Direct offer

[0c4a7b3d]

The clients who send me an offer without any job posting and discussion are almost scammers.

I received such offers but they were all fake jobs.

Don't believe the direct offering clients.

But if they have some payment history, then he may not be the scammer.

[debi-f]

My suggestions from my experience working at Upwork for 13 years now. I can say that Upwork has changed in the last 1–2 years, there are fewer invitations to real jobs, more connects needed to apply and a lot of scammers, so:

• Don't search jobs only directly at “Find Work”. Go to the “Search for job” space to apply “Filters”.
• One of them is “Payment verified” (although today there are scammers with payment verified and Upwork is not checking it, it could help).
• Other Filter is “Client history”. Check if he posted other jobs, if he hired other freelancers, feedbacks, etc.   
• Check the Date since the client is a member. Usually the scammers are members from the same day they post their jobs, and they didn't hire anyone. 
• Always when applying for a job, even a real job, check the client's profile and feedbacks. 
• DON'T BID for jobs that ask for +20, +40 languages translation, or they publish a list of 15 languages, or invitations too good to be true, even when they have their payment verified. Scammers sometimes verify their payment from different countries every day. 
• APPLY TO JOBS THAT FIT YOUR SKILLS. Don't apply to 100 jobs, wasting connects and money. 
• DON'T APPLY and don't contact if they publish a link (telegram, mail, skype, etc.) outside Upwork.  
• DON'T start working or deliver any work if the contract didn't start for Upwork, and until the client has his payment verified and/or the money funded (specially if it's your first work with this client). 
• DON'T BOOST YOUR BIDS. When you do it, you are paying to Upwork for finding a job instead of earning money from your work. Serious clients will find the best options according to your skills and not according to the amount of bids you use.  And, maybe, this way Upwork will stop doing business by selling connects, and perhaps they will avoid scammers. And we will find more real and good clients. 

[tlsanders]

How does this constantly cut-and-pasted advice about bidding and applying relate to this post about receiving unsolicited direct offers? 

[arianerocha]

I received a direct offer a few days ago. The payment was quite tempting, but they didn't specify what it was for and I had to ask them like, three times. It took almost two days to get an answer and when I finally did, it had nothing to do with what I do. I was confused and decided to turn it down. I'm relatively new here and just recently landed my first job, so I'm still a bit apprehensive about this kind of thing.