UI/UX Freelance Job Scam That Looked Completely Real: My Experience

In January 2024, I thought I had landed a UI/UX design job. I checked the company and manager Neil Harrod Beck, but it turned out to be an elaborate freelance scam.

The Initial Contact & The Red Flags

I messaged a man on Telegram who introduced himself as Neil Harrod Beck, a Project Supervisor at Motion Recruitment. He asked me about my experience in UI/UX design. I told him about myself and explained that I had never worked with such a large company before. I wanted to make a good impression, so I even offered to do a test task. I thought it would be a good way to show my skills.

He told me that he liked my portfolio and sent me a form asking for my personal information:

Full name
Phone number
Email address
Marital status
Information about my work partner

I found this a little strange because they had not even chosen me for the job yet. I asked why they needed this information so early. He explained that it was for the future because, if they liked my work, there could be an opportunity for a six-month project.

Of course, I was happy. For a beginner designer, it sounded like a great opportunity. Six months of work with a large American company — at that moment, it felt like a real chance for me.

5 Days, 32 Screens, and High Expectations

Soon, I was given a task: to redesign a crypto wallet. I was supposed to create 16 screens, and the deadline was very tight — only five days. I was told that the project was urgent and the work was needed as soon as possible.

I enthusiastically started working on it, and over those five days, I created 32 screens in both light and dark modes.

I genuinely worked on that project. It wasn’t just some small test task. I invested my time, energy, and knowledge into it. I spent hours thinking about the screens, the design, the logic, and the details. During the process, I received positive feedback. I was told that they liked my work.

So, little by little, I started believing that this could really be the beginning of a good collaboration. Everything looked so realistic that I had almost no doubts left.

The $15,000 Offer & The Trap

When the project was finished, I expected to have a conversation about working together further. Instead, I was offered payment for the project — $15,000.

I was shocked. Honestly, at that time, it was a huge amount of money for me. But after five days of work, communication, positive feedback, and everything that had happened with the company, I wanted to believe that it was real. I was told to contact the person responsible for payments in order to receive the money.

And that’s when everything started falling apart.

This person introduced himself as “Motion Profit Revenue” and told me that in order to receive my money, I first had to pay $281 to supposedly link my bank account to KeyBank.

Uncovering the Identity Theft

At that moment, I started feeling uneasy. I didn’t immediately understand what was happening because, up until that point, the entire story had looked so convincing. I had checked the company. I had checked the person. He had a real photo, a real name, and I was able to find information about him online.

And that was the biggest trick.

The Scam Strategy: The scammer hadn’t simply invented a fake identity. He had used the identity of a real businessman in the United States. He had taken his photo, name, and professional information and was pretending to be him.

When I searched for this person online, I actually found a real person. That’s why I started trusting him. I thought: “Yes, this person exists. The company exists. So everything must be fine.”

But at that time, I didn’t understand one very important thing: The fact that a real person exists online does not mean that the person communicating with you is actually that person.

Verification and Relief

When they asked me to pay the $281, I showed the entire situation to my husband. He immediately said that it looked very much like a scam. So we decided to verify everything again — but this time, not through the contacts the scammers had given me.

We contacted the real Motion Recruitment and checked the information related to KeyBank. That’s when it became completely clear that I had been dealing with scammers.

At that moment, I felt enormous relief. I didn’t send the $281.

I understood that if I had paid it, the story might not have ended there. After the first “fee,” there could have been another one. Then some kind of “insurance,” “tax,” or a “payment to unlock the money.”

I was very close to falling into the trap, but in the end, I stopped in time.

Key Lessons for Beginner Freelancers

Of course, I was upset. I had spent five days working on the design. I had created 32 screens. I had invested my time and energy into the project. And in the end, I realized that there was probably no dream job. There was no $15,000 either.

The entire story had been built to make me believe that everything was real and eventually convince me to send them my own money. But today, I am still grateful that the story ended the way it did.

Yes, I lost time.
Yes, I invested energy in work that I never got paid for.
But I didn’t lose my money.

Essential Rules to Protect Yourself:

Never pay money to get a job. Never pay money in order to receive money that someone supposedly already sent to you.
Investigate unrealistically high offers. If a client offers you an unusually large amount of money, investigate even more carefully.
Verify the identity, not just the name. Don’t just check whether the company or person exists on Google. Make sure you are actually communicating with the real person.
- Find the company’s official website yourself.
- Reach out directly using official contact details.
- Ask for a video call.
- Check corporate email domains (avoid Telegram-only communications).
Beware of artificial urgency. Scammers often use phrases like “We need this quickly,” “The deadline is urgent,” or “You need to decide right now.” If someone doesn’t give you enough time to verify the situation, take a step back immediately.

Final Thoughts

This happened to me in January 2024, and it became one of the first and most important lessons of my career. At that time, I almost lost money. But fortunately, I realized in time that something wasn’t right.

And now I know something for sure: sometimes the greatest relief is not receiving the $15,000 you were promised. Sometimes the greatest relief is simply not sending your last $281 to a scammer.