Hiring Content Creators: Beware

[frm]

I caught 2 content creators as the same person a couple of months ago and let them go on the spot for lying to me. A couple of months later, I caught 2 more, which ended up being linked to the original two.

Today, I caught 1 more linked to those 4.

I have been paying 1 person 5 times per week to post.

That said, beware of who you are hiring.

I might go in the direction of a KYC ("Know Your Customer") style hiring process as I want to distribute as much wealth to as many people as possible, not pay for 1 person's rent (from IP addresses, quite possible).

I won't say where (to not cause drama) these people (this person) come from, just a warning to look out for people offering their services to you: They may have (they do have) multiple accounts on various forums with different verified payment methods. For 8 months, they've evaded me, but their time has come to an end with me.

I suspect they will try to come at other forum owners and do the same. They just lost a significant chunk of money (in the hundreds per month) with me. Don't be their next victim!

 

[Shawn Gossman]

That is crazy!

How did you catch them? What gave them away?

 

[frm]

How did you catch them? What gave them away?

If I shared how before I implement a KYC-style hiring system in place — Don't want to do a Webcam interview? Fine by me now. — it will give away my security tactics where, I'll be very shocked, I may link a few more, unless they can evade it by me sharing.

You can believe or not, but 5 different people got hired by me with 5 unique payout methods, and they are the same person.

I'm just disappointed in forums that have "free markets", not tracking duplicate accounts, for this to happen in the first place.

One forum, shall be unnamed, directly hires them on the content team. I reported them for AI usage, but that went ignored. So, you're not only getting AI there, but possibly other people not on the content team offering services too, which is the same person. "Not enough proof" unless I share proprietary information with them on how I caught them (and maybe information they'd want that'd violate my Privacy Policy too).

It's wild out there. If you're hiring content creators, just be aware that they are very sneaky using different IPs and spoofing headers, but you can catch them in time.

I'll probably go back to paying a premium on Fiverr, cause at least they look out for customers.

 

[Mike30]

I caught 2 content creators as the same person a couple of months ago and let them go on the spot for lying to me. A couple of months later, I caught 2 more, which ended up being linked to the original two.

Today, I caught 1 more linked to those 4.

I have been paying 1 person 5 times per week to post.

That said, beware of who you are hiring.

I might go in the direction of a KYC ("Know Your Customer") style hiring process as I want to distribute as much wealth to as many people as possible, not pay for 1 person's rent (from IP addresses, quite possible).

I won't say where (to not cause drama) these people (this person) come from, just a warning to look out for people offering their services to you: They may have (they do have) multiple accounts on various forums with different verified payment methods. For 8 months, they've evaded me, but their time has come to an end with me.

I suspect they will try to come at other forum owners and do the same. They just lost a significant chunk of money (in the hundreds per month) with me. Don't be their next victim!

I have had the same issues, this is a constant battle I got on my forum. Not even a paywall was enough if they get more than what they pay.
My latest resource was a basic KYC style. I admit I don't like it, but I can't find a better solution as of now to solve the double accounts issue.

 

[frm]

I have had the same issues, this is a constant battle I got on my forum. Not even a paywall was enough if they get more than what they pay.
My latest resource was a basic KYC style. I admit I don't like it, but I can't find a better solution as of now to solve the double accounts issue.

I wouldn't mind too much if they had duplicate accounts and were just goofing around.

The problem lies in that they were being paid weekly to seed a forum.

On top of it, they were recruited from two of the leading forums that allow their members to offer their content services. So, I circle back to my first statement of "goofing around", this is not that — they share a responsibility here that nobody wants to talk about.

 

[meetdilip]

The kind of pay that is going on for content creators and the terms involved, I won't see why scammers are all into it. People are doing 1 month's worth of work for $40. That too, getting paid after work.

Look for smart people who have been around on forums for a while. You get to know that they don't use AI if they make mistakes. There was a time I used to try make some money as content provider. I was promised $15 and got paid $10 after some high quality posts.

A good work and pay culture is important. I am not going to sell 100 posts for $20. If someone is, they are desparate and will try other means as well. Some of them might not be nice. My advice, skip them.

 

[frm]

Look for smart people who have been around on forums for a while. You get to know that they don't use AI if they make mistakes. There was a time I used to try make some money as content provider. I was promised $15 and got paid $10 after some high quality posts.

I believe that I put out an ad for forum admins who want paid more than the average content deals (and if not, I should look into that and reopen the offer).

Forum admins should share a common goal and would be the best fit for the gig if they are on the same level of wanting to see their forum succeed. If they want their forum to succeed, they should feel the same way about other admins' forums, and put the same effort into that job as they would their own forum. On top of it, it would give them money for operational costs of their own forum, so it's really a win-win proposition.

I do pay in arrears, though, as I am doing this out of pocket right now, and I am paid in arrears. Some people do not like that arrangement, so they're holding off until I have the finances ready to pay up front, which I really can't grasp, as everyone who has ever had a 9-5 gets paid in arrears. It's a position that I would have to reconsider myself, if I want them on the team bad enough, or can't find as many to fill the openings that I have.

 

[meetdilip]

I understand. But there are a lot of scammers offering work. Most independent providers got the taste of it one time or another. It is hard for many of them to trust people.

I agree with you that there should be a proper balance between how people work and how they get paid. Forum admins can bring a huge change in this regard.