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lynnkutz
Community Member

Cancelled Job wants to send me a check to buy computer equipment and complete job

I was contacted by a man regarding a job that has been cancelled due to violation of terms of service. He wants to send me a check to deposit in my bank account to buy computer equipment to complete a data entry job.  He now says the job will be put back on the Upwork system as soon as the equipment purchase has been completed and then payment will be made through Upwork.  I'm VERY leery of this.  This is my first contact through Upwork and I'm not sure how all this works!  HELP!

5 REPLIES 5
BojanS
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi Lynn,

 

Thanks for flagging this job to us. Please note that all conversations before a contract is started must be through Upwork Messages, where you can send messages, have video calls, and more. I've checked and the job has already been taken down because it was in violation of Upwork TOS and action has been taken on the client account. 

 

Please check this thread for more information on how to use the flag option found on each job post or message to report any suspicious or inappropriate content. Also, check out this post for more tips on how to avoid questionable jobs.

 

Thank you!

~ Bojan
Upwork
lynnkutz
Community Member

I have been contacted by a job that was cancelled today due to terms of service violation.  He wants to send me a check to deposit in my account to buy computer equipment to do data entry for this job.  He then said the job would be listed again on Upwork and paid through there.  HELP!  This is my first freelance contact and I'm very leery of this situtation.

petra_r
Community Member


Lynn K wrote:

I have been contacted by a job that was cancelled today due to terms of service violation.  He wants to send me a check to deposit in my account to buy computer equipment to do data entry for this job.  


One of the oldest, **Edited for community guidelines** scams on the Internet. The check is (obviously) fake. Didn't the "was removed because we already ascertained that this is a scammer" email make you think?

 

You must stop talking to the scammers immediately, you must not deposit the check (you would lose your money and/or your bank account and possibly worse.

 

Also bear in mind that it is a violation of Upwork's terms of service to communicate with clients outside the platform before you have an Upwork contract in place. Partly to protect people who are not savvy from themselves when they are approached by nonsense like this.

You would do well to familiarize yourself with the terms of service.

lynnkutz
Community Member

Well thank you for your obviously helpful and **Edited for community guidelines** reply. As a new user,
I did familiarize myself with the TOS and am aware that contact outside the
system is not allowed.

I received the communication from them before the job showed as canceled in
the Upwork system, but again, thanks for the **Edited for community guidelines** assumption that I’m stupid.


Lynn K wrote:

Well thank you for your obviously helpful and **Edited for community guidelines** reply. As a new user,
I did familiarize myself with the TOS and am aware that contact outside the
system is not allowed.

I received the communication from them before the job showed as canceled in
the Upwork system, but again, thanks for the **Edited for community guidelines** assumption that I’m stupid.


It's also a serious violation to accept a cheque - at any time, for any reason. As soon as a client offers you a cheque to buy "special equipment", you can cut the conversation short and flag the job as inappropriate. (Why would you need special equipment to do data entry?) Unfortunately this isn't the only time that you'll encounter this scam, so it's good that you know what to look for now.

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