Client asks security deposit

[anithastephen]

Hello freelancers

I have applied for a job a few days before and I had an interview with the client recently. The client asks me a security deposit to have this job.  He says that is their company policy. I  told him it is against Upwork rules. What should I do regarding this?

But anyway I asked him how much the security deposit is and thought of raising a query to Upwork. 

Freelancers, please respond on this issue. Thank you

[g_vasilevski · Accepted solution]

Thank you for reporting this, Anitha,

Our team will investigate it further and take proper action immediately. 

I would also recommend to check out this Post for more tips on how to avoid questionable jobs. 

[640d0d89]

**Edited for Community Guidelines** 

Hi! I have the same problem just now, this is probably my first client however he's asking for a security deposit via telegram. He mentioned that it is for the data security reasons. 

[pgiambalvo]

Scam. Report them and block them.

[sofia2008]

To start with, communicating outside Upwork before a contract is in place is a violation of Upwork's Terms of Service. You can find them at the bottom of this page.

Sending payment/accepting payment outside Upwork is also a violation of Upwork's Terms of Service.

Scammers will always try to find a new reason to get money from freelancers. No reason is valid. A real client will never ask you to pay to work.

If someone ask you to communicate outside of Upwork, stop communicating with them, report them and block them. They don't care if they are loosing their account because they can create a new one, but freelancers are only allowed one account. If they loose it because they violated the Terms of Service, they cannot create a new one.

[PradeepH]

Hi Princess,

I checked the job post you were referring to and it seems that it's already been taken down because it was in violation of Upwork TOS and action has been taken on the client account.

Please check out this post for more tips on how to avoid questionable jobs and please use the flag option found on each job post or message anytime you’d like to report a violation.

Thank you,

Pradeep