Fraudulent job offers *edited*

[#1]

Hi!

Someone tried to scam me today. In his message, he asked to contact him via Telegram ( **Edited for Community Guidelines**) and at the end of his message he wrote this sentence: **Edited for Community Guidelines**

Out of curiosity, I searched for this company in Google and in their landing page was the notice I have attached to this message.

Beware! I read they are using different names ( **Edited for Community Guidelines**). Don't get scammed!

[#2]

 I think all freelancers working through the platform have. If not, how did they manage to pass the test? 

The get the cheat sheet from the internet and mindlessly fill out the test. 

Most people that get scammed simply chose to not educate themselves how everything works and what they should avoid. 

[#3]

😄 I had not thought about that. I read every file in order to do the test. And I thought I was pretty smart 🧠 

[#4]

I also almost got scammed by a bunch of guys known as sharethrough. 

They are terrible!!!

[#5]

This sharethough guys are  bunch of scammers.  I have worked for 200 pages images to retype into words, after sending the file they're asking to pay for the ID processing fee of 220$. Its ridiculus! I Have been working working for 2 days to finish the project. And I could not get my pay if I did not send the fee.

[#6]

You need to be formally hired on Upwork before starting working, either on a fixed price contract or an hourly contract. Also, communicating outside of Upwork is a violation of Terms of Service. Make sure to familiarize yourself with how the platform works before sending more proposal.

[#7]

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Carissa C wrote:

This sharethough guys are  bunch of scammers.  I have worked for 200 pages images to retype into words, after sending the file they're asking to pay for the ID processing fee of 220$. Its ridiculus! I Have been working working for 2 days to finish the project. And I could not get my pay if I did not send the fee.

---

This is a scam.

You will not get any payment. If you pay their fee, they will ask for more money until you give up.

There is no job. There never was any job. This is part of their scam. 

[#8]

I think the way we should deal with scammers is have a thread where all the whats app numbers get posted and then we all just randomly message them whenever throughout the day with trash. I reckon there are more of us than them and that would cause them an issue. 🤣

[#9]

They use fake numbers for this or do you think they use their own? Most of them use Telegram, there you don't have to share your phone number. 

[#10]

No thanks I'm not going to risk my profile just trying to annoy scammers.

[#11]

If you had sent the money for the fee, you wouldn't have get it either 😁

[#12]

I would also add that this kind of work is completely fake work, too, because anyone serious would hire a Python / Linux developer to knock up a script in a couple of hours or so... or even better, use someone who already has one.

I struggle to see why a client with any nous would be askiing for this work to be performed manually.

It is sadistic to do so given the simple technologies available, and so this type of posting is a red flag that the entire operation is an exercise in sadism.

Couple that with requesting contact details outside of the platform, and hopefully very loud alarm bells will start to ring for people.

It's hard to maintain trust in the good ones and also to carry the knowledge of the sheer levels of this sadism in our society, and in the online world.  But we really need to know it if we are to avoid it.

[#13]

I'm new in upwork and I would like to know if this is normal?

COMPANY NAME - ************************

Freelancer work

Kindly read the details and let us know want to work..

project budget is 1000 EURO

Large number of books are converted into Ebooks regularly.This is a typing project.

Terms and Condition
if any extra or duplicate file found in the zip file work will be rejected and you will get your security refund.

HOW TO START
Before we proceed I must want to explain you. For some safety and work assurance purpose You have to deposit a security fund for this work because our books are not published yet so that we need our work security.f you want to work with us kindly Reply Us.

if you want to go through freelancer then you need to have indian GSTN id number and for internationals then you need to have ITIN number.if you don't have anything from them then we have a local team support for you kindly message us
Number of pages - 200
per pages - 5 EURO
Payment Cycle- We will Pay You On Every 25 Page.
deadline - we need 25 pages every 4 to 5 days... and we need 200 pages in 60 to 80 days its long term project..

Security Deposit- 40 EURO , It is necessary for our work assurance.our book is not published yet thats why we need security for our work.your deposit will be refund to you with your first 25 Pages payout.

you will get your work on your email address within 5-10 minutes..
after submission your first assignment next assignment will be given after checking your accuracy and it will take almost 1 day.

Accuracy 90% (below 75% accuracy you will get 4$ per pages).

THANKS.

[#14]

Hello Nadine,

Thank you for your report. Please note that we do not encourage freelancers to pay any registration or security fees to the client. I will forward your report to the relevant team to review these jobs for TOS violations. 

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

[#15]

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Pradeep H wrote:

Hello Nadine,

Thank you for your report. Please note that we do not encourage freelancers to pay any registration or security fees to the client. I will forward your report to the relevant team to review these jobs for TOS violations.  [...]

Pradeep,

By saying Upwork does not "encourage" freelancers to pay a registration fee, presupposes that it does not veto it either. I thought this sort of activity was strictly against Upwork's ToS?  I wonder if you would be kind enough clarify this statement. 

