{"id":4266,"date":"2018-10-01T12:34:00","date_gmt":"2018-10-01T12:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.capitalnumbers.com\/blog\/?p=4266"},"modified":"2025-08-11T08:58:32","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T08:58:32","slug":"how-to-avoid-getting-scammed-by-a-freelancer-pretending-to-be-a-company","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.capitalnumbers.com\/blog\/how-to-avoid-getting-scammed-by-a-freelancer-pretending-to-be-a-company\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Avoid Getting Scammed by A Freelancer Pretending to Be a Company"},"content":{"rendered":"

Freelancer are Disguising Themselves as Companies To Boost Their Bottom Line\u2026 At Your Expense. Here\u2019s How to Stop It.<\/h2>\n

The internet is great for meeting business partners, networking, and discovering new opportunities\u2026 but with all that opportunity comes great risk.<\/p>\n

One not-so-recent trend is consists of freelance developers pretending to be companies, and taking advantage of you by raising prices and making promises they can\u2019t deliver.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s nothing wrong with freelancers in specific situations.<\/p>\n

But when you need to work with a company with the resources to complete a major job, and accidentally hire a freelancer, it drastically increases your risk.<\/p>\n

The freelancer might perform freelance-level work but it will be done at a company-level pricing. In other words, you\u2019ll get overcharged.<\/p>\n

In order to meet project requirements, they might outsource some of your work to a subcontractor or partner you don\u2019t know about\u2026 someone you haven’t vetted and have no control over. In most cases, you won\u2019t even know your work is being done by someone else.<\/p>\n

Further, they might take on projects for which they aren\u2019t qualified. Remember, a freelancer is just one person working by themselves. They likely have no infrastructure or project management systems in place to support big projects. If something happens it\u2019ll be very hard to recover your project.<\/p>\n

Finally, the freelancer will probably not be held accountable. You can hold companies accountable for their faults, but a freelancer will just ghost. It\u2019ll be very hard to convince them to finish or fix the project.<\/p>\n

So, how can you identify a freelancer masquerading as a company? Just a few clues will let you in on the fact that someone is being dishonest with you.<\/p>\n

Where Did You Find Them?<\/h3>\n
\"Where<\/div>\n

Unless they\u2019ve been referred to you by a friend or associate whom you trust, proceed with caution. Anyone can do SEO or Google Adwords and get noticed through organic or paid traffic. When you land on their website, look around for non-stock images or people, names, or mission statements.<\/p>\n

If they refuse to show their face or reveal their names, or if their contact information is vague, then you might immediately disqualify them<\/p>\n

Second, if you found them on a job board, they\u2019re a freelancer.<\/p>\n

If you go onto Fiverr, almost every freelancer bills themselves as an agency or a company because they think it makes them more professional. Don\u2019t be fooled. The same applies to other job boards. Anyone looking for work on a job board is probably just an individual. Agencies generally have the resources to do more targeted outbound and inbound marketing.<\/p>\n

Think about it \u2014 how can you trust someone if you haven\u2019t heard their voice or seen their face?<\/p>\n

Ask<\/h3>\n
\"Ask\"<\/div>\n

Once you get the interview with the company, make sure to ask what their situation is.<\/p>\n

The fact is, in some cases, it might be okay to have your project done by a freelancer. They might be able to meet your needs without charging what a company might, and it might be a perfectly profitable working relationship.<\/p>\n

In this case, the problem is not that you\u2019re working with a freelancer\u2014 it\u2019s that you might end up working with a dishonest freelancer who bills as a company. You might not see anything wrong with a freelancer trying to appear more professional by using a company name. If you ask, and they are honest about their status as a freelancer and explain why they\u2019re masquerading as a company, that might not be a complete disqualification. It just depends on their portfolio and and what kind of prices they charge.<\/p>\n

However, if you ask if they\u2019re a company and they give you a vague answer or a non-answer, that might be a red flag. Listen to your gut. If you don\u2019t trust them, you can choose to disqualify them or look for more information.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s On Their Website?<\/h3>\n
\"What\u2019s<\/div>\n

A website is an excellent indicator of the kind of service you might expect. Someone operating as a freelancer simply won\u2019t have the time and funds to maintain the same kind of high-end web presence as a company.<\/p>\n

The maintenance and appearance of their site will be your first clue, but the content on their site might provide more.<\/p>\n

Look on their About page for a list of the employees or leadership. It\u2019s very common for full-fledged agencies or companies to list their workers and provide some personalized details. Even if that\u2019s not the case, they will still maintain a list of principals that set them apart from others.<\/p>\n

It isn\u2019t as common with freelancers.<\/p>\n

You can also look on the privacy or legal sections of their website. (If they don\u2019t have these, that\u2019s a big red flag). A company will probably use its full name, and it will probably include an incorporation or similar signaling, like Inc., Corp., Corporation, Ltd., or LLC. Freelancers will not.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/h3>\n

It\u2019s getting easier and easier for freelancers to pretend to be companies. While freelancers do have their benefits, the issue arises when they provide freelance-level work and hours, but bill you company rates.<\/p>\n

Plus, if someone presents themselves dishonestly, do you really want to do business with them?<\/p>\n

The best way to avoid being scammed is to trust recommendations by friends, coworkers, or associates who have done business with the company you want to hire. If that\u2019s not an option, be sure to examine their web presence more closely.<\/p>\n

Dead giveaways someone isn\u2019t being honest with you:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • They don\u2019t have a well maintained web presence<\/li>\n
  • They don\u2019t reveal faces or names<\/li>\n
  • Their about page doesn\u2019t indicate that they are a company<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Again, this is not to disqualify any one company or freelancer. You might choose to work with freelancers in specific situations. Just make sure you stay safe and don\u2019t get taken advantage of.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Freelancer are Disguising Themselves as Companies To Boost Their Bottom Line\u2026 At Your Expense. Here\u2019s How to Stop It. The internet is great for meeting business partners, networking, and discovering new opportunities\u2026 but with all that opportunity comes great risk. One not-so-recent trend is consists of freelance developers pretending to be companies, and taking advantage …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":4270,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[731,744],"tags":[],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.capitalnumbers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4266"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.capitalnumbers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.capitalnumbers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.capitalnumbers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.capitalnumbers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4266"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.capitalnumbers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4266\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15885,"href":"https:\/\/www.capitalnumbers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4266\/revisions\/15885"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.capitalnumbers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.capitalnumbers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.capitalnumbers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.capitalnumbers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}