companies with a name very much like this.

Natalie’s fake site is “skill,” and the valid one is “skills.” Notice the extra “s” in the name. She was likely hoping I’d heard of the valid company before and wouldn’t dig too hard. She was wrong.

If a company seems to be impersonating an older and larger firm, it’s probably a scam.

Professionalism of the Site

Many freelance scam sites are set up like employment agencies or freelance networks. They’re built really quickly, so problems like lorem ipsum text underneath photos and strange typos are common. You’ll also see plenty of generic stock photos and a lack of verified details (such as a physical address).

For example, I’ve heard about a new scam website called “Project Guild” that ends in .org. It looks a lot like Natalie’s old site, and it’s packed full of hilarious typos. If I got a job offer through this site, I’d know I was dealing with a scam.

It’s not a crime to slap together a website. However, if a company is willing to pay you a huge amount of money and doesn’t seem to have a professional site in return, you’re probably dealing with a scammer.

Too-High Fees

Scammers lure you with fees that are simply too good to be true. The idea is that you’ll leap at the opportunity without thinking too much about the risks.

As a freelancer, you know your worth. It’s reasonable to want more money for the quality you can deliver. But if someone tries to pay you more than 2x what you charge your clients, this is a warning sign.

High-Pressure Tactics

All scammers want you to react without thinking. That means they set unreasonable deadlines for the work. They also pressure you into making mistakes (like giving them a deposit) without considering the consequences.

Clients can be pushy and ask for more than you can deliver. However, arbitrary deadlines (like requiring a deposit within the next 10 minutes) are a clear problem.

Strange Payment Options

Bank transfers and cashier’s checks are common scammer tools. They hope to entice you to provide banking details (so they can hack into your accounts) or ask you to deposit money to get money or refund an “overpayment” they’ve never made in the first place.

Freelancers should have plenty of payment providers to handle these issues. Wise, PayPal, and others like them can provide a critical layer of protection from out-and-out theft.

Peer Warnings

Scammers use the same names, company names, and email addresses for months (if not years). If you get an unusual message from someone, try searching for their name + the company name + scam. Chances are, you’ll see dozens of alerts from other freelancers about the same company.

It’s wild, to be honest.

Bonus Scam: A New Twist on an Old Classic

As I was writing this blog post, yet another scam came through. This is from someone named Karen Gonzalez, but her email address starts with “kay.gonzalex.”

I don’t have much free time at the moment, so I can’t string her along. However, these are the details I can discern from the two email messages she’s sent.

She’s asking for two 1,400-word blog posts within the next week or so. She’s willing to pay a whopping $1.70 per word, and she’s ready to sign a contract I send her. Once I finish the work, she’ll send me a cashier’s check for the total.

It looks like she’s been running this scam for several months. Apparently, she sends a fake check that the victim then tries to cash. While the bank verifies the details, she “notices” that the amount of the check isn’t correct. She asks the victim to send a refund for the overpayment.

Once that refund is in progress, the victim typically hears that the first payment is a fake. Sometimes, banks retaliate by freezing or closing accounts. Even if they don’t, the victim loses the amount sent as a refund.

That “contract” she signs is impossible to enforce, as this Karen will only speak to her victims via email. Once the scam is through, she just disappears.

What’s the Takeaway?

As freelancers, we have a responsibility to one another. If you’re hit with a scam like this, tell people about it! Share names, addresses, and other key details your colleagues might use in a web search. You could protect them.

If you have time, string the fakers along. The more of their time you can waste with clarifying questions, requests for verification, quick checks, and so on, the better. These people are already spending hours developing (in the case of Skill Mosaic) multiple websites and email addresses. Make them waste more.

Stay strong, fellow freelancers. We’ll get through this together.