Freelance Homewriters.com scammed by Freelance Homewriters.com Internet

Are you a professional writer, or simply supplying your opinion from a homeworker point of view? There is a wealth of difference.

Freelance writing is a skill, a creative art. Those who choose it as a career know there is no easy way to become established in the field, just as they know there are boundaries that must not be crossed.

And operating an internet scam that bears all the hallmarks of the familiar data inputting/survey form filling rip-offs we avoid like the plague UNDER THE GUISE OF A GENUINE FREELANCE JOURNALISM COMPANY is one of them.

Put another way, there are dozens of genuine freelancer sites out there. Helium, eulancer and elance spring to mind, mainly because I belong to all three. None of them would suggest you can make big bucks by typing up blog posts for a living; any more than they would suggest you can commission, let alone type up, 25 selling articles in one day. Most of them demand, as FLHW does, that you pay a commission on any work you do sell.

Most tellingly: NONE OF THEM DEMAND MONEY UP FRONT FOR YOU TO WORK FOR THEM. It's not the professional way the trade does things. Well, that's not strictly true - there's always vanity publishing. (See elsewhere on site for details.)

If that's not enough, how about the fact FLHW's advertising specifically targets those not scanning for creative writing sites, but for ways to earn money working from home? In other words, the hopeful data inputters and survey form fillers who would rather not get ripped off any more. The hook is that they APPEAR professional and respectable. How? Easy. Simply avoid any reference to Survey forms or data inputting on your advertising blurb, and you've got it made. Once they've been roped in - follow protocol as for Home Survey Workers.con. (Interesting fact: the initial marketing strategy for both these companies appears to be almost identical. As does their form header. Could almost have been penned by the same people)

In case Insomniarules turns out to be the FLHW MD in disguise, I'll assume this isn't the case. So, irrespective of any small print involved, let's see what we're getting for our money, shall we? How about that claim of anybody being able to make money from writing simple articles TODAY, even if they've no previous experience whatsoever?

Fourteen weeks ago, I was green enough to put this to the test. Yep I, too, lost $50 due to not reading the 'small print' but at least I've got enough material for half a dozen lucrative consumer articles elsewhere.

So how about the fact that the site does not offer work at all, but merely points you in the direction of a lot of online 'publishing companies' - most of whom demand a fee of their own?

How about the fact that even the most recent jobs on offer quite often are already closed to further bidders by the time you get there? Or the fact that, when you study the value of those bids, they are usually so miniscule that, in order to make that much feted $250 a day you'd have to find a way of fitting 48 hours into each one? And that's providing all your bids are successful.

Most tellingly, how about the fact that a site purporting to exist for the first time writer, only deals with publishers WHOSE FIRST REACTION TO AN INCOMING BIDDER IS TO DEMAND A PORTFOLIO WITH EXAMPLES OF PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED WORK?!

Hardly a place for a journalistic 'newbie' to hang out, is it? This is a site whose prospective members are ex-survey form fillers, remember.

I rest my case.

Are you a professional writer, or simply supplying your opinion from a homeworker point of view? There is a wealth of difference.

Freelance writing is a skill, a creative art. Those who choose it as a career know there is no easy way to become established in the field, just as they know there are boundaries that must not be crossed.

And operating an internet scam that bears all the hallmarks of the familiar data inputting/survey form filling rip-offs we avoid like the plague UNDER THE GUISE OF A GENUINE FREELANCE JOURNALISM COMPANY is one of them.

Put another way, there are dozens of genuine freelancer sites out there. Helium, eulancer and elance spring to mind, mainly because I belong to all three. None of them would suggest you can make big bucks by typing up blog posts for a living; any more than they would suggest you can commission, let alone type up, 25 selling articles in one day. Most of them demand, as FLHW does, that you pay a commission on any work you do sell.

Most tellingly: NONE OF THEM DEMAND MONEY UP FRONT FOR YOU TO WORK FOR THEM. It's not the professional way the trade does things. Well, that's not strictly true - there's always vanity publishing. (See elsewhere on site for details.)

If that's not enough, how about the fact FLHW's advertising specifically targets those not scanning for creative writing sites, but for ways to earn money working from home? In other words, the hopeful data inputters and survey form fillers who would rather not get ripped off any more. The hook is that they APPEAR professional and respectable. How? Easy. Simply avoid any reference to Survey forms or data inputting on your advertising blurb, and you've got it made. Once they've been roped in - follow protocol as for Home Survey Workers.con. (Interesting fact: the initial marketing strategy for both these companies appears to be almost identical. As does their form header. Could almost have been penned by the same people)

In case Insomniarules turns out to be the FLHW MD in disguise, I'll assume this isn't the case. So, irrespective of any small print involved, let's see what we're getting for our money, shall we? How about that claim of anybody being able to make money from writing simple articles TODAY, even if they've no previous experience whatsoever?

Fourteen weeks ago, I was green enough to put this to the test. Yep I, too, lost $50 due to not reading the 'small print' but at least I've got enough material for half a dozen lucrative consumer articles elsewhere.

So how about the fact that the site does not offer work at all, but merely points you in the direction of a lot of online 'publishing companies' - most of whom demand a fee of their own?

How about the fact that even the most recent jobs on offer quite often are already closed to further bidders by the time you get there? Or the fact that, when you study the value of those bids, they are usually so miniscule that, in order to make that much feted $250 a day you'd have to find a way of fitting 48 hours into each one? And that's providing all your bids are successful.

Most tellingly, how about the fact that a site purporting to exist for the first time writer, only deals with publishers WHOSE FIRST REACTION TO AN INCOMING BIDDER IS TO DEMAND A PORTFOLIO WITH EXAMPLES OF PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED WORK?!

Hardly a place for a journalistic 'newbie' to hang out, is it? This is a site whose prospective members are ex-survey form fillers, remember.

I rest my case.

Here is the disclosure directly from the sales page where you entered your credit card information:

An "Unlimited Access" membership to the FreeLance Home Writers Private Site normally costs $69.95...

But I'm going to take the risk off you completely by letting you join today for only $2.95. If you decide to stay a member we will charge you a one time membership fee of $49.95. This will grant you lifelong access to working from home as a freelance home writer.

Sorry to say, you are in the wrong here like so many others that complain on this site about unauthorized charges. It took me all of 30 seconds to find the terms of their offer on their sales site. You were charged within the terms, nothing fraudulent here. YOU simply didn't read what you were enrolling in. May I suggest you start reading what you are buying BEFORE you purchase, make informed decisions and stop blaming the company for your own lack of follow through.

Have a great day!

Update to my posting to anyone else that had posted information. I called 800-750-7660 and chose option 3 and got a live person on the phone. This person said that they automatically charge the $49.95 if you do not cancel within 7 days. The website does not tell you this. I argued with the company because their website also states 8-week money back guarantee and they never sent an email asking to upgrade from the $2.95 to the $49.95. Their representative told me they are crediting the $49.95 back to me so I am hoping that this is the case. The only reason I found out about this before the 8 week timeframe is that I checked my credit card statement online and saw this before the statement was actually mailed to me.