Virie Market can help you avoid it.
Freelancing has been extremely popular over the past decade or so. With the right skills and expertise, one can build a successful career or business out of working from home (or anywhere where there’s an internet connection). It takes hard work to build your reputation. You need to spend hours and hours of networking, practice, pitching, customer service, and tons of applications to be able to find a client. Maintaining a client is another story and another trail of a relationship-building process because you want to maintain it for as long as you can.
Once you found a client and you’re doing a good job, you will find more as you go along until eventually, you have already built a good reputation. You deserve that. After all, you’ve worked so hard to build it, then alas! One day, you just woke up that someone has stolen your identity and has been using your good reputation to find clients for themselves. Identity thieves don’t just steal your good reputation as a freelancer. They also deprive you of your income. Some of them even use your identity in dating sites and other sites you haven’t even imagined of being associated with.
Here’s what you need to know about freelancers’ identity theft
What is identity theft?
Identity theft is when someone else uses your personally identifying information, such as your name, address, Social Security Number (SSN) or any national ID in your country, credit card or bank account information, without your permission, so they can assume your identity to be able to commit fraud and other criminal acts.
How does identity theft occur in freelancing?
Most of the gig platforms and apps such as Upwork, Fiverr, Freelancer, etc. have some form of verification process where you will be required to submit your personal information and some IDs. Of course, you will be obliged to adhere because you need a way to find a client and a job, and that’s exactly what these platforms provide. Don’t get me wrong. It’s not at all a bad thing. In fact, it is done for security purposes. However, this is also a playground for identity thieves. Bad people can steal that information you submitted online and use it to create their own profile somewhere else. They will use it to poach jobs and set higher rates than what they are worth. While open freelance networks do have a verification process, most of them don’t run background checks on applicants to prove that they are who they say they are.
How to avoid freelancers’ identity theft?
Those freelancer platforms and apps are centralized, which means that there is a third-party running it, hence the need to verify your identity through the information and IDs you submit. To avoid being a victim of identity theft, find a platform that you can use even without submitting any information and IDs that can be stolen online. That’s how it’s done in Virie Market, where you can sell anything of value, and that includes services. Since it’s a decentralized marketplace, you don’t have to go through any third-party to find a client. It’s a win-win for both you and the client as you have direct interaction with each other. The client gets to check your authenticity from you, and you can do the same thing to him. But don’t just take my word for it. Download it here, and see for yourself how it works.
