A suspicious client?

[#1]

So I called into this project interview and got this exciting offer from a client needing 30-50 texts per month.

Honestly, looking at his profile reviews, everything seems unrealistic. I asked him for his website because of curiosity, but he avoids it every time I bring it up.

Lastly, he even said he had someone from my country who would explain everything after I finished the test task or we drop the project.

At this point, it seems fishy af

I would be happy to hear the opinion of someone with a lot of experience.

How do you guys define which client is legit and which is not?

[#2]

Maybe he avoids telling his website before you sign because he wants to avoid suspicion of out-of-band communication, which is not allowed on Upwork and might result in his profile suspension? Which is a good thing to do.

If someone looks like a good person and acts like a good person, i'd personally expect him to be a good person rather than a scam you for some reason expect.

[#3]

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Alexander N wrote:

Maybe he avoids telling his website before you sign because he wants to avoid suspicion of out-of-band communication, which is not allowed on Upwork and might result in his profile suspension? Which is a good thing to do.

Does providing a link to your website count as offsite communication? I've never thought about this until now, but lots of legitimate clients include a link in their job postings. Maybe a moderator can give us a definitive answer.

[#4]

Hello Peter,

I personally think you can't define a client to be legit or not legit judging from one single factor. You have to take multiple factors into account before you consider a client as being not legit. 

- Is his payment verified ? 
- History of work on upwork
- Reviews of previous freelancers

If his accounts doesn't ticks any of the points above, then it is very hard to trust the client when he asks you to do a test job for free. And after comunicating with the client, if what he says feels like it doesn't add up or he changes the topic when you ask important questions to verify his identity, the best choice is to not interact with them at all.

[#5]

Welp, call it terrible judgment on my side. I recently got scammed by a legit client who spent over 10k on the platform. Surprisingly not alone, he did it to everyone hired for the task, blaming them for 1:1 same mistakes xd whole paragraph copy-paste.

[#6]

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Petar P wrote:

So I called into this project interview and got this exciting offer from a client needing 30-50 texts per month.

Honestly, looking at his profile reviews, everything seems unrealistic. I asked him for his website because of curiosity, but he avoids it every time I bring it up.

If his profile actually has reviews, he's at least a legitimate client and not a scammer. All you need do is look at the ratings given by freelancers and read their reviews. That should tell you all you need to know.

[#7]

Agree, but it is too late for that interview xd. I went away for half an hr, and it's gone. Guess its the mistake of the rookie.

[#8]

Thanks for the answers guys!

[#9 · Accepted solution]

Read this on how to spot scams: https://community.upwork.com/t5/New-to-Upwork/List-of-red-flags-for-scams/m-p/1017044/highlight/true...

[#10]

Thanks