How do they know my contact details?

[mkaboldy]

Hello all,

yesterday I created a job posting, and almost immediatelly received tons of offers. Nearly half of them was irrelevant, but what really surprised me is that I received proposals directly to my personal email address and contact requests to my private skype profile, from totally unknown people (apparently all from India).

How can they know my personal contact info? I have double checked my posting and I'm sure I never disclosed these sensitive private info anywhere.

Let me please know if there is a known solution or procedure against this.

Thanks.

[versailles · Accepted solution]

Did you add a link to a website? Did you add a file that may contain a company name or something?

Alternatively, do you have such content in previous job posts?

Since Upwork doesn't divulge anything, this would be the only way for them to get their hands on your contact details. Please note that the scourge that is infesting this platform (and the Internet at large if you have made your post visible for people who are not connected on Upwork, which is a very bad idea), are extremely good at sniffing out the tiniest details about a client from a job posting.

[mkaboldy]

Yes, thanks for the hint. 

Though I didn't include any personal details in the current job posting, an eralier post in my buyer history does contain an URL, from which all my personal details can be easily engineered. That post was closed years ago, therefore I'm unable to edit it.

I made the current post private but I'm sure it doesn't help much. Now I'm sure my name, email and Skype will be circulated in the dark web forever. 

Anyway, thanks for the answer!

[versailles]

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@Miklos K wrote:

I made the current post private but I'm sure it doesn't help much. Now I'm sure my name, email and Skype will be circulated in the dark web forever. 

Anyway, thanks for the answer!

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Actually, you just need to make only visible to Upwork users. And don't worry about the dark web. It's merely the usual desesparados who will annoy you for a while begging for work. They'll go away after a while.

[g_vasilevski]

Hi Miklos,

One of our team members will reach out to you directly and assist you further, if you have any additional questions feel free to post them here or on your ticket. Thank you.