Don't trust everything you see. If something looks too good to be true, then it probably is. For example, if you stumble upon an ad which sounds too fantastic to be real then you may want to simply pass it up. One way you can discern this is if the particular ad in question has a much higher pay scale than the other ads listed on the same page. If the majority of the writing jobs posted on a certain site seem to pay an average of ten dollars an article, but the ad you are looking at lists a pay rate of a hundred dollars an article, this should make you wonder about the validity behind the ad. This is certainly not to say that nobody pays a hundred dollars and article, but it should give you pause if the ad seems incongruent with every other ad on the site. Take a look at the reply e-mail listed in the ad. If it is a corporate e-mail from a well-known publication or writing agency, then you can probably trust it. If, on the other hand, it's a generic Hotmail, Yahoo, or other free (and easy to create) e-mail account then you may wonder why this particular buyer is eager to pay so much better than everyone else on the site. Don't let this advice make you paranoid about applying for higher paying jobs, but do stop and think about the details of an ad before sending the employer a bunch of personal information or writing samples. If the advertiser replies to you that they want a series of test articles from you and do not offer any compensation for your time and effort then it is probably best to drop the issue and not to bother replying.