Stay away from this scammer

Everyone remembers their first time, right? Whether its the first time you smoke a joint (unless you get completely blitzed and can't remember) or your first kiss, or the first time the stork concept becomes clear - you never forget it.

[ Trust me to be dramatic. ]

Well, i got scammed for the first time, and thought i'd warn all you people. After working in the business for quite a while - to tell you the truth - i've been expecting it. All the same, it still hurts.

The scammer is a member of DP. Name: Z4Z3. I call him Z.
The original thread where he advertised his need for "quality copy-writing":http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?p=1288524#post1288524

I know some of you are probably tired of reading my posts in a number of Z's threads (in regard to this matter) but i still thought i'd make a new one to issue a warning to all the writers out there.

Anyway, i sent Z a sample. He loved it. Offered me two show-grids and a top banner ad on his cool, new website. I declined and told him i'd rather work for money.
He agreed. Sent me a $2 advance. I decided to do the guy a favour, and agreed to complete the work on the measly advance.
I sent the work in. Very quickly, mind you, considering the sorry state it was in. I bet no-one here would recognise the original text (which i edited) as english.
Were nearing the end of the story. grab your popcorn.
i sent him countless emails asking for my payment. all were very polite. he was very polite too. he told me, very nicely, to be "more patient" and that he found a lot of mistakes in my work (he pointed out a mistake - after which i proceeded to tell him he needs to take an english language course.. although not entirely in those words. i'm kidding. i just told him that he was pointing out mistakes which weren't actually mistakes.)
Z then claimed that he would only pay for the "quality copy-writing" and not for any mistakes. Do keep in mind he could not point out any real mistakes in the text i had sent it.
After this, Z said that he was really busy, adn taht they were working on editing the text, and making the site better - and wow, it sounded like an old western movie, where two guys are digging a ditch to bury a man in. SO much bloody work. sweat. blood and tears. or is it blood, sweat and tears.
so yea, basically to make a long story short, Z kept saying he was busy, and would pay me for the final text which he used on the site.

Z is a scammer. He did not pay me anything - except for the $2 advance, which is paying all my bills.
Lets not forget he had the audacity to ask me to edit another page for him, in reply to an email i sent to him with regards to the payment.

Anyway, i just thought i'd give everyone a heads up, to stay away from this guy. I'm still toying with the idea of whether i should give him negative iTrader feedback - because if he retaliates by giving me some, it could hurt me in the future since i dont really have a lot of iTrader points since im still pretty new to the forums and havent done a lot of business here, mainly because a lot of people here want quality work - but dont realise that it costs.

this post has been long. and you guys are probably massaging your heads after all my rambling. all in all, just looking out for you guys. the 30 bucks Z scammed me for didn't really set me back, but i hope he learns his lesson.

Z, you really wont become a millionaire with this game plan.

 

to cut a long story short...

 

Thanx for the headsup. Appreciated.

 

Thanks alot for informing us.

its too bad! alot of Scammers started attacking DP

 

Always good to have the scammers pointed out

 

there seems to be hundreds here

 

tnx 4 telling us, best to have them pointed out.

 

Highflyer, sorry to hear you have had a bad experience - my advice is usually only work with respected members, and ones that have a good iTrader. I've always worked on this principal in the past.

I know your a very honest person, because you've performed brilliant work for me in the past, you've met deadlines, and always being polite - anyway this is turning into a testimonial lol

Basically, as sad as it sounds, trust no one until you have built up a relationship with them.

Darren

 

thats good advice darren. thankyou =)

 

Yet another person takes the time to write a long post about being scammed and post it in the underground

.....yet doesn't take two seconds to leave an iTrader so others don't get scammed

Seriously, this is like the 5th person in the last week to do this..I don't get it

 

whats an iTrader?

 

like i said, i'm toying with the idea of leaving iTrader because he might give me negative. do i want that? no.

 

Unfortunately though that leaves them free to keep ripping people off (Farooq was a prime example as he posted a 100 times in his scam thread, never giving iTrader and that guy went ahead and ripped off 5 more people because a. they never saw the thread and b. he didn't have any negative iTrader)

The iTrader points to the thread in question so even if they do leave a negative in retaliation, potential buyers/sellers can see the thread an realize the guy is just retaliating.

 

I guess you're right. I'm gonna go ahead and leave feedback (while risking negative points) so that other members dont get scammed.

i am SUCH a martyr!! =P

 

i hate these scammer bastards,sorry highflyer you had to deal with this pr*ck

 

I dont believe this. He's trying to taint my credibility my posting complete sh.it now. http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=111406

 

Leave a negative iTrader, and leave it at that.

These threads always leave my head spinning and at the end, after following all of the posts in the various threads, I still never know who did what and who to believe.

iTrader is short and sweet. When people read them, they can very quickly and easily find out more information pertinent to their own required needs.

 

already done.

 

highflyer, from what many say here you do good work and sadly, it appears you have been scammed.

However, I hate to be the pedantic schoolmarm, but your posts contain a significant number of typos and incorrect usages. (For example: see the above bolded edits to your text, "psychadelic" is actually correctly spelled "psychedelic," and your convention of lower case words where there should be upper case words). I see similar patterns on your blog and on the "Z-thread" you reference.

Just friendly advice - but as this is your line of work, I'd argue that you would make your case more persuasively if you were to clean up your copy here. It is the first writing of yours that many (including myself) will see.

Cheers,


Paul