"Can we collaborate?" SCAM - 3 Tips to Avoid It!
The purpose of this blog post is to warn you about a common scam that tries to prey content creators just like you and me.
Thank God, I've never fallen into this scam but I am 110% sure that many people have and I want that you are safe my friend.
So read this post carefully and take notes.
"Do You Want to Collaborate with Us? We Will Pay You."
This has happened to me many times:
1. Someone contacts you on behalf of a company and they want a Collaboration
They will say to you something like,
"Hi Roope!
We love your content. Would you be open to a collaboration?
We offer x and y..."
Most of the time I just ignore those messages but sometimes I've said that I'm interested and it has actually lead to some great collaborations...
But not always!
Sometimes they're just trying to scam you...
2. "Please, test our product first..."
Let's say that you agree to make a review of the product and they promise to pay you x dollars for doing that.
Then they say,
"Here's a link to download our product and test it so that you can make a review."
Now this may sound fine but you should be a little bit suspicious sometimes...
Here are a few things to pay attention:
1. What Kind of Email Address Are They Using?
This is probably the easiest one to notice if you're paying attention.
If you're getting contacted by a specific company, you should get an email from someone that has an email address like, xxxx@companyname.com
What if the email is like, xxxx@gmail.com ?
That may be a red flag! Not always, but often yes.
Sometimes they also use a modified domain name...
For example, they may use an email address like, xxxx@facepook.com
It's not so easy to notice the difference between Facebook and Facepook unless you're paying attention.
2. Do They Make a Pre-Payment?
If you are making a collaboration, a lot of companies will pre-pay you something for the work. If not 100%, they may pay for example 40% beforehand and 60% once the work is delivered.
Scammers don't do that...
They try to get you to download the software or do something before they pay you anything. That's why I almost never start working on sponsored content unless I've got some pre-payment before I started working.
3. What Do They Ask You To Do?
Common scams seem to work like this:
"Here's a link to test our product. Just click that link and download the software and you can test it. Then you can create a review based on your experiences..."
Sounds legit?
Not always.
If you're downloading something to your computer, you must be sure that it's good stuff. If you end up downloading something from scammers, you can guess how it will go.
- Check the domain where the software will be downloaded.
- Read the reviews about the software from credible sources.
- Make sure the company is 100% legit.
- Double-check everything before downloading anything!
Last Note...
I don't want you to be scared of all collaboration offers.
Some of the offers can lead to great parterships and even friendships.
Just be careful and make sure that everything is 100% legit!
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I hope you found this valuable.
Share this with your friends and followers.
Stay safe my friend!
- Roope "Stay safe on the Internet!" Kiuttu
PS. Now I'd love to hear from you.
Has someone tried to scam you offering a "fake collaboration"?
Have you also done great content creation collaborations with companies?
Let me know in the comments below!
Recent Comments
66
Thank you for sharing this valuable post, Roope.
This is true and frequent these days.
I have been asked by a company I wouldn't name here for review. They promised to pay after they approved the review.
Once the review is done, I send them my link, and till now I didn't hear from them again.
However, I signed up to promote their product to my audience.
Sure even if they didn't ask I have to write about their product if really I want to promote it.
But they made me change my writing calendar for a few extra bucks I have never seen. lol
Secondly, it is via my personal address (I didn't know how they got it): "I came across your website and got to know that you create written content on various affiliated products and therefore, I am approaching you with a product that your website readers & email subscribers are very likely to love. I bring you one of our most successful social media lead generation training programs. We are interested in onboarding you as an affiliate to promote this product through your website.
We pay high commissions to our affiliates and we will offer all support that we can to ensure that you would be able to make money by promoting our product on your website. If you are interested, please let me know. I would love to share more information with you."
I replied to his message and they offered their landing page and sign up form.
After some research, I found the owner is a well-known entrepreneur.
Why not sign up...?
I signed up and after about 1 hour I received an email from the email address I used to sign up and the message says something like this: Hey Sebastian," X" here from Y's team. "Yé asked me to shoot you a follow-up email since he hasn't seen you inside of his Partner Program. bla bla bla.....". In fact, what they want me to do is to pay $997 to partner with them for a promise of $500/day. haha if they know.
I unsubscribed to their list a few months ago
Then this morning when I checked my mailbox, I got their initial message again (see image attached)
I just brought a screenshot of their message for the evidence of what you say
Stay safe on the internet.
Luckily so far, any collaborations I have done have been legit. I’ve yet to be scammed. And most of the companies I collaborate with I’m also affiliates of. Thanks for the words of warning and advice. I’ll be sure to keep an eye out for scams.
- Erika
Thanks for the heads up Roope.
Really appreciate the work you do and the information you share.
I personally have never been approached in this way, but I am sure to have my eyes open now.
Best wishes and stay safe.
Gaz
See more comments
Thanks for a great reminder. Everything you say to do are things you would do for the review anyhow. Also before opening any exe or zip file run a virus scan on the folder even if from a known source. Here's to good health, great wealth, and awesome family.
Andy Anderson