Hi guys! I’ve recently been contacted by someone on IG who could only have found my name and nature of services on this platform, even though it’s been a while I’ve done business on Swapd.
He asked me to publish press for him in order to get verified, saying money was no issue and bragging about how rich he was etc. I’m fully aware that’s a red flag but it’s also not behaviour I haven’t seen before from clients I’ve had successful transactions with. We all know a large part of our clients wants the press or blue check for their ego and that’s totally okay.
I’m always very transparent and explained that no press would currently guarantee a successful verification since that’s simply the situation, with IG constantly updating requirements. After some talks, we agreed on me performing a press package of several publications (full features on IBTimes UK & USA, InTouch, OKMagazine, OceanDrive & DailyFrontRow. Package price was under 10k, so he wasn’t being ripped off.)
Since it is important to me that clients feel safe, I agreed I’d publish a first article on DailyFrontRow before receiving the payment and going ahead with the rest, to establish trust.
I wrote and published the article within 24 hours, for him to then tell me he was having issues sending USDT. Issues that were clearly made up. I also noticed he had blocked me on IG (we had switched to Whatsapp for communication early on).
So when he was not replying anymore I told him there would be consequences if he tried to scam me and he then replied by sending insulting voice messages. Saying he just bought press releases (not news articles) from Issuewire and that he wouldn’t pay me for my services anymore, not even the one already performed. Which actually was an option that I offered him, I don’t force anyone to work with me more than they’re comfortable with.
This person went from sending the friendliest messages and heart emojis before publication, to ignoring and sending insulting voice notes right after.
He also initially asked me to perform all the press upfront, which I obviously and luckily declined.
Since his IG is 90% fake followers and he has shared paid press features on there already, I find it very hard to believe he is as unknowing as he behaved or pretended to be. Simply for the fact that I took my time to explain the significant difference in services (press releases being a primary source and not a secondary and therefor useless for verification) and also that he wanted me to perform everything upfront at the beginning. I was just met with ‘bro’ talk and childish insults, not an attitude someone who’d genuinely wanted to do eyelevel business would display. I kept my communication professional as I always do but he blocked me on Whatsapp too so I’m left with the loss.
His name is Kian Barazandeh.
