Questionable Job Posting

[mizshelli]

Hello, I just applied for a job that is sending red flags like crazy and I was wondering if anyone else has applied? The client is paying an enormous amount of money for editing a book, and sent me some test pages. The pages are in 2 point font with teeny tiny margins, and the text is almost perfect. No spelling errors, no grammatical errors, it's good. He also asked that I format the pages to e-book format. The biggest red flag is that the job posting and all the e-mails he is sending are in horrible broken English. It isn't matching up, and I'm wondering if anyone else is dealing with him? I think he is 'testing' everyone then he is going to use the test pages to put the book together and not hire anyone...

[david_gregory]

It sounds a bit off to me simply because of the sample. Who gives a sample like that? It can't have been the way the person wrote it so they obviously want you to do as much as possible. Is it a new client or does the client have any history? How many other jobs have been posted and has the client ever hired anyone? I don't mind doing reasonable samples (a page or two) but not like this. I would probably give it a miss.

[stephenbrightman]

It's exactly my niche but I steered clear because the price was just so silly it was obvious to me there was something odd about it - coupled with the fact that there was no oDesk history. there's no problem with new clients - everyone starts somewhere - but this was such an off-the-wall silly posting for a new client. If it looks too good to be true.... Stay away.

[mizshelli]

I withdrew my application after noticing he was interviewing 20 people on Odesk and then he was harassing me about finishing the test. I respectfully declined. Just red flags everywhere. I wish I could contact some of the other 'interviewees' to see what they had done. I just didn't understand why the sample was perfect. Also, he had no history on oDesk.

[caldwellb]

I just got invited to a job that i am NOT applying for. This guy wants to pay someone $220 to "write a letter to Bill Gates" basically convincing him to give the guy $25K. 

One line proposal. No history. The guy just joined today. Doesn't Odesk Screen? I'm tempted to totally pull out.

[battershall-ramo]

Is this the guy who's offering various proofreading jobs at astronomical amounts?