A while back, someone on oDesk (now Upwork) contacted me. Red flags: 1) My oDesk profile was dormant 2) it was a lot of money for little work 3) I wasn't experienced enough but the topic was about one of the things I specialized in college 4) The approach was secretive and shady - they wouldn't say who they represented.
I checked the company profile and turns out they were in the maximum total payout tier, a green flag. The only people back then who could contract at those quantities and rates were Microsoft or something so I decided to say okay. Sadly you can't just check most company history like this outside of oDesk.
After they gave me the NDA, it was indeed a tech giant the size of Microsoft and they were looking for someone who spoke the language I did for the kind of project I did in college, hence the specificness. However, it was an external recruiting contractor (apparently they don't get their hands dirty in Asia). These contractors were often shady because of their mass recruitment approach and bad English. They were also constrained trying not to leak the project and yet approaching strangers like this.
I'm not saying that your $5000/hour offer isn't a scam, but I'd say try to triangulate who it might be and why they might offer that much.
The expert network industry does this pretty widely but it’s literally never been that much money.
People like GLG or Dynata might contact you for a call or to fill out a survey for 10,50,100 dollars. Those are usually legit. If you are a surgeon or something rare you could command something like 200-500. But basically it has never happened that the fee is more than that. And if it was legit, you would be on the phone with their project manager and being vetted. Likely you are a CEO or C-suite expert so that amount is close to what an hour of your time costs anyway.
If you’re getting offers north of those figures and not directly talking to someone arranging the call then its a pure scam. And think why would someone pay you that amount, if you’re worth that much you probably already know…
I have done a few of these due to an expertise in a niche within the high frequency trading industry; they weren't near 5000$, typically around 10% of that. If it's a scam, I am betting you will know really quick (if they ask for bank info etc), I always asked for a paper check, and didn't offer up much personal information. If you post the firm that contacted, someone can probably corroborate one way or another.
That smells very much like a scam to me. Unless you're at an elite level, nobody is going to be cold-calling you with a $5k/hr job. And if you are at that level, you know it already and the people cold-calling you are people you already know about.
My rule of thumb for telling scams from non-scams is that non-scams won't be dangling the promise of money in front of you like that. If the position is legitimate, it sells itself.
Even just being cold-called is a bit of a red flag. In my experience, the best defense against scammers is to develop your own network that includes trusted recruiters, lean on that network, and ignore cold calls. Or, if you're really tempted by a cold call, run it by people in your trusted network first.
A while back, someone on oDesk (now Upwork) contacted me. Red flags: 1) My oDesk profile was dormant 2) it was a lot of money for little work 3) I wasn't experienced enough but the topic was about one of the things I specialized in college 4) The approach was secretive and shady - they wouldn't say who they represented.
I checked the company profile and turns out they were in the maximum total payout tier, a green flag. The only people back then who could contract at those quantities and rates were Microsoft or something so I decided to say okay. Sadly you can't just check most company history like this outside of oDesk.
After they gave me the NDA, it was indeed a tech giant the size of Microsoft and they were looking for someone who spoke the language I did for the kind of project I did in college, hence the specificness. However, it was an external recruiting contractor (apparently they don't get their hands dirty in Asia). These contractors were often shady because of their mass recruitment approach and bad English. They were also constrained trying not to leak the project and yet approaching strangers like this.
I'm not saying that your $5000/hour offer isn't a scam, but I'd say try to triangulate who it might be and why they might offer that much.
The expert network industry does this pretty widely but it’s literally never been that much money.
People like GLG or Dynata might contact you for a call or to fill out a survey for 10,50,100 dollars. Those are usually legit. If you are a surgeon or something rare you could command something like 200-500. But basically it has never happened that the fee is more than that. And if it was legit, you would be on the phone with their project manager and being vetted. Likely you are a CEO or C-suite expert so that amount is close to what an hour of your time costs anyway.
If you’re getting offers north of those figures and not directly talking to someone arranging the call then its a pure scam. And think why would someone pay you that amount, if you’re worth that much you probably already know…
I have done a few of these due to an expertise in a niche within the high frequency trading industry; they weren't near 5000$, typically around 10% of that. If it's a scam, I am betting you will know really quick (if they ask for bank info etc), I always asked for a paper check, and didn't offer up much personal information. If you post the firm that contacted, someone can probably corroborate one way or another.
That smells very much like a scam to me. Unless you're at an elite level, nobody is going to be cold-calling you with a $5k/hr job. And if you are at that level, you know it already and the people cold-calling you are people you already know about.
My rule of thumb for telling scams from non-scams is that non-scams won't be dangling the promise of money in front of you like that. If the position is legitimate, it sells itself.
Even just being cold-called is a bit of a red flag. In my experience, the best defense against scammers is to develop your own network that includes trusted recruiters, lean on that network, and ignore cold calls. Or, if you're really tempted by a cold call, run it by people in your trusted network first.
Ask for a % in advance.