[scorpionagency]

Dan, I fully agree with you.. However the design verification can be trying... I have come across several Designers from India that scrape screen shots of assorted sites & place them in Their portfolio. The funniest thing I have seen is when India designers use other designers websites as reference & say it is their website.

I have even seen 3 different India designers from 3 different cities give me the same Portfolio URL & when i confronted them with the fact that someone else showed me the same portfolio, guess what they each said?.... It's theirs & the other one was lying.

It can be Very hard to investigate at times.. The world is becoming more & more crooked with Self proclaimed Guru's.

My Best suggestion to avoid the majority of crooks on the internet would be to pick up your LOCAL phone book, Find a Local designer within a 50 mile radius, & visit him/her for coffee or tea to negotiate the design project.

Even if you go with a local freelancer, at least you can feel a little more comfortable being able to drive down the street a ways & talk to them face to face at the local coffee shop.

(You will find that the local Crooks will NOT agree to meet face to face the majority of the time - they like to hide behind their computers) so the Odd's are in your favor....

Just my Opinion.....