BONUS SCAM BY A CLIENT

[#1]

Hi Freelancers,

I am writing about a weird offer that I received today. Out of the blue, a person called **Edited for Community Guidelines** sent me a direct offer of 40 hours and did not provide instructions regarding the job. I neither applied for it nor was invited. The job posting had been deleted and had only a vague one-liner description. When I responded by asking for the details, he said that he had hired a team of developers from India (where I am from) and wanted me to be the one to track the team and disburse their payments. He would pay the amounts on Upwork and I was supposed to pay the team in my local currency.

I considered for a moment and accepted the offer. However, as soon as I did, he immediately paid a bonus of $1680 (roughly 1,34,000 in my local currency) and asked me to transfer 50,000 to a bank account. Right then, I knew this was a scam and I told him, IF the money ever came through, I would send it to the account he gave. He quickly responded that the money needed to be sent immediately. I stopped messaging him right there and ignored him.

Dear Upwork team, I request you delete this person's account immediately before he scams someone. And, please be stricter on the ID verification process for clients as well.

[#2]

Yes, this same person has messaged me too. 

[#3]

Sri G.,

Even if the funds did show up in your account, as a bonus payment that payment would be reversed by Upwork if the client requested a chargeback from his credit card bank (if the card were his) or the real card owner would contest the fraudulent payment be reversed by his bank.

NEVER make payments for anything or to anyone on behalf of a new Upwork "client" you don't know well and trust completely. Once you have made such a payment, the scamster and his colleagues have your money (or whatever you've bought for them) and there will be no reimbursement coming your way.

[#4]

Hi Sri,

I m sorry to hear about your experience with the client. I checked the job post you were referring to and it appears that it's already been taken down because it was in violation of Upwork TOS.

Please check out this course for more tips on staying safe on Upwork and please use the flag option found on each job post or message anytime you’d like to report a violation.

Thank you,

Pradeep

[#5]

I did it for this person, and I received the payment made in the bonus as well. Did you receive the payment and keep it?

[#6]

Are you not concerned about losing your account or encountering law enforcement? The first thing that would come to my mind is money laundering. Read Pradeep's response.

[#7]

It is carding, not money laundering. Refund will be initiated at result. It can take monts, two or more before refund will be requested. So it is mistake from silly newbies to think if money arrived within week then all good.

[#8]

My point was not that it was actual money laundering, but that it would send up all kinds of red flags. When clients do things like that, nothing good will happen.

[#9]

The desire for quick easy money shines bright enough to outshine all red flags. 😁

[#10]

You've broken Upwork's terms of service and taken part in a scam. The scammer will steal your money and you won't get anything.

[#11]

There's no name so how do I know who you're talking about? 

[#12]

re: "There's no name so how do I know who you're talking about?"

It is a violation of Community Guidelines to post a name in an accusation of wrongdoing in the Forum.

More importantly:

Names do not matter.

Behavior matters.

We only care about the description of what a scammer or client or freelancer did. We never care about the name. The names are just made up or copied from the Internet anywhere. Next week a scammer may use YOUR name.