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Wikipedia:Articles for creation/Scam warning

The scam may work as follows:

  • A paid editing ring might file for an article's deletion, decline a draft proposed at Articles for Creation (AfC), or wait until the draft has been declined by an actual AfC reviewer.
  • A paid editor will then contact the author of the article and propose that they can recreate the article for a one-time fee and protect it from deletion for a monthly fee, or approve the draft and ensure its "safety" in the article space.
  • If the article is again deleted or declined, as is often the case, the original author will not be able to get a refund.
  • Some of the scammers falsely claimed to be Wikipedia administrators or employees of the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF).

Legitimate reviewers at AfC are all volunteers and will never ask for payment to get a draft into article space, improve a draft, or restore a deleted article. If someone contacts you with such an offer, it is a scam. To report it, send a copy of the email, including headers, to paid-en-wp@wikipedia.org.