Job Practices / Avoiding Scammers
This article is a repost of the announcement by Richard.
Over the past few weeks, reports have been abnormally high in regards to customers getting wrapped up in jobs where the applicant has been an alt of a banned account. This announcement is to emphasize on good practices that should be carried out when dealing with developers for jobs and custom work that needs to be done.
Before Accepting A Job Applicant / Working On A Job
- Check their steam profile to see if they actually OWN garry's mod. If they don't own Garry's Mod, it's probably an alt of a banned user.
- Review their game time on Garry's Mod (if they do own it). Chances are, if the person only has somewhere around 50-100 hours or less, they aren't that experienced with Garry's Mod development.
- Look at their friends list. If they only have literally 1 or 2 friends on steam, it's more than likely a fresh account.
- If the user who accepts your job asks you to add their OTHER steam account, BE CAUTIOUS. There's a reason why they're asking you to add another steam account as a friend. We suggest you look for that steam account on gmodstore, and see if they have a profile BEFORE DOING ANYTHING. It will tell you directly at the top of the profile if they are banned, and why they are banned. If you are completely unsure, post a thread on the forums requesting a mod. We can see if they have alts. It's better to be safe than screwed.
- Look at reputation of an applicant. If they have none at all, ask why. Yes, their are going to be people that are starting out on gmodstore, but investigate further before accepting.
- DO NOT send money to a person, unless they've proven beyond a doubt that what you've requested is being worked on.
- DO NOT send items such as "CS:GO Skins", or "gifted games". You'll never be able to get those back if it turns bad, and there will be no proof as to who got the gifted item. We only accept credit or debit card as a method of payment.
- DO NOT start working on a job as a developer unless you've been accepted on the actual job itself. No excuses such as "I'll do it later" or "When we finish". If something goes wrong, we need to see that you were actually selected to do the job.
- Ask a potential developer for past work, don't just settle for them telling you stuff they've done, ask for PROOF. Anyone can say "I am the developer of DarkRP" or "I coded a complete weapons system". Ask them for actual proof of their accomplishment, and if they cannot provide any, run. Most developers who are serious about their work will ALWAYS have a portfolio, or some way to prove they've been successful in the past.
- SCREENSHOT, SCREENSHOT, SCREENSHOT your interactions with a person. If anything goes wrong, YOU will have to prove your case. We do not accept 'text-based logs'. They can be forged easily. We want actual screenshots of your conversations that take place on platforms such as Steam Messenger, Discord, etc. If you don't have proof, then don't complain when we say there's nothing we can do.
The point of this post, is to get people to exercise caution before doing a job. RESEARCH people before you accept them and always ask questions. Once you pay a "developer" for work, and they screw you over, we cannot force them to give the money back. However, if you actually take a moment to research someone, prior to dealing with them on a business level, it may save you some time from being scammed.
You can read the rest of the announcement and peoples responses, plus a list of known scammers on the forums: https://www.gmodstore.com/community/threads/nBK106AXT56EHeSOfCFMGg