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graham_alice
Community Member

Buying an item with money provided by client, is it legit?

I'm new to Upwork and I was just offered my first proposal. The client asked me to buy an item for him with money he'd provide upfront. This would take care of the cost of the item itself and my pay. Which I imagine UpWork would take their 20 percent. I know not to accept money from an outside source such as paypal with a client but I wanted to see if anyone knew if this was an unusual request and possibly a scam? 

10 REPLIES 10
colettelewis
Community Member


wrote:

I'm new to Upwork and I was just offered my first proposal. The client asked me to buy an item for him with money he'd provide upfront. This would take care of the cost of the item itself and my pay. Which I imagine UpWork would take their 20 percent. I know not to accept money from an outside source such as paypal with a client but I wanted to see if anyone knew if this was an unusual request and possibly a scam? 



Alice G wrote:

I'm new to Upwork and I was just offered my first proposal. The client asked me to buy an item for him with money he'd provide upfront. This would take care of the cost of the item itself and my pay. Which I imagine UpWork would take their 20 percent. I know not to accept money from an outside source such as paypal with a client but I wanted to see if anyone knew if this was an unusual request and possibly a scam? 


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It is not that unusual, but as it is a first job, you should be wary. Could you give us a few more details about the job  and the item your client wants you to buy (without naming names or directly quoting)? 

 

ETA: You should definitely not buy anything until you have a firm contract via Upwork. 

The item is a bunion corrector kit and it can be found from Amazon. He
wanted to provide me with a link. He'd provide 30 dollars up front. 20
dollars would pay for the item and 10 dollars would go to me and I believe
after the UpWork fee, I receive my 8 dollars.

I'm waiting for him to provide the link.

Thank you

Is this for an Amazon fake review?

 

 

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"Where darkness shines like dazzling light"   —William Ashbless

Hes not asking me to write a review but he did ask for the order ID.


Alice G wrote:
Hes not asking me to write a review but he did ask for the order ID.

This is not a legit job. Nobody pays you to buy something on Amazon.

 

 

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"Where darkness shines like dazzling light"   —William Ashbless


Alice G wrote:
The item is a bunion corrector kit and it can be found from Amazon. He
wanted to provide me with a link. He'd provide 30 dollars up front. 20
dollars would pay for the item and 10 dollars would go to me and I believe
after the UpWork fee, I receive my 8 dollars.

Does he want you to write a review?

The problem is that if the client pays you $ 30 Dollars, the Upwork fee is $ 6 (plus VAT if applicable) and if you paid $ 20 for the item (what about shipping?) then there would be $ 4 or less left for you...

 

Why does the client not buy it himself? Do they have a verified payment method?

 


Alice G wrote:
The item is a bunion corrector kit and it can be found from Amazon. He
wanted to provide me with a link. He'd provide 30 dollars up front. 20
dollars would pay for the item and 10 dollars would go to me and I believe
after the UpWork fee, I receive my 8 dollars.

I'm waiting for him to provide the link.

Thank you

_______________________________

 

Well you can look at the link, but don't agree to any work at all until you have a contract firmly in place.

 

The job seems dodgy to me and if, as René asked, it is to write a false review, then that is against both Amazon and Upwork's ToS. I think you should give this job a miss and it's badly paid anyway. 

 

ETA: I also think you should report the job.

Thank yall so much for your help. Better safe than sorry!

Just think about what YOU would do, if YOU were the client.

 

If YOU were the client, and you wanted to hire a freelancer to evaluate a product or review something, then wouldn't you ask the freelancer for her address, and have the item shipped to her?

 

Wouldn't doing this demonstrate that you are a legitimate client, and not just somebody trying to run a scam?

 

When a client isn't doing what you would personally do as a client, then there is a good reason to question the legitimacy of what they are doing.

kat303
Community Member


Alice G wrote:

I'm new to Upwork and I was just offered my first proposal. The client asked me to buy an item for him with money he'd provide upfront. This would take care of the cost of the item itself and my pay. Which I imagine UpWork would take their 20 percent. I know not to accept money from an outside source such as paypal with a client but I wanted to see if anyone knew if this was an unusual request and possibly a scam? 


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I'll start off by saying that scammers usually contact freelancers who are new because new freelancers are naive, they don't know the procedures of this site and they don't know what to look out for. New freelancers are easy prey for scammers. If you didn't submit a proposal for this job, then you should be wary.

 

This could be, maybe, a legitimate job. There are clients for example living in Canada and certain companies will not ship to Canada or overseas. But those clients buy the product themselves and have it shipped to you. You then ship it to the residence of the client. If that is the case, those clients will pay for the item, and the shipping cost - in addition they will also pay you the cost for shipping the item to them. 

 

I somehow think this job is for a review. If that is the case, Amazon is cracking down on false reviews both the client who asked for the review and for the person who gave that review. Lets just say, this job turns out to be a review. Do you have bunions? Will you use this device on YOUR bunions? If you don't have bunions or have no use for this item, what review could you possible give? 

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