A woman calling herself Megan Hooke contacted me about writing a 2700-word article for a workshop in Boise, ID, aimed at high school students. The e-mail was titled “Need a Writer” and went on to promise a payment of $4050 for the article. I suspected it was a scam, but nothing came up when searching “Need a Writer Scam”, or the name Megan Hooke, so of course I went along with it to get the whole story!

I am not even sure what to put in this post so that people who run across this scam will be able to find the post when searching. It’s a very odd one that would easily fool people willing to overlook a few red flags when they get a very realistic looking check for $4050.

Scam E-mail Titled: I Need a Writer

It starts with this e-mail from someone named Megan Hooke:

Hello,
How are you doing? I am seeking a talented and creative writer to write an article on a specific topic and get it ready before the due date? The topic of the article is inspired by the theme of the program that’s coming up soon. I have put together the necessary guidelines to help you deliver a well-tailored article. Get back to me for more information.
Cheers!

I answered back to get more info, and in response, she sent this:

Thanks for the response Candy. The article is for a workshop that’s coming up soon in Boise,ID. I need the help of a professional writer to put together an article void of plagiarism and generalization. A unique article and not something that’s written by software.

The theme of the workshop is “ACADEMIC CHALLENGES: IDENTIFYING AND SOLVING THE PROBLEMS”. Reading the article will be the focal point of the workshop. The attendees are high school students. The article must not exceed 2700 words, using the provided guideline.

She goes on with a detailed outline of the article and requests my address and phone number to send me a check. She says the budget is $1.50/word, so $1.50 x 2700= $4,050.

Spotting the Red Flags

First red flag: the big budget. It’s just too good to be true for someone to contact me out of the blue for a job I didn’t even apply for.

Second red flag: she wants to send it all to me upfront! Who does that? Not to mention she also didn’t send a contract, which you normally would for such a large amount. And she didn’t even ask to see any writing samples. Big red flags that this is a writer scam all over the place!

A few other things also stood out to me as odd: she has a generic Gmail address, and no company info attached. She says it is paid for through various sponsors but dodges the question when I ask the company name. She also ignores my request to see her LinkedIn profile, so I know who I am working with.

None of this sits right with me, but in the name of research, I send her my address to see what happens. In a few days, a very real looking check for $4050 shows up by USPS.

I blocked out the account numbers and my address, but as you can see below, it looks very real and even has all the security features like a legit check. In fact, it could be a real check but possibly stolen and forged.

Oh, how I wish this was real! At this point I tried again Googling writer scams and workshop scams and came up empty handed.

Verifying the Check

At this point, I suspect it is an “Overpayment Scam” where they send you a fake check for too much money, and then ask for a refund. The fake check will usually clear quickly and only be found fraudulent by the bank a couple weeks later. By then you’ve already sent the scammer the money, the bank takes the full amount back, and you are stuck with a loss.

I did run across the Overpayment Scam when Googling, and apparently there is a workshop scam aimed at writers, but they tell you that you will be writing and presenting the workshop, and then say you need to send them money back for a deposit on the equipment for the workshop.

When the check arrives, an odd thing I noticed right away is that the check was mailed from Royersford, PA, the return address on the envelope is from the Oahu Group Corporation in Beverly Hills, CA, and the check itself is from Witkin & Neal in Sherman Oaks, CA.

When the check arrives, Megan is very adamant that I deposit the check right away. She claims it’s so “her sponsor can clear it.” She then says I need to send her confirmation of the deposit. Suspicious much? No way I’m depositing that.

Confirming the Scam

I figured I’d start by calling the bank to verify the check. The Internet made it sound like this is very easy to do. That is not the case. City National Bank said they do not verify checks over the phone. The woman suggested I ask the person for another form of payment if I didn’t think the check was legit.

So next I called Witkin & Neal and talked to a woman named Susan. I barely got my story out about the “Need a Writer” scam when she said, “That check is fake. We’re located in California and would not ever be sponsoring a workshop in Boise, ID.”

I got Susan’s e-mail address and immediately sent her photos of the front and back of the check. She wrote back and confirmed the check was a fake, and her company is not involved.

In the meantime, I still want to string the scammer along, so I go on Chat GPT and write myself a long article on the topic. I purposefully made it too short, thinking maybe she would give up her hand and say, “That’s OK, you can send me the difference.”

She responds by saying the article is great, even though it’s obviously AI garbage. I think I used the same intro paragraph a few times. She then encourages me to finish the full article, and to please deposit the check asap. So, I get the feeling things won’t progress until I say I’ve deposited the check.

Pretending to Deposit the Fake Check

Since I’m not really going to deposit it, I print myself up a fake deposit slip for a bank I don’t use. I then snap a photo of it to send.

She keeps asking me to deposit the check and send proof, so I send her the photo of the slip. Next, she starts asking me to confirm the money is in my account. So, I say yes.

Barely two hours later, she sends me this, confirming it is a type of overpayment scam:

Wow! She’s very detailed in her instructions. Not sketchy at all, lol.

I write back to tell her I totally understand why she needs to cancel! I also let her know I really appreciate the retainer fee, but I’ll need $50 to cover the FedEx fee.

She tells me no problem, just send a money order for $2950 right away because she doesn’t want the sponsor “to get on her case” in the morning.

Oh No, the Check Bounced!

It is currently the next morning and I have sent her a distressed message letting her know the bank has returned the funds and charged me $40! (this is of course made up)

I let her know she owes me $40 for the fee and she needs to call the sponsor and find out why she did this. I have yet to let on that I know this is a scam.

I’ll update with her reply!

So, watch out for this I Need a Writer scam. I’m not really sure what else to call it, but hopefully other people will find this and not get scammed.

Update: She replied back and scolded me for not using PayPal! She claims the sponsor did not think I was going to refund her, so she cancelled the check.

And this is where I’m going to leave it. I’m not going to let her know I know what is going on. I contacted a friend in the FBI and asked who I should report it to. He says that the local police won’t really be able to do anything, as it crosses state lines and also, I am not a victim.

The FBI has a website to report cybercrimes called the IC3: Internet Crime Complaint Center.

He advises to report the crimes to that website, where the FBI may act on it if it is part of a larger crime ring. You can report any Internet crime on this website, not just this scam, and the more you report these people the better!