A buyer did not pay a writer friend for her articles...is there anything she can do??

Hy guys,

There's a writer friend who wasn't paid for the articles she delivered to a new buyer. She wrote 120 500-word articles in 15 days...the agreement had been that the writer would be paid every 15 days...when she asked for her payout, the buyer vanished and has never responded ever since.

Is there anything she can do?

I checked some of the articles on Copyscape to see if they had been used and they were found on Ezine under a separate name (not the buyer's name)...the articles were linked to a website at the end...just like all Ezine articles usually promote a certain website...

Not all the articles have yet been used...so please respond quickly and tell me what all options she has...

Waiting for your suggestions...

Thanks

 

First of all, how can anyone write 120 articles in 15 days? That's 8 articles per day.

Are you sure the buyer hasn't got a valid reason to refrain from paying? For example, maybe he or she deemed the standard of the articles too low.

And are you sure you're not the 'writer friend' in question?

 

The only thing I can think of is to threaten to contact Ezine and have the articles pulled (if they'll even do that) since it's copyright infringement (no payment=no copyright).

The best thing your friend should learn from this is to change her payment policies.

 

I would highly recommend that your friend start charging and getting paid at least half of the purchase price up front. Especially on such a huge project as this.

 

It sounds like your friend was scammed. However, what sort of agreement was it? How did they communicate and is there a record of it?

 

Communicated via email...has all records of the communication...a number of websites have been found to host some of the articles, while others are being hosted on ezine under an author, with backlinks to the websites

 

That's why many writers charge a portion of the costs upfront.

Also, it's a huge risk to do business with a brand new member with little posts and 0 rating.

 

First, she owns those articles without payment.

Second, she should tell the client legal action will be taken if no payment is received within the next #(3-10) days. Document this email as well.

Third, she should contact ezinearticles.com and any other website where they are posted with the conversations (email transcripts) and a polite complaint/cease-and-desist request.

That's the advice I have. This is totally unchill.

 

If the articles were of poor quality, the recipient of them should have rejected them rather than using them to post on Ezine.

Does the friend know the contact info about the client, or are they anonymous?

She can serve a DMCA notice on Ezine since the content is hers.

 

How would she be able to prove that those articles are her originals? I'm sure the scammer has the original Word files as well.

 

anyone who does not pay half or all up front is scraping and rearranging your work and probably converting it into other languages for minisites or seo rewrites. This is a big con happening now.

 

I'm just assuming she's as cautious as I and BCC's herself all communications relating to paid work.

If she didn't, there would be other ways of proving ownership. For example, in many countries a certificate of copyright makes a presumption of ownership that has to be disproven by the defendant when they're sued. Registering a copyright would therefore be a good step depending on her situation.

Received e-mails from the other person would at least prove that there was a contract. If the other person responded to the DMCA notice sent to Ezine and the info matched that in the e-mails, it would certainly create a connection between the author, the client, and most likely in the mind of a judge, the articles.

 

you can right mouse click on the google ad and report copyrighted work stolen/published.
if it ain't paid for, it's stolen.

 

Guys, what all legal actions can be taken, if any? Ezine Articles has responded to the request for removal of the articles. But is there any legal action that can be taken?

One of EA's staff has responded to my friend's request after she reported the author, and is presently trying to verify the information regarding the ownership of the articles...

If nothing else, this will at least have the articles removed from EA. However, we're not sure whether the other websites, which are apparently owned by the buyer, are willing to remove any other content.

The buyer has contacted my friend after she threatened to report him everywhere she found her unpaid articles. At first, he said that he is the owner of the websites. But then, he started asking her again and again if she has already reported him to the websites. When she told him she had done that, he threatened her saying she may kiss her freelance career goodbye. He said he will use all the money he has to destroy her...he will make her name popular on the internet, and loads of other bullshit...lol

He says the content will be removed in 2 weeks...i don't see there being any reason to trust this man anymore...i think he's a maniac...but he could be playing wise too...

So please tell me, what could be the possible reasons for this? Why has he told her that the articles will be removed in 2 weeks? He says that she will not be paid for the articles anymore since she has reported him. At the same time, the articles are only going to be removed in 2 weeks, and not instantly...

What would be the best course of action to take? The articles may or may not be removed after 2 weeks. If they are, they're of no use to her. Additionally, they've been used. Possibly, Google has already indexed some of them. What she needed was the payment, and that he still refuses to make.

The entire chat is saved, and can be shown to any party in the event of a lawsuit. But again, what would be the best way to proceed?

 

At any point has the potential buyer said his/her name or company? Is there any information that could help to determine the buyers identity? Perhaps email signatures? Or does your friend already know who the buyer is and where they are located?

All of the emails would contain header information such as ip addresses and other system data. It's possible to find the location of the isp. This could help to determine what town the buyer lives in. Then, with a name you may be able to pinpoint who they are and attempt to sue for lack of payment in small claims court (assuming this is all US based).

I'm not expert in doing this, but small claims courts are filled with cases where someone wasn't paid for services rendered. With emails there would be decent proof for a small claims case, although it may depend on the judge. Any threats could be used as evidence as well.

 

yeshua.watson, why don't you post this guy's url and username here?

I was thinking along those lines.

 

There is no reason why he has to wait 2 weeks to remove the content. Tell him to remove the articles immediately. Sounds like this guy is playing games.

And, I doubt the scammer has any money to "destroy her" or he would've paid her for the articles.

As someone pointed out, I would try to figure out who this guy is and expose him before he can scam someone else.

 

Guys, the only reason I'm not disclosing the identity of the person is because he's not from this forum. My friend takes writing projects from other websites such as Odesk n a few others...that's how she met him.

So I don't see there being any point in telling you about that person. Had he been at this forum, it would certainly have been my obligation to make everyone aware of his intentions.

And someone asked if the company name is known, well no, it isn't. The guy is from Australia, or so he claims. So no US laws apply there, my friends.

Anyways, he contacted her again when she demanded the articles to be removed instantly. According to his last statement, he is going to pay in the next 2 days...lol...all i know is that either he's extremely cunning, or a psycho...

 

I can write about 10-15 articles per day.

Anyways, just contact the buyer to pull the articles or contact ezine.

 

You said that the ezine articles were linked to a website? Go to http://who.is and type in the website address. It will come up with contact info like name, address, email, phone. Hope that helped!