Wikipedia:Scam warning

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WP:SCAMWP:SCAM

Scam warning: there are scammers who target new editors and Articles for Creation participants.

They may pretend to be Wikipedia volunteers or a professional Wikipedia editing or public relations firm, and then ask you to pay them for "premium Wikipedia services" – to create an article for you, accept or publish a draft article, prioritize the review process of a draft article, protect an article from editing or deletion, restore a deleted article, or monitor an article for unfavorable changes. This is a scam.

Help from real Wikipedia volunteers is always free.
Real Wikipedia volunteers will never ask you for money or any other compensation.
No one can guarantee that a draft will be accepted or an article will be kept in exchange for payment.

If someone contacts you with paid offers:

Do not reply. Stop all contact.
Do not share personal or account information.
Do not click on any links they send.
Do not follow their instructions or send any payment.

What to do instead:

Forward the whole conversation, including email headers, to paid-en-wpwikipedia.org.
Delete the messages. If you shared any account details, change your password immediately and consider enabling two-factor authentication.

How the scam works

Since nearly all Wikipedia activity is either publicly logged or listed in public locations or pages, a scammer can use Wikipedia in order to locate potential targets - such as by watching the New pages feed, or the Articles for creation or Articles for deletion pages.
They will typically look for draft articles that have been declined by a reviewer, articles that are tagged or nominated for deletion or that have been recently deleted, or new editors who are either asking for help with writing their first article, or trying to create an article in order to write about themselves or an article subject they have a conflict of interest with.
After they locate a suitable target, they will contact the editor and claim that – in exchange for payment, or for a fee – they can write, create, and publish an article for the user, accept or publish a draft article that's been submitted for review or has been rejected one or more times by a reviewer, expedite or speed up the review process of a draft article or give it priority turnaround time, restore a deleted article, prevent or stop the deletion of an article that's been tagged or nominated for a deletion process, monitor an article for unfavorable edits or changes to its content or protect an article from editing by other users, or other similar "services".
Some scammers will even falsely claim to either be Wikipedia administrators, Articles for creation reviewers, or Wikimedia Foundation employees or staff members, or falsely claim to personally know, have connections to, be "business partners" or have a "business relationship" with one of these kinds of users. Of the scammers that make these claims, some may go even further and claim that the user they have a "connection" or "relationship" to is willing to perform desired actions or tasks, use administrator tools or abilities, "pull strings", "look the other way", or violate processes or rules in exchange for payments or bribes.

If someone offers any kind of paid Wikipedia assistance or services, it is a scam.

Warning signs and behaviors

They encourage, "require", or push you to communicate with them using other platforms or mediums that are non-public and off of Wikipedia's website, and will usually try and do so quickly and hastily.

The off-wiki platforms they'll try and push you to use often include LinkedIn, Snapchat, Facebook, WhatsApp (or other social media services), Discord, or via email messaging or over the telephone. This is purposefully done and for many reasons: first, they do this because they want to isolate you, distract your attention, and prevent you from communicating with legitimate members of the community, receiving proper assistance, or locating the proper instructions allowing you to perform the same Wikipedia activities for free that the scammer wants to convince you to pay for instead. Second, they do this in order to keep security-aware editors and administrators from discovering your conversation with the scammer and shutting down their scam by blocking their account and informing you of their true intentions. The quicker that they're able to move you away from Wikipedia's public communication channels makes it more likely that you'll stop looking for legitimate help on Wikipedia and finding the answer for free, and less likely that the scammer will be discovered, blocked, and have their scam attempt ruined.

They make unrealistic or impossible "promises" or "guarantees" with the services or help that they're offering.

Examples of such "promises" or "guarantees" typically include getting a draft accepted or an article published, having an article protected from changes or deletions, and priority or fast-track services or turnaround time (such as getting a draft article reviewed and accepted immediately instead of having it wait in line). The sole purpose, underlying intent, top priority, and ultimate goal of a scammer is to take or receive your money – nothing else. Scammers are willing to lie, promise, manipulate, con, coerce, and even threaten - if they believe that doing so will result in money being paid or sent to them. Absolutely nobody can promise or guarantee that a draft will get published, an article will be kept from deletion, or that an article's content will be monitored and kept safe from unfavorable changes or unwanted situations. If anyone comes to you with such guarantees or promises, this should be considered a big red flag.

They claim to either be prolific editors or Wikipedia experts, Wikipedia administrators, Wikimedia Foundation employees or staff members, users with "power", "command", "control", or "authority" over certain processes (such as whether or not an article should be published or deleted), or users with "insider status" or that know, have connections to, or have a business relationship with one of these users.

Scammers will typically make these kinds of statements while communicating with you – sometimes awkwardly and without you inquiring, mentioning, or asking them about about it first. These claims are usually not followed-up with any kind of verification or proof when asked to provide any. Scammers will employ a number of different psychological tactics while communicating with you in order to illegitimately manipulate, establish, and gain your trust, something that is absolutely critical in order for their scams to be successful. One such tactic that scammers often use to gain your trust is to falsify a level of legitimacy or credibility with you. Lying and making false claims about their level of access, power, influence, authority, or connection to Wikipedia is one way of attempting to establish this legitimacy and credibility. This makes it easier for them to illegitimately lead you into believing that their statements and promises are legitimate, and then following their directions and instructions – which will ultimately include paying or giving them money (either unwittingly or after they've convinced you to intentionally do so).

If you start receiving unsolicited offers for assistance, professional services, or priority handling of your draft submission, and if the user exerts one or more of the warnings signs detailed here, stop all communication with them, follow the instructions below in order to report them, and contact a trusted Wikipedia user for help.

Reporting scammers

Forward the entire conversation, including email headers, to paid-en-wpwikipedia.org.
Do not reply or respond to the scammer – even if to tell them that you are aware of the scam or that you are reporting their activity.
Keep a local copy of all messages only if you need it in order to supplement a report with your bank or with law enforcement. Otherwise, delete the messages.

Wikipedia cannot help you recover any money that was lost or stolen as a result of any scams, but reporting the activity will help to prevent future scams as well as protect others from becoming victims. If you believe that you were defrauded, consider reporting the incident to local authorities or a consumer protection agency in your jurisdiction.

Paid editing

Some people are paid to edit Wikipedia. Paid editors are:

not employed by the Wikimedia Foundation or by the Wikipedia community; they have no authority beyond that of any other volunteer editor
required to follow Wikipedia's paid editing process of disclosure and policy
required to follow Wikipedia's conflict of interest process of disclosure and policy
required to comply with Wikipedia's usual policies and guidelines, and their edits will be reviewed by the community like any other edits.

Some paid editors create "sockpuppets" for each client they work with to try to hide their paid editing. Edits by sockpuppets can be reverted without discussion.

No editor can "guarantee" any outcome or result will occur on Wikipedia: not that a draft will be accepted, an article kept or deleted, any content remain kept or be deleted, nor any tags remain or be removed.

If you receive a solicitation for paid editing services that contradicts any of the above, the paid editor is misleading you. Before employing a paid editor, you should read Wikipedia's paid editing disclosure and conflict of interest pages and verify that they are following these rules.

Getting volunteer help

For volunteer help, see:

The Teahouse: Q&A for new editors.
The Help Desk: for questions relating to Wikipedia.
Articles for Creation Help Desk: for questions about article submissions via the Articles for Creation process.
Conflict of interest noticeboard: for concerns about paid and conflict of interest editing.