A client has asked for my bank acc details so I can western union them

[daniellaslp]

Hi upwork community!

A client has asked for my bank details so that they can deposit USD 500 into my account so that, moving forward I can make them a Western Unión money transfer of USD

500. Is this not strange?

[the-right-writer]

Stop everything. Do not communicate with this person and report to Upwork.

How can you have been here and had success, without learning the basic rules? No, it's not strange, it's typical scamming.

[2779bde0]

Stay clear of that scammer

[daniellaslp]

Thank you! I thought so... but then I was wondering and just out of interest, how does this scam work!? 

Thanks Jeanne!

[shaneb76]

If I understand correctly, they want to deposit $500 into you Upwork account and then you send them $500 via western union?

if so, likely scenario, they have used stolen card details, so owner of card does chargeback, Upwork takes $500 from you.

in the meantime you have sent money to this scammer, who walks away with your $500, and you are left with -$500in your Upwork account, which you will need to pay back to Upwork.

[daniellaslp]

They asked for my bank acc details so they can deposit 500 into my bank acc direct... so that after, I can western union them 🥴

[ArjayM]

Hi Daniela,

Thank you for reaching out and reporting this here in the Community. Please be aware that real clients will never ask you to give them money to start working, cash a check for them, work for free, or provide your personal information. 

Also, users cannot communicate off Upwork until a contract has been set up on their account (the client sent an offer, and you accepted it). Users cannot offer and accept payments outside of Upwork. Both are violations of the Upwork Terms of Service. 

We also encourage you to let us know if you find anything suspicious has happened by using the Flag as Inappropriate option throughout the platform. You can learn more about user reporting here. In the meantime, you can check this help article and this thread for more information on how to stay safe on Upwork.