Yesterday, I received shocking news from someone I didn’t know.

I received notification via Yahoo Messenger that someone wanted to speak to me. Normally, I reject these invitations; yesterday, however, the woman’s YM handle mentioned writing. I was both interested and curious, hence my willingness to chuck the usual paranoia. I accepted the invite and had a short yet shocking chat with the woman.

Did I know a Steve Park? I said, yes, because I had previously worked for him as an academic writer. I found Steve through Craigslist (*warning bells*). Three weeks ago, we had a falling out because of my failure to submit a few projects on time. Though I admit that I was at fault (always submit on time!), I felt that Steve didn’t handle the problem professionally, as he gave me the cold shoulder and ignored me for days instead of talking to me directly. We agreed that final payment would be made around 1-2 weeks after, due to some calculations he had to do.

He still owes me around Php 8000 (or less, because there might be deductions), equivalent to approximately US $190.

I e-mailed him twice this week, but no answer. I didn’t peg him for a scammer, though, so I thought he was working on it and being petulant and bratty yet again. I never thought he’d run.

Apparently, though, run he did. According to the woman I chatted with over YM, Steve owes her quite a sum (approximately more than a thousand bucks — in US dollars). He hasn’t been heard from since. Their last communication was two weeks ago.

And it’s not just the two of us; other writers have come out to say they’ve been had as well. I know I’m naive, but when it comes to business, I often think twice (even thrice) before taking the jump. I was ripped-off once by an Arab client over an editing deal, but it was a small sum. With Steve, I really thought everything was above board, because for the past month, payment was done weekly and never delayed.

According to her, Steve is connected to aboutpapers.com and some other writing company. I don’t want to completely condemn Steve since we still haven’t gotten to the bottom of this, but rest assured that this isn’t quite over.

The few bucks he owes me, I can live without. I’ll work with my fellow writers, though, just so we can clear everything and figure out if we’d really been had.

XOXO,