How to tell legitimate consulting interview opportuities from scams?

A while back, someone on oDesk (now Upwork) contacted me. Red flags: 1) My oDesk profile was dormant 2) it was a lot of money for little work 3) I wasn't experienced enough but the topic was about one of the things I specialized in college 4) The approach was secretive and shady - they wouldn't say who they represented.

I checked the company profile and turns out they were in the maximum total payout tier, a green flag. The only people back then who could contract at those quantities and rates were Microsoft or something so I decided to say okay. Sadly you can't just check most company history like this outside of oDesk.

After they gave me the NDA, it was indeed a tech giant the size of Microsoft and they were looking for someone who spoke the language I did for the kind of project I did in college, hence the specificness. However, it was an external recruiting contractor (apparently they don't get their hands dirty in Asia). These contractors were often shady because of their mass recruitment approach and bad English. They were also constrained trying not to leak the project and yet approaching strangers like this.

I'm not saying that your $5000/hour offer isn't a scam, but I'd say try to triangulate who it might be and why they might offer that much.

I have done a few of these due to an expertise in a niche within the high frequency trading industry; they weren't near 5000$, typically around 10% of that. If it's a scam, I am betting you will know really quick (if they ask for bank info etc), I always asked for a paper check, and didn't offer up much personal information. If you post the firm that contacted, someone can probably corroborate one way or another.

That smells very much like a scam to me. Unless you're at an elite level, nobody is going to be cold-calling you with a $5k/hr job. And if you are at that level, you know it already and the people cold-calling you are people you already know about.

My rule of thumb for telling scams from non-scams is that non-scams won't be dangling the promise of money in front of you like that. If the position is legitimate, it sells itself.

Even just being cold-called is a bit of a red flag. In my experience, the best defense against scammers is to develop your own network that includes trusted recruiters, lean on that network, and ignore cold calls. Or, if you're really tempted by a cold call, run it by people in your trusted network first.

A lot of these are not scams! Over the last few years I've made in aggregate well into the 6 figures of side hustle advisory calls and engagements from these networks. Legit ones I've worked with include GLG, Guidepoint, Alphasights, Tegus and i'm probably forgetting a few more good ones.

Another interesting dynamic is that if you set your rate high, you might actually see more demand. Folks who use these services are not cost sensitive. They may often pick the most expensive expert in the hope of learning as much as they can in the fewest number of calls.

Just be smart though. Don't violate any of your current employment or confidentiality agreements when taking any of these engagements.

The expert network industry does this pretty widely but it’s literally never been that much money.

People like GLG or Dynata might contact you for a call or to fill out a survey for 10,50,100 dollars. Those are usually legit. If you are a surgeon or something rare you could command something like 200-500. But basically it has never happened that the fee is more than that. And if it was legit, you would be on the phone with their project manager and being vetted. Likely you are a CEO or C-suite expert so that amount is close to what an hour of your time costs anyway.

If you’re getting offers north of those figures and not directly talking to someone arranging the call then its a pure scam. And think why would someone pay you that amount, if you’re worth that much you probably already know…

If they try to take you off platform to pay out, I'd bet on scam. If they give you a advance in promise of a future job, and tell you to buy WFH furniture with it, definitely a scam. Be honest with yourself, is the expertise they're asking for that rare? It's entirely possible! How many people in the world are in your area of expertise? And are on Upwork? But if you don't have something extraordinary going on, the saying goes, if it sounds too good to be true.... I'm sure the $5k would be nice, but don't get greedy, that's how scams work to get smart people to ignore red flags.

A lot of similar pitches is a sign of a scam.

There might be a few legitimate businesses in the expert insight industry .

There are hordes of scammers in the scamming industry and the scamming industry is massive.

Niche industries are high effort. Any whiff of low effort is something else.

By asking half of the money upfront and meeting them at a safe space. Just don't sign anything without consulting a lawyer.

Ask for a % in advance.

Research.