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Am I the last to get the memo on Guru.com fraud?

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myst woman

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The employers at Guru.com all seem to be doing some sort of scam.

I just got a note from Guru.com that one of the escrows for a two month running project was an unauthorized credit card and all my work for that project will remain unpaid. It's up on their site.

Another guy at Guru.com has ben ignoring my payment requests for about 4-5 weeks now. Guru dunt know nuthing bout it. This job seeemd to be a copy of another site and edit it to fit their company name and information. Avoid VoiceRadio123 and their projects.

I just did a project for a guy who claimed not to recognise his own words in an article I sent back to him. He sent me the 50 page ebook file and he still didn't understand the terminology he used in the interview. "Sam" has complete ebooks on mortgage real estate but can't master his own dialogue. Avoid being hired by Karsal properties LTD.

Some guy who claimed to need an IT newsletter rejected my articles because they didn't match his random top searches at Google. And there was no mention of keyword optimization for this article. Do not accept work by Brad Slavin. he has reams of time to play English teacher but can;t seem to write his own IT newsletter without Google links.

Was there a general "Guru.com is scam heaven" memo I missed?

About 75-80% of the employers are turning out to be dogs. I have two more projects I could be working on but i am waiting for an employer to pay me for work done today. if they don't, I can't do anymore work. How does Guru get away with this?

Is Guru.com a scam site now? Has anybody else had these experiences?
 
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myst woman

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Update:

The case where they paid with a fraud card was a "mistake" and the employer has canceled the project now they've gotten their money back from guru. Looks like Guru is working with a pretty crooked playbook.

Another employer is having me rewrite copyrighted articles with the authors name in them. I emailed Guru about this but they are ignoring it.

One of my projects was refusing to pay. When we went into dispute mediation, both parties agreed to abide by the decision. The employer has now refused to so that. And is still hiring work.

If you are looking at joining Guru.com DON"T.
 

typist

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good to know. thanks for the heads-up.
 

myst woman

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I am going to make a site about this.

I researched an article another project was having me rewrite.
It's plagiarized!

Guru breaks copywrite and the "burden of proof" in the dispute is on e the WRITER.

Is there any kind of online criminal acts or rights violation bureau for this?
 

myst woman

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Wait, it gets better.

The project with the three articles "rewrite" is clearly plagiarism. I was told to rewrite every sentence for three articles because the employer only had reprint rights not copyrights.

I called Guru.com and after carefully explaining this and showing them the messages where the employer specifically says "you must rewrite every sentence or I will get sued", the operator played dumb. "Umm I'm not sure what legally constitutes plagiarism. You'de better send a copy of all this to us."

Could there be a bigger cop out?

Why would they need a copy? I just showed them the project number? They read it for themselves. FYI this Guru employer has thousands of dollars in other jobs racked up. Who knows how many original content articles they have hijacked.

If you have written for ezinearticles.com, I strongly suggest you start triggering web checkers to find your articles "rewritten" elsewhere.

Of course the appropriate thing would be for Guru.com to open every project this employer paid for and look for similar project terms. But will they?

Not unless every project contractors suddenly "discovers" they were asked to plagiarize the work. And does the endless typing to communicate that to Guru.com, who don't see evil when they hear it or see it.

How much you wanna bet?
 

Duckinla

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You seem to have a lot of issues with a lot of people you are doing work for. Somebody along the line is getting disappointed and that's where the problem comes from.

Disappointment can be measured as the distance between expectations and reality. If reality is very close to expectations, there is very little room for disappointment. If it falls far short, there is much room for disappointment. For example, you can be much more hurt by a friend that you have high expectations for than one that you have low expectations for.

Most likely expectations are being set too high. Learn from the past and work harder to make sure that both sides have realistic and agreed upon expectations before getting into a project. You're the contractor, you're supposed to bring the experience. It's your job to be the expert and the professional.

This advice is free. Take or leave it as you see fit. Good luck.
 

myst woman

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Thanks for feedback. I have decided to just chop off when the employer goes to la la land. The straightforward ones seem OK. It's such a deep chasm in between the poles tho.
 

myst woman

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This whole situation at Guru.com just got 100 times worse. Now almost all the escrow payments are fraudulent and need to be "held". But Guru.com cleverly doesn't discover thst until you've delivered the work and requested release funds. They should call it scamguru.com.

Isn't there some kind iof Internet commission that investigates fraud over the internet like this?

It looks like the same guy just put up 25 jobs with a bad credit card. And Guru doesn't act until the release, after work is turned in. How many people out there are being scammed at Guru.com?
 

MikeK

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well you can go register scamguru.com because its available, and add nude pictures of billclinton and link guru to it everytime they piss you off :D :D

no i'm joking, anyway im glad i have nothing to do with them ;)
 

myst woman

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Wait, after closing my account because all the inquiries were making them work, they have now issued me many ultimatums to service their needs after they closed my account. I still get emails from clients with no way to answer back.

The IRS should look into this. Too many unpaid work jobs to be coincidence. if every contractor walks away from 2 jobs a year, guess who keeps the difference?

It's like 75% of my contact us emails got shredded or deleted. They already have the information! I think the operators are just coasting and deleting.

Guru.com is stupid. Can you think of anything more stupid than an Internet company emailing someone they shut of their account to send them email and information and data to help them (the company) win a case?
 

TBrownSpider

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I just had a similar e-mail sent to me this evening from Joe w/Guru. Isn't it Guru's responsibility to ask for some sort of verification such as a pin when an employer makes a payment with a credit card? I can't believe that this employer appeared so legitimate and engaged in such in depth conversations and turned out to be a scammer! What I REALLY don't understand is how in the world guru.com can just say - oh, sorry - this was a bogus charge - we're taking our money back - and not give you details to go after the crook! I'm calling the feebies in the morning. If this is happening on a daily basis this could equate to millions of dollars worth of theft! If guru has this problem still two years later then obviously they aren't doing enough!! I was ripped for over $1,000!
 

fab

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dianafreelance

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I was hired as a translator for someone who chose to use Echeck as a payment method. After the project was completed, I sent him the work and he was happy with it. He paid me $510 for my work. After that guru wrote me telling me that check was involved in some fraud and they have to withdraw money in my account. After that, they told me that everything was fine. After that employee deleted his account, guru is telling me that I owe money. I just do not understand why they cannot contact the employer who bounced the check. I really do not want trouble. Don't they have a system where they verify anything? Why give credit before a check is cleared? Is there anyway they can find that employer on their system even after the account has been deleted?

Please help me
Thanks
Diana
 

Rockefeller

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I got ripped off by a web developer there once...but I did receive a free Guru.com tumbler which I take with me to domain conferences and store alcohol in. ;)
 

Tia Wood

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I, too, had bad experiences with Guru.com as a developer. What I experienced were tons of canceled projects employers had posted. I basically wasted my time bidding.
 
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