I applied a few days ago to a fraud offer. I want to share with you how it went and some points that you might take into account for not making these mistakes.
I applied to a very interesting Freelancer offer that I saw (image0). It consisted of typing a set of documents from a JPEG/JPG type of file into PDF. It was basically to transcribe the images into text. The total amount of the project was a nice bite: $1,200.
I decided to apply just offering not typing abilities but a better option, a script for automatizing the transcription from images to text.
This was my proposal (image1):
I contact you trying to give you support. I do not know if you are aware that right now there are some free programming methods that are capable of reading and transforming screenshots into text. They analyze the images, identify the text and "translate" those text-images into just text. What I propose you is to use your screenshots as a test. Then I would make you a script capable of translate all the images that you want. Please, let me know if you are interested.
The customer answered me a few hours later informing me of the details and requirements, and idicating that I should contact a person thorugh Telegram. I know that Upwork recommmends always to chat through their chat, otherwise there is no payment confirmation, banning..., but as the amount was so atractive I decided to take a chance.
I contacted the customer through Telegram. He gave me a few more requirements and then sent me the images that I needed to transform into text.
In less than 24h I have completed the task, so I told the customer that it was ready.
Here is where the matter gets interesting.
The customer informed me that everything was well from his side, but for concluding with the payment a deposit from my side was required in order to make a connection fee. Before paying me, he wanted me to send him an amount of $200 as a deposit. Of course I told him no way. I did not understand why I deposit was demanded me. His argumentation was that "it's the fee that you should pay for future projects", and no matter I told him to instead of sending me the total amount just to send me the total minus the deposit, or that I did not want future projects with him he insisted and in the end, of course I did not pay him and neither did him. He even sent me other conversations with freelancers as a prove of their good intentions. No GDPR, as you can imagine.
The rest of the images show the different conversations that we had. I am not uploading the whole conversations because it's basically him repeting me to make the deposit.
I want to share this information with you through here in order to prevent future cases.
I know that contacting through Telegram it's the first mistake, but sometime money can blind us.
Besides, whenever we (freelancers) apply to a job, we must take into account if the payment is verified, the number of interviews done by the customer, number of jobs...otherwsie we can ended up in a serious fraud hustle.
I hope I have helped you in your future jobs.
