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asharma352
Community Member

Fraud Proposal - Data Entry

Hi All, I have been asked for send a security deposit of 12$ adter I did submit a propasal for Data entry job from ' **Edited for Community Guidelines**' and He/She asked me to send an email to his/her personal email i.e mentioned above but I din't yet. And He/She declined a job from upwork when I submitted a proposal so Is this s fraud call? Pls let me know how can we trust the freelance work if they demand?

 

 **Edited for Community Guidelines**

24 REPLIES 24
jr-translation
Community Member


Ashish S wrote:

Hi All, I have been asked for send a security deposit SCAM of 12$ adter I did submit a propasal for Data entry job from 'xxx@gmail.com' and He/She asked me to send an email to his/her personal email i.e mentioned above but I din't yet. And He/She declined a job from upwork when I submitted a proposal so Is this s fraud call? Pls let me know how can we trust the freelance work if they demand?

 

 **Edited for Community Guidelines**


I just though it is more visible this way.

Yeah you are write!

g_vasilevski
Retired Team Member
Retired Team Member

Hi Ashish,

 

Could you please reach out to me via PM (click on my name) and share the job title or the client name so that our team can investigate this further? 
I would also recommend to check out this Post for more tips on how to avoid questionable jobs. To learn more about getting started on Upwork and how to protect yourself, check out our resources Here. Thank you.

~ Goran
Upwork

thanks garan,

Actually this job is closed it seems! I got the below message.

 **Edited for Community Guidelines**

"This job has been removed from Upwork, so we are no longer able to retrieve your proposal."

Hi Goran,

I just recieved the similar proposal from one of the client and he asked me to send an email to his personal email. pls find the proposal below..Pls take the appropriate action on this.

client name -  **Edited for Community Guidelines**

I attached a screen shots also.

 **Edited for Community Guidelines**

 

 

 

Hi Ashish,

 

Please keep in mind that sharing private information publicly in our Community is not allowed. I would also like to confirm that our team has already taken proper actions to the client you're referring to. Thank you. 

~ Goran
Upwork
feed_my_eyes
Community Member

It's a scam. You NEVER have to pay clients a security deposit - there's no such thing. They're just going to take your money and disappear. Go to the project page and use the "flag as inappropriate" link in the top right-hand corner to report this. (It may have already been taken down because somebody else reported it.) 

 

Also be aware that it's against the terms of service for you to exchange email addresses or communicate with clients off the platform prior to being officially hired with an Upwork contract; it's also against the rules for you to receive a payment other than through Upwork. You'll be much less likely to be scammed if you follow these rules. Clients can't "demand" anything - you're in charge of your own business and you need to stand up for yourself. 

thanks christine! I will take care of this.

megz032501
Community Member

I have fhe same experience today. I submitted a proposal to a client looking for someone who can re-type data. The client declined my proposal but today he sent me an e-mail, with video instruction, contract and project details. All seems good until I've read that they will be asking a security deposit from me. This seems to be a red flag for me. I'm seeking jobs here in upwork to earn not to spend. I have been a victim of online job scams before. I hope nobody here would become a victim as well.


Mezahab S wrote:
I have fhe same experience today. I submitted a proposal to a client looking for someone who can re-type data. The client declined my proposal but today he sent me an e-mail, with video instruction, contract and project details. All seems good until I've read that they will be asking a security deposit from me. This seems to be a red flag for me. I'm seeking jobs here in upwork to earn not to spend. I have been a victim of online job scams before. I hope nobody here would become a victim as well.

You are perfectly safe from scammers if you never communicate outside of upwork before hire (and adhere to ToS). 

Yes. That's what I was thinking also. I was wondering why he e-mailed me when he declined my proposal in Upwork.


Mezahab S wrote:
I have fhe same experience today. I submitted a proposal to a client looking for someone who can re-type data. The client declined my proposal but today he sent me an e-mail, with video instruction, contract and project details. All seems good until I've read that they will be asking a security deposit from me. This seems to be a red flag for me. I'm seeking jobs here in upwork to earn not to spend. I have been a victim of online job scams before. I hope nobody here would become a victim as well.

Where did he get your email address?

He messaged me in Upwork that I am a match to the candidates they are looking for. He then gave me an e-mail address to ask any questions I had about the job, etcetera. I was hesitant at first, but I tried it anyway. I thought I did not qualify because after I sent that e-mail, he declined my proposal. I even wondered why our Upwork messages were deleted. Then a few days later I received a reply to that e-mail I sent. I got suspicious and did some research and found several complaints.