Also these are not clients but people who are  posing fraudulently as clients with the intention of robbing unwary freelancers and, of course, Upwork. 

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[#16]

Hi Nadine.

Did they send that message in the UpWork platform chat? That is really strange...

They hardly ever do that. They always ask you to contact them outside the platform and then, they send this message using either Telegram or What'sApp.

[#17]

Please see my post above in reply to Carissa.

Exactly the same playbook and patterns in play. Completely fake work.

[#18]

1. You are not allowed to contact clients off of Upwork before you've been hired. 2. If you haven't been hired on an Upwork contract, then you haven't been hired (payments here are in U.S. dollars only, not euros). 3. Nobody would pay 1,000 euros for 200 pages of typing. That would mean that a decent typist could earn 80 euros/hour. Jobs like that don't exist.

[#19]

These are scam jobs.  They use telegram, they ask for your information (don't give any info to anyone) until you have a contract with them.   Payment should always be through Upwork (trying to get more money outside of the platform is a risk you are taking.   The same when they ask for a trial and send you work to see if you  are good.  Ask them to send a contract and you work for one hour (if the don't like it, they cancel the contract but you get paid).     Never give bank information and never never never send money.  The only money you pay is to buy connects in this platform...that's it!  

[#20]

I received 2 messages today (I'm a newbie) asking me to contact them for an interview via any of these methods:
SKYPE ID : **Edited for Community Guidelines**
OR
**Edited for Community Guidelines**
WHATSAPP CONTACT :
**Edited for Community Guidelines**
TELEGRAM ID:
**Edited for Community Guidelines**
Use the entry Code :
**Edited for Community Guidelines**
Interview Method: Via Hangout chat /Skype

[#21]

I'm new to UpWork.

A message like this, for a job, was sent to me also. The person, **Edited for Community Guidelines**, said the information would be sent to see if I qualify for the job... as though she was acting as a middle-person. How is there an extra middle-person on UpWork? 🙄 I didn't send my information.

In two of the most recent messages sent to me, separately, each client said the interview would be conducted on Telegram.

One client, for example: **Edited for Community Guidelines**has a cat-fished telegram account of **Edited for Community Guidelines**. She wanted to know my full name and where I was from. She sent a PDF with "terms and conditions" which states that I pay a registration fee to access PDFs I can choose from to type copies into MS Word.

The flow of the interview by both clients were not consistent, as though they were examining my profile (taking screenshots maybe). Again, their telegram names and the name posted in UpWork messages are totally different.

 It seems this is a method to make fake-accounts on Telegram, where the scammers screenshot the user's photos and elements of their profiles. Also to infiltrate groups their targets are in. I flagged both job proposals.

Question: How are interviews conducted on UpWork? Is there a representative from UpWork who acts as a middle-man between the client and the job-seeker?

I had one interview that I wasn't sure of. It was on Skype. The mediator had something like an UpWork logo in their profile picture, but the interview was all written. No video... no one spoke. Though the potential client submitted a video of her holding up her drivers' license, there was a lot of empty space in between interactions, so I asked questions. Because I didn't receive any answers, I politely exited the interview.

Sorry about the long message.

[#22]

I have received two replies today from two separate proposals and from two separate names, both with exactly the same text. As I am new, I am dubious of everything, but this looks quite scammy and discouraging:

Hello,
Thank you for your interest in our project. Please use this link **Edited for Community Guidelines**) to request an interview via Skype.

We want to make the interview session as convenient as possible because we have discovered that most of our time zones are different, which disrupts the interview's flow and we also intend to make the contract an extended one.

[#23]

Mine is not asking for any money but a typing job as well asked me to fill up the form for freelancer but outside upwork but not asking any money, I don't if this is legit but they asked me to message via telegram also. 

[#24]

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Neria I wrote:

Mine is not asking for any money but a typing job as well asked me to fill up the form for freelancer but outside upwork but not asking any money, I don't if this is legit but they asked me to message via telegram also. 

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They would be pretty unsuccessful scammers if they asked for money right away. 

The scam works like this: make you do some work like typing a pfd into word (yes, really), and after you have spent hours or days on it, you will be asked to pay a registration/bank/insurance or some other fee. 

When you have paid the first one, they will come back with another fee. 

[#25]

This just happened to me now.. I don't know how to reach out to An Upwork representative that will help me. **Edited for Community Guidelines**is still talking to me on paying them after I just did a job for them.. after my hard work

[#26]

You do not need an Upwork representative.

Talking to them outside of Upwork before you have a contract on Upwork is a violation of Terms of Service. Never start working until you have a contract on Upwork to avoid this type of situation.

Stop talking to them, block them and flag them by following the steps here Report Suspicious User Activity – Upwork Customer Service & Support | Upwork Help

A real client will never ask you to pay them to get your payment.

I encourage you to look at the ressources in the Academy section at the top of the page to get more familiar with how the platform works.