Beware of Job Scams - Page 2

reimersarah · ‎02-21-2018

Fellow Designers, beware of job posters asking for interviews on Google Hangouts. Decline and request a phone interview. If the job poster won't take a phone interview, flag the job posting for being inappropriate. It's clearly a scam.

Upwork needs to do a much better job screening for job scams for paying subscribers. Scammers have reached out to me for design work via LinkedIn and Indeed before. I decided to try Upwork to avoid wasting my time on fake gigs. I am very dissapointed and I expected more from Upwork. I plan on cancelling my subscription.

prestonhunter · ‎01-10-2020

re: "Can you please explain how Google Hangout indicates a scam?"

Because every time we hear about entry-level newbies receiving invitations to interview using Google Hangouts, it turns out to be a scam.

Hangouts has scripting and automation functionality that the scammers are utilizing. And because these conversations are off of the Upwork platform, the scammers can engage in their nefarious schemes undetected.

re: "but I did research and it is on behalf of an actual pharma company."

No. It is not. You are talking to a scammer who has no connection to that company. The "research" you did was part of the scam. The scammer gave you that company name knowing you would google the name.

9f927300 · ‎08-06-2020

I only joined this site to respond to this group. The original post was basically how to identify if a position was fraud. Unfortunately, in our industry and economic climate, you will have predators that will try to take advantage of what some of you have affectionately called "newbies". Please, stop being such a narscissist as all of us were newbies at one point in time.

In short, if somebody is asking for personal information w/out any apparent/legitimate front end (outside of a SMB entity out there), it is only PRUDENT to follow up and ask. You can easily check with a main company site, however, just know that 3rd party vendors can be brought in for specific tasks that may not be known to the corporate, HR, and/or finance structures you reach out to.

If you find somebody representing themselves from a major corp, and they want you do leverage Line, or some other 3rd party app, outside of an authorized system, then you may have an issue. As an example, I had a position from**Edited for community guidelines**with a position. They're a french research entity doing really good work, though some douchebag decided to step in, and say they had 3rd party work I could do. They sent me an email via GMAIL, then a link through Google to download the Line app and set it up at that point.

So, nobody is safe, and to have the the tone of voice on this thread that slams people for asking those of you with more experience is quite sad and offensive. I will turn my back on you, and my company will stay away as well as if this is what your contributors think, then Thank you, but No Thank you.

JoanneP · ‎08-06-2020

Hi Kc,

I checked your account, and it looks like you have not completed your profile yet. Are you referring to a different account you have? Please feel free to send me a PM to share more information about this so I can check. Thank you.

~ Joanne

petra_r · ‎08-06-2020

Joanne Marie P wrote:
I checked your account, and it looks like you have not completed your profile yet. Are you referring to a different account you have?

As he pointed out, he only joined Upwork to respond to this thread for some reason.

nicoalba · ‎01-30-2020

I just got scammed by same individuals probably. The pharma company the persons says she works for is **Edited for community guidelines** it's a scam. If it's on Hangouts or they send you a picture of a check to deposit, it's a scam. My bank put a hold on the check and the scammer then asked me to send money myself and that I would be reimbursed later. Now I know.

BojanS · ‎01-30-2020

Hi Nicholas,

I'm sorry to hear about your experience. I checked and the team has already taken action against the job in question. I'd also like to use this opportunity to remind that offering and accepting payments off Upwork is a violation of Upwork ToS. Upwork requires all payments to go through our platform and offers Upwork Payment Protection for both hourly and fixed-price contracts.

Thank you!

~ Bojan

prestonhunter · ‎01-30-2020

re: "I just got scammed by same individuals probably."

Well, let's be clear what we are talking about:

The "same individuals" are thousands of different individual practitioners, small shops/agencies, and sometimes larger organized companies, all of which are utilizing the same scam scripts and same instruction files to run these scams.

There are more than one country that these scams operate from. The different people and groups who do these scams are not associated with each other. Note that many (perhaps most) of the people who you actually communicate with when you participate in these scams are regular employees. They go to work, work on the computer, and get paid by their employer, no different than if they were data entry or customer support.

None of which makes it okay. But it is interesting to understand some of the economics and sociology behind this. The employees know what they are doing, but it doesn't register in their minds as a moral issue in the same way that many of us would think it should.

petra_r · ‎01-30-2020

Nicholas A wrote:
it's a scam.

Of course it is. One of the oldest on the Internet...

