Beware of an offer that comes from **Edited for community guidelines** Interior Design **Edited for community guidelines**, which is allegedly an interior design company in the Boston area.
They successfully bypass the active proposal and interview process of Upwork by sending an initial Message with a link to an interview Skype chat through the Message channel. It does get flagged by Upwork on the portal but it also gets sent to the freelancer via email by Upwork. That's the bypass! See the example message below. When I clicked Reply from the official Upwork email so I could get into my Upwork Message portal, the message inside my Upwork portal had been deleted.
I recommend not following any link to a Skype interview chat. Firstly, I found they (the scammers) operate outside of the process of Upwork. Secondly, they want the freelancer to use their specific computer equipment which requires a suspicious process of “we will be making the procurement funds available to you as a paycheck on the company's expense.” This statement is ambiguous, suspicious, and lousy grammar.
To those who may be moderating here, spare me the childish lecture about how I should not do this or that. I understand well. I investigated deliberately so I could be armed with knowledge for my own benefit. Now, I am sharing that knowledge for the benefit of other freelancers too. This post is to warn freelancers (and those at Upwork) that scammers have successfully bypassed Upwork and are able to send invitation links to freelancers going directly to their email and is officially from Upwork. In fact, Upwork should delay forwarding emails to freelancers until the contents of the email can be properly scanned for links such as those to Skype chat links, files, phone numbers, etc…
If you're a new freelancer, take note. If you are a veteran, also take note.
**Edited for community guidelines**