Mezahab S wrote:
He messaged me in Upwork that I am a match to the candidates they are looking for. He then gave me an e-mail address to ask any questions I had about the job, etcetera. I was hesitant at first, but I tried it anyway. I thought I did not qualify because after I sent that e-mail, he declined my proposal. I even wondered why our Upwork messages were deleted. Then a few days later I received a reply to that e-mail I sent. I got suspicious and did some research and found several complaints.

But now you know that you should have never communicated by email before hire, right? Not sure if that got through to you. 

Hi Mezahab,

 

I checked and it looks like the job you're referring to has already been closed (you'll see the status in your Archived Proposals tab) and action has been taken against the account in question.

 

I do encourage you to check this and other articles in the Trust & Safety section of Upwork Help for more information on how to stay safe while working on Upwork and online in general.

~ Valeria
Upwork
pgiambalvo
Community Member

You are not alone. These scams posts are more rampant than ever lately, leading to more freelancers getting scammed and the boards being clogged up with them. First off, read the ToS and never communicate outside of Upwork until a contract has been set up. But while UW might remove the posts after they are alerted to them, they apparently do not stop the same client from posting them over and over again. So they block the post, but not the client responsible for it. I see clients who show they’ve been a member for more than a month, have repeatedly had their posts removed, and yet still are allowed to post them again.


Peter G wrote:

But while UW might remove the posts after they are alerted to them, they apparently do not stop the same client from posting them over and over again. So they block the post, but not the client responsible for it. 


This is untrue. Why would you make such claims? Clients who are caught posting actual scam job posts are removed. Of course they are. Clients who "just" had a job post taken down that wasn't in line with the ToS in some other way are not necessarily blocked forever after one offence,

 


Peter G wrote:

 I see clients who show they’ve been a member for more than a month, have repeatedly had their posts removed, and yet still are allowed to post them again.


And you know it's the same client account that is posting them again... how? Those scammers copy each others' wording. You find them all over the Internet. Everywhere from Craigslist to all the job boards.
 

Because they are the EXACT same job titles with the EXACT same job descriptions. And when I apply to them to verify that they are scams so I can flag them, I get a response asking me to contact them off of UW. I guess they all could be coincidences, but I highly doubt it. I could cut and paste them so that you could see for yourself but that's not allowed. But maybe UW thinks that even though this same client has posted dozens of scams, they don't want to block them just in case someday they post a legitimate job.


Peter G wrote:

Because they are the EXACT same job titles with the EXACT same job descriptions. And when I apply to them to verify that they are scams so I can flag them, I get a response asking me to contact them off of UW. I guess they all could be coincidences, but I highly doubt it. I could cut and paste them so that you could see for yourself but that's not allowed. But maybe UW thinks that even though this same client has posted dozens of scams, they don't want to block them just in case someday they post a legitimate job.


Do you really think that there's just one person doing this?

Of course not. I wish. And that's not what I was implying at all. There are tons of them. But I do think that there are many that post over and over again as I described. And if I was allowed to copy and paste the post(s), you would see that it's obviously the same person(s) who show they've been a member for over a month, yet show no history, only the current job posted, and with no verified payment method. 


Peter G wrote:

And if I was allowed to copy and paste the post(s), you would see that it's obviously the same person(s) who show they've been a member for over a month, yet show no history, only the current job posted, and with no verified payment method. 


Are you sure that you're not flagging any posts from people who are just new clients with unverified payment methods, and/or are copying other job posts because they require the same service? You've actually applied to each and every one of these posts and been invited to Skype to speak with an HR manager, etc. etc.?


Peter G wrote:

you would see that it's obviously the same person(s) who show they've been a member for over a month, yet show no history, only the current job posted, and with no verified payment method. 


That doesn't mean it is the same person.


I think it might be time for you to find a different hobby.

 

Only people who want to violate the terms of service can get caught out by those job posts. They are not worthy of getting that obsessive over.


Peter G wrote:

Because they are the EXACT same job titles with the EXACT same job descriptions. 


Which part of "thousands of scammers use the same wording because they copy each other" did you miss? 

 


Peter G wrote:

But maybe UW thinks that even though this same client has posted dozens of scams, they don't want to block them just in case someday they post a legitimate job.


That clearly isn't what they think. 

 

Also, Just asking you to contact them outside Upwork doesn't mean they are a scam. That just means they violate the terms of service. That is not the same as a scam.

 

Also: If you know (or think you "know") that it is a scam, why do you apply? 

To make sure it is a scam before I flag it. I would never want to flag a legitimate client or post.

I think that freelancers should be made much more aware of just how rampant scam posts are on UW. I think that all freelancers should read and adhere to the ToS to help them avoid being scammed. I think that UW should be doing more than they already do to prevent scam posts from being able to be posted in the first place. I think that many of these scams posts are from the same clients, whose posts are blocked but they themselves are not subsequently blocked from being able to post them again.  

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