Nicholas A wrote:
My bank put a hold on the check

Of course they did. There was (obviously) never any chance of that check being genuine. Your bank prevented you from being out the entire value of that check. No genuine client would send some random stranger a real check, would they? None of their cover story is even remotely plausible if you stop to think about it for longer than a split second.....

Apart from that, accepting a check (fake or real, or payment in any form other than through the website) from an Upwork client is grounds for your account to be suspended, it's a violation of Upwork's most sacred of rules....

jaybopp82 · ‎01-30-2020

I recommend:

- Closing your bank account.

- Opening a new account with a new bank.

- At the least, get a new account number.

I'd be willing to bet they now have all your important banking information.

prestonhunter · ‎01-30-2020

re: "I recommend:

- Closing your bank account.

- Opening a new account with a new bank."

This is very good advice.

It is worth adding that often a person who deposits a bad check from one of these scams may not actually have a choice in the matter. This kind of thing can prompt a bank to close the account holder's account.

petra_r · ‎01-30-2020

Jason B wrote:
I recommend:
- Closing your bank account.
- Opening a new account with a new bank.
- At the least, get a new account number.

I'd be willing to bet they now have all your important banking information.

No, they don't and they are not even remotely interested in his banking information.

All they are interested in is finding people who will deposit a fake check and then send them real money.

No need for a new account or account number. Even if he had given them the account number, there is nothing anyone can do with an account number. People get all bent out of shape over account numbers and routing code and forget that this info is on every check they have ever written.

This is an ancient and super dumb scam that few people fall for these days. ALL the scammers want is for the account holder to send them money.

dinah_t · ‎03-03-2020

So this scam just happened to me. I thought it was kinda fishy from the beginning but I went through with the Hangouts anyways to see. Looked up the company and the names of the people that contacted me. The company is real, but the names don't add up - either they don't exist or they are but have a completely different profession, etc. The most they got out of me was my name, home address and email address. I stopped communication once they sent me a "check" via email. I did not do anything with it cause it is obviously fake. The thing I'm concern is my home address. Do you think they may be keen to linking it to any other personal info?

AveryO · ‎03-03-2020

Hi Dinah,

I'm sorry to learn about your experience with Upwork. Requesting for your address is unusual, and we do not recommend meeting this request. Clients normally don't need this information and you can share with them your general location if that's a need. But, sharing your personal address is not something you should provide.

I highly recommend that you read up on the "Safety First!" section of the freelancer resources we have compiled, and these tips for avoiding questionable jobs for more information about working safely through Upwork.

~ Avery

erinholbrook0317 · ‎05-11-2020

I am new to Upwork and had an interview over Google Hnagouts. I didn't think anything of it. THye made me answer a ton of questions reguarding my potential employment. It ended, they said they would get back to me an dnever did. I didn't give them anyinformation they couldn't find just by clicking on my profile. So I guess my question is... What are they gaining by doing this?

prestonhunter · ‎05-11-2020

re: "What are they gaining by doing this?"

They are trying to manipulate newbie/inexperienced freelancers into agreeing to accept a fake check for about $3000, which they then get you to deposit into your bank and send them most of the money using an unrecoverable/untraceable method such as Western Union.

Then, when the bank realizes that it is a fake check, they clawback the money, so you either lose the money or permanently lose your bank account.

In your case, it sounds like the scammers didn't follow through and continue the process with you.

Either they sensed that they were wasting their time because you are too smart to fall for their scheme.
Or they simply dropped the ball.

Clearly not all scammers are created equal. Maybe the one that you got wasn't as smooth as the more experienced, top-earning scammers.

bassemabdelsayed · ‎06-18-2020

They became so clear to anybody to catch them from the first few words from the job description

20b02a54 · ‎12-24-2023

So basically on this project we beseech you work with speed and efficiency due to the intensity and sensitivity of this project. We’ll be paying 50$ per image as we will be working with 40 images. At the moment we have others requesting higher to get this done. I believe that is a fair offer.
Can you pretty much handle 40 images within (2-3) days?

this offer is scam ? he want to communicate with me

via telegram not here

LuiggiR · ‎12-24-2023

Hello Diana,

Communicating outside of Upwork before a contract starts is a violation of the Terms of Service. This is a common tactic scammers use to take advantage of freelancers. If this happens to you, please encourage any potential client to keep communication on the platform; otherwise, please report it so the team can investigate them further. Please take some time to read through this article for more information on how you can stay safe on Upwork, and visit this blog post from our Community member Wes for common red flags for scams.

~ Luiggi