How can a freelancer recognize an unwanted customer?

I have been working as a freelancer for over 4 years and have experience in communicating with various customers, experience in developing various projects. I tried to summarize my experience by creating a small memo, or rather a “stop list”, which I now use for early screening of customers, work with which does not bring either joy or benefit. He helps me to save time and nerves. I hope it will be useful to you, if you are a freelancer. It can also be useful for novice customers. I publish it here with a few comments on each item.

“Stop list” contains negative signs of the customer. Please note that a match of 1-2 points may turn out to be an accident. If 3 or more points match, I refuse to work with the customer.

All of the above is my thoughts, not the ultimate truth. I would be happy to discuss or adjust / expand this list.

“Stop list” when choosing a customer:

1. The name of the project contains diminutive degrees - “to make a small revision”, “to create a simple saytik”, “an easy task”, etc.
   Comment: the customer initially underestimates the significance of this project, he seems to be “afraid” to attract the attention of a professional, which usually means low cost of work.
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2. In the title and description of the project there are fuzzy formulations of the task, there is no complete task for development, the customer does not want to create it.
   Comment: the customer hurried with the start of development. Most often this is not one person and when the project is almost ready, there will be changes that will require a lot of rework. You will spend more time than calculated.
   
   
3. The task is to create a "clone", "analog", "exact copy" of a site.
   Comment: almost the same as clause 2. The customer is sure that “small” changes, when the exact copy is ready, will not require much of your labor. In most cases this is not the case.
   
   
4. Customer contacts consist of a nickname and ICQ, the registration date less than six months ago.
   Comment: the customer is hiding, at best, he is hiding from spam. There are exceptions.
   
   
5. The customer pulls time, not in a hurry to discuss the project. For example, after your response, he asks to contact him “on ICQ tomorrow evening”, but does not ask to send information to an e-mail.
   Comment: a “good” customer always wants to get results faster and that's fine. If the customer is heavily loaded and can not plan their work on this project, most likely it will not end with anything good for you.
   
   
6. The customer replaces the described project with another - for example, “we need an online store for 150,000 rubles and we liked you, but we have a more urgent project for 5,000 rubles”.
   Comment: in most cases, 150,000 rubles is a “carrot” in front of the nose. You try to get it and at the same time you carry a big cart and bear the driver whip.
   
   
7. The project is at the stage of “discussion”, “approval”, “budget decision”, etc.
   Comment: in fact, this means that the customer does not know whether this project will be launched or not. You can communicate with the customer, consult him - this is a good practice, but do not expect money from him.
   
   
8. The announcement of the project contains spelling or stylistic errors.
   Comment: random spelling errors are all. If they are in the ad, it can talk about the negligence of the customer. Deliberate spelling errors seem to indicate a desire to involve in the development of "sebe-like" students or a low level of customer culture. Worse, if mistakes are stylistic, it is considered that a person expresses his thoughts in writing in the same way he builds them in his head. Stylistic mistakes can talk about confusion in the thoughts of the customer, his inability to clearly formulate the task and to clear agreements. There are exceptions, but very rarely.