Kogut Arthur Nikolajevich is an excellent example from the world of freelancing, and example of why the business does not appreciate “freelancing experts”. He used a very common upfront payment scheme in order to make money on businessmen and webmasters that were looking for a reliable specialist.
Arthur was posting ads of his services on specific forums and was leaving requests for the projects on the freelancing market. He was using his charisma as well as hic skills of deceit in order to come up with alluring ads. From marketing point of view, he was a real professional. His prices and promised terms were particularly appealing - a little bit lower than the real freelancers were offering.
People, who were doing their best in order to solve the problem as quickly as possible, were lured straight into his traps and were placing orders. It meant that they were supposed to pay $40-200 upfront. Arthur was using his charismatic approach in order to confirm that he received the money and was promising to get the job done right on time.
After that the real fraudulent saga began – he was missing every deadline and when the client started to ask questions, he would always come up with some sort of an argument. But he was still sincerely promising that he will carry out the task. He was coming up with new reasons right until the client was losing his patience. This is when hundreds of people were losing their money.
The worst thing about it is the fact that these people lost a lot of time because of Arthur and their reputation was ruined as well. Some managers are still restoring their reputations, since because of Kogut their honest partnership was questioned by their clients. These people lost their money twice – after paying upfront, they were also forced to return the money to unpleased clients from their very own pockets.
Just like a real fraud that he was, Arthur was even ignoring some of his clients altogether. It seems that he was too bust with coming up with a new scheme to be answering to those pesky questions about getting the money back in a situation when the order was not carried out.
Unlike the majority of his fraudulent colleagues, Kogut was behaving like a warm and fuzzy animal – he was carrying out the first order. This is why, prior to getting the money, he was always receiving a positive review. This tendency is apparent in all the forum topics that were left afterward. For example, the review of promoting a GN-website. It is important to mention that Arthur did not ask for the down payment here. It is not like him and his activity, so it makes one wonder about the motives that he was driven by. Kogut realized that without the most basic reputation he is not going to be a reliable option and this means – less money coming his way.
Primary weapon in Arthur’s arsenal are the mask of the victim as well as an impressive arsenal of excuses. As a freelancer, he realized that such activity will lead to public showdowns. Kogut was prepared for it and was always building up a wise defense tactic. He was never using curse words and was making himself the victim of the situation. Should you read his replies, you will be convinced that he is the victim here.
You can estimate the level of his manipulative as well as writing skills better through the story of getting his schizophrenia certificate. As it turns out, he admitted that he is ill himself. When he was caught on that remark, Kogut told a long story that confirmed his diagnoses. While trying to find a way out of this situation, he was claiming that the topic was meant for a single person and that the schizophrenic disorder was mentioned there. He designed his response as an attack towards the person that paid him upfront and was left emptyhanded.
Arthur was often using a more aggressive tactic, knowing that the best defense is the attack. This is why he was filing a complaint to the Webmoney Arbitrate when the question of getting money back was too acute. It was necessary to frighten the customer, knowing that no one will want to sacrifice their online reputation as well as waste their time in order to unblock their online purses. Using such psychological pressure, Arthur was closing down a lot of complaints from the clients and was successfully carrying on with his fraudulent activity.
In other cases, he was claiming that he already returned all the money, even though the victims did not receive any funds. If the complaint were becoming too loud and active, he was either coming up with a sad story or was threatening to file complaints to the arbitrate as well as other monetary regulators.
At times, Kogut was switching on the “offended boy” regime and was addressing the administration of the forums, complaining about the pressure from other participants. This is why so few pages remain that allow to learn more about his activities. Arthur was great at covering his tracks, but some clever moderators were wise enough to publicly answer to his request and offering him to finally deal with the problems on his own.
On the list of Kogut’s excuses is his pathological need to gather as many orders as possible and his complete inability to say no to a new client. According to his very own version, he was carrying out the most lucrative orders and was returning the money to all others. However, an enormous quantity of complaints speaks for itself – no one got any money back from him.
Kogut knew that this type of freelancing fraud will not make him rich and this is why he was working on another fraudulent activity. He was speculating the loans through the Webmoney service. Arthur was taking the loans and was trying to lend these money on elevated terms. These money were also necessary to deal with personal debts – Kogut was playing for time and was trying to buy out those debts via the debt exchange for a small percent, using another WMID identification. Arthur was playing the role of a good boy here as well – he returned his first loans and even received some positive reviews. But the arbitrate archive confirms that in truth he was just another financial fraud – Kogut was coming up with all sorts of reasons in order to post pawn the terms of returning the debts and then disappeared.
Now all of Arthur’s purses are blocked. He was not spotted actively working. But all of his crimes against hundreds of victims will not prevent him from registering a new website and coming up with a new nickname – after all, his schizophrenia allows him to be creative. This is why you should be careful – before you pay a freelancer upfront, make sure you check his reputation online. Arthur’s greed may well resurrect his criminal activity – should you get into his clever web, you will lose time and money.
