A gentleman wrote to me asking if he could write a feature piece for FundsforWriters about a site that took his money and didn’t follow through with the promised service. I try not to do that. I don’t mind warning about the characteristics of such sites, but I back away from calling a business out as crooked. Frankly, I’d rather not be sued.

However, curiosity got the better of me, and I visited the site he referenced. In seconds, red warning flags waved in my head. That’s when I decided I might not be able to criticize a specific entity, but I can darn sure tell you about the red flags to watch for on any and all sites offering services for writers.

Red flags frequently mean scam. Note these issues when wondering if a site offering writer/publishing services is legitimate.

1) The About page is either missing or too generic. The copy speaks in theory. History of the company is missing. Headquarters locale is missing. In other words, nothing specific is mentioned ABOUT them. They don’t want you to know who they are. You know, in case you want your money back.

2) No human beings. You have no idea who started the company, who runs the company, or who is the face of the company. The email contacts have words like info@company.com or questions@company.com, or there’s only a contact page with no email address at all.

3) Names listed of their writers or testimonials consist of first name and only initials of the last name. Such comments cannot be trusted since these people likely don’t exist.

4) The images of people who give testimonials or work for the company are stock photo images. I learned pretty quickly in a reverse lookup that the photos used came from Shutterstock. The first one I searched for had been used on 115 different websites. (I used www.tineye.com)

5) Blog not up-to-date. A lot of these websites have blogs to prove they are experts and to gather interested parties for future sales. They should be posting a minimum of monthly, and of course, they should be posting consistently. The identity of the blog post writer should be clear, not some general piece ghostwritten by the company.

Contests have additional red flags as do grant sites and freelance market providers, but the above guidelines apply to all sites. Truth is, if you aren’t sure about a site, Google it. You’ll soon learn whether they are reputable or scammy, and if you find nothing at all, still move on. There are too many legitimate opportunities out there for you to waste much time on the questionable ones.