Beware of this Scammer / Stealing Connects

[d17cb432]

This Scammer is posting 3 jobs a day, they are always the same.

1. Just joined upwork

2. No payment verified

3. Large Hourly Pay being offered

4. Always ask you to visit a 'short url' to read the 'full job description', which when you land on that web link/page there is no job description.

5. Normally posted from Poland but I've also seen posts with the same short url posted from USA.

I fear that people who are bidding on this work are being contacted by the poster so he can then scam them, I haven't wasted any connects on this person as I never bid on un-verified payment jobs.

Here are the 3 jobs they posted today...

https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~0128b30446d468a3e5

https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~0128cbe757d1eb75d6/

https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~016a747909072a77fc/

[martina_plaschka]

Scammers don't aim to steal connects, their aim is to steal money. If a freelancer sends a proposal, most often they will answer, so the freelancer gets 10 free connects. 

[d17cb432]

It's still a scam as the poster never gets verified and re-joins upwork everyday, I very much doubt they are just handing out free connects to everybody, most of their posts require 6, so you only gain 4. Like I said, more likley they are trying to then contact the person outside of upwork where the scam is put in to place?

[ericaandrews]

Definitely a scam, but I doubt 'connects' is what they are trying to steal. This is usually one of those scams where they offer a 'good' wage to entice new freelancers that really need a 'first' job, then respond to their proposal and tell them to go to whatsapp, telegram, or some place outside of Upwork where they rip them off.   This person is here on the platform to steal THOUSANDS, not a few pennies worth of 'connects'

By the way, everything you mentioned as far as the scam red flags is correct.  Never waste time with a client that 'just joined today' or 'just joined this week' and is promising the moon and the stars.   Sadly, 50+ gullible people have already bidded on these, which means several dozens of people are already  getting conned and getting their money stolen right now as we speak.

Unfortunately, flagging these messages is going to do absolutely nothing to stop this person.  Because Upwork doesn't verify any client's identity, all a scamster needs is a new email address to keep generating new Upwork accounts and posting this stuff repeatedly.  By the time Upwork has 'flagged' this account, the scammer will have created 10 or 20 more Upwork accounts tied to new email addresses and will already be re-posting these under the new account names. ID checks for clients would halt this, but they refuse to put sensible safeguards in place.   Glad you avoided this scam

[lysis10]

> Large Hourly Pay being offered

lol it works every time. Think think people. Remember, if you think in your head that you are getting one over on the system doing something shady like getting a rate wayyyyyyyy over your normal rate and wayyyyy too high for the job being done, then you should take a look at yourself cuz they playin off your greed and you're partly to blame for getting scammed.

[bobafett999]

It might be greed it also might be desperation combined with less brain power.  Just saw a profile of a yound lady.  She must have paid someone to get her on Upwork.  She was applying for a typing job.  But her skill set? AI, Machine Learning, C programming etc at a rate of $50/hr. I don't think she eve knows the meaning of what someone wrote for her.

[shummas]

or maybe she just recently enrolled into a comp sci major and is trying to build up general work history on Upwork until she develops at least some intermediate-level skills in the areas she has mentioned. Not an effective approach but yeah.