I think the mystery is solved.

In my last post, I showed a screen-cap from Craigslist with a post that claims to offer web design services. It shows my site URL as a “sample” of their work. Thus, insinuating that they are taking credit for developing my personal site. This is not a new problem on the web.

If they remove my URL from their Craigslist post I will remove their company details from my blog.

They listed a phone number which links to a calling center. I googled that number and discovered it wasn’t the only craigslist post with their calling-center number.   I called that number. It went to a calling service and I left a message.

A man called me back and I told him that they should Google their phone number and see that they are taking credit for developing my site. I did not  give him my real name or URL (because I have a few “email” stalkers). This made him angry at me saying that I was “hiding something”. I asked what his company’s name was and he told me the name.

I googled the company name that the man gave me. Guess what site came up just a few results after? His company profile on getafreelancer.com which I will refer to GAF from here forward.

In emails, he claims I used GAF to hire a freelance to work for larissameek.com. I never hired anyone to work on larissameek.com and I have never ever posted a job request on GAF.

Here’s where the connection comes in.

Recently, I researched  Job Boards from around the web to help people find web designers because I receive a lot of emails from people asking me if I can design their site but I do not personally accept freelance work.  I listed 23 boards and GAF was one of them. (I have removed this board from the Job Board Post.)

There is some major confusion and I think it comes down to a language barrier because the man I spoke to kept mentioning GAF and that I had posted on it that I was looking for a freelancer.

I have never even heard of his company or ever hired anyone to work on this site. I think that, perhaps he believes because I wrote a  Job Board blog post – that there is some connection to his company.

So, the mystery isn’t 100% solved but my guess is his company uses craigslist and job boards to post their services and what appears to be mis-leading samples of what they claim is their work. It is wrong for anyone to take credit for doing work that they have not performed.

So the lesson learned, If you see larissameek.com listed on a Craigslist post as a sample of work from any company. It is a lie.

The bottom line is I don’t want to see anyone taken advantage of when it comes to web devlopment because there are a lot of people out there who don’t know what is involved and innocent people could be unknowingly taken advantage of.