Scam Warning: Scripted

Hot on the heels of Compose.ly trying to levy "maintenance fees" to inactive client and writer accounts, Scripted refuses to be one-upped by attempting to charge aspiring writers a $19 "application fee." You are not refunded the fee if you are not accepted.

Scripted is sometimes touted as one of the "better" content mills, at least in terms of rates of pay - apparently they start at 7 cents per word, which is OK for a beginner (but not a professional rate).

This isn't the first time there has been controversy over their application process, however. In years past, there have been anecdotal reports that the company allowed their own writers to review and pass/fail new applications. Naturally, some of their writers opted to fail everyone regardless of merit to reduce their competition for jobs.

So obviously, they were running such a tight ship that they are clearly justified in charging you $19 for the experience!

Scripted may be stepping into a big legal mess with this. In the United States, many states either forbid job application fees or limit them to government agencies (fees for civil service tests are common, for example). The UK has a national ban on application fees; there is an exception for creatives such as writers, but it doesn't appear to work the way Scripted is doing it. I don't have time for more than a cursory search but I can't find any word of them being charged in Canada or Australia except for apprenticeship applications, which may indicate they are not legal there either.

The company could also be opening themselves up to fraud charges, in several different ways:

• Content mills generally accept applications even when they aren't planning to add anyone to their roster - taking fees anyway could be considered fraud. 
• Accepting fees from people who aren't qualified could be considered fraud (a comment I found indicates they are taking the fee BEFORE they test applicants). 
• Accepting fees without doing proper screening (like, I dunno, letting amateur writers that have a clear conflict of interest screen applications for you) could be considered fraud. There need to be actual associated costs commensurate with the fee.

Why would any company open themselves up to this risk? Well, I wouldn't rule out just being THAT dumb and mismanaged, as their previous screening process indicates.

But, as with Compose.ly and their "inactive account fees", I think the best guess is that it's pure desperation. They're flailing for clients and they're trying to monetize the one thing they have - a steady stream of "work from home" hopefuls.

Either way, writers shouldn't waste their time and money. As it turns out, clients shouldn't waste their time and money either: Scripted apparently charges you a monthly "membership fee" just to sign up and look at their platform.

Everything about this looks like a failing business in a death spiral trying to grift as much as possible on the way out. I wouldn't give a company like this any kind of access to my credit card or PayPal account.