Hacker stole $2800 from my account

[walidbsl]

I suddenly received an email from Upwork stating that my Upwork account had been suspended because of suspicious activity on 17 march. Following that, they asked for some identification documents, which I submitted. As long as they haven't responded for a few days, I have emailed them multiple times. How long does it usually take for the ID to be verified? They just confirmed that their team is working on it and they will contact me once they have completed their verification. I was very concerned about whether my money would be safe. Then I messaged them on Twitter, asking whether my money is safe in Upwork? I was informed that they are still reviewing my account. But my money was already stolen on March 17.

After waiting for a few days, Upwork Mail today announced that my account has been unlocked and my financial transactions have been temporarily suspended. As soon as I checked my transaction history, all my funds had been transferred to a Japanese local bank on March 17. 

I also came to find out in the community that someone had the same issue as me, that their money has been transferred to a Japanese account as well. 

As we know Upwork does not allow withdrawals to another person's bank account as a payment method. 

Also, we know that Upwork takes 3 days to verify a local bank account.

 How is it possible that one can bypass this step so easily and withdraw money from my account without any verification needed from my end?

I have tried to contact Upwork many times but their same response was that our payment security team is investigating the issue. 

My only question and concern is, will I ever get my money back?

[data_divas]

Was this money from one job and if so what was that job?  Has the job been removed from your profile?  If it was one job was it a fixed price, hourly or was any money paid as bonus?

[walidbsl]

No! this was from several jobs.

[tagrendy]

This is terrible, scary and terrible. I doubt anybody here can answer whether the money will be back or not, I'd mentally let go of the money - if it comes back, great, if not - worrying about it will only hinder your ability to focus on getting anything else done. But do secure all your accounts - email, Upwork, turn on authentication levels to the max, change all your current passwords.

[walidbsl]

Yes, I already did that.  On 17 I was about to withdraw the money and everything happened on the same day. 

[shaileshsavaliya]

Sorry for your loss.

I lost $18k and I wrote started thread here.

Since then I got almost 20+ such people contacted me to ask me what happened and they all lost some money.

But seems upwork is doing nothing to prevent it.

[walidbsl]

To be honest, my amount may be much less than your amount. But that was my only savings, I had saved this amount for many days and it was probably because I trusted Upwork more. . And now the situation got worse when I found out I would never get this money back. Many people advised me to turn on 2 step verification but they admit that it is not safe to keep your money in Upwork. However, how can one add a bank account without matching my information, and how can Upwork verify a bank account in one day? 

I also saw that someone had the same issue as me, that their money has been transferred to a Japanese account as well. Don't you think that Upwork should have informed us about this?

[cyber_sec007]

While I'm feeling for you Upwork is not a bank or investment institution where you should store your savings. I understand the motive not to pull the amount (so you can't spend it I assume), but again, they are not a bank. You should have pulled the money from Upwork and placed it in a safe place.

[magreth]

While Upwork is not a bank, please understand that countries are different. Upwork may have appeared safer than a bank in a certain country. Some countries have laws to quickly liquidate part or all of your earnings into local currency. 

[emkamleshwar]

Dear Shailesh,

Did you hget your money back? The same fraud happend to me today. I got scammed for $6730.17 USD where this all is withdrawn in this Japanese HUFG Bank. I just want to know if there is any hope for getting our hard-earned money back.

[NikolaS]

Hi Swapnil,

Thank you for reaching out to us. Could you please click on my name and send me a PM with more information about the contract and the client you are referring to? I will be sure to look into your report and assist you accordingly.

[cyber_sec007]

Can we get an update on this, if it is true, how is possible that a bank account was added as a payment method without matching the verified name and being validated? I know I had to wait like 3 days to get the verification transactions shown up on my account when I have added a payment method.

[ipsbrar]

Hello Attila,

I am the Agency owner of ElintMinds, in which this fraud happened on 30th May, and we contacted Customer support right away, but its been over 10 days now and Upwork Support is not giving any updates to us. This is very frustrating we lost $6730.17 USD when someone somehow withdraw othis amount in some Japanese MUFG Bank Account.

[prismitsys]

I can easily prove that its the Upwork's site which is hacked. Can we file a legal case against upwork for not providing even basic security? If we all come togather and do something about this as this has become too frequent and people are loosing their hard earned money.

[yofazza]

I think it's big news if Upwork really got hacked. Care to share the proofs?

Don't get me wrong, I feel for the people who got "hacked". I posted on some similar threads.

It's MUFG not HUFG, and it's used by (probably) the phisher because I think it has quite a low standards in determining who can create an account. And comparable to crypto, when you send money to that bank, it's gone.

I also don't blame people who got phished. Upwork should find solutions to prevent or minimize the risks of their users getting phished. Including to ban the use of MUFG.

[couturepopcafe]

I never leave money in UW. I withdraw it as soon as it's available to me. I've tried to research how UW investigates these things, but can't find anything.

[couturepopcafe]

IMO, UW is responsible for the losses and should give you your money. You might have to sue them, and I would contact the FBI or whichever federal body covers this.

[prestonhunter]

Elizabeth, I know that you are trying to be helpful, but the truth of the matter is: Contacting the FBI would be a waste of time. They are not going to do anything to recover this money.

Nor is any other government agency.

Read more about that here:

https://community.upwork.com/t5/Clients/problem-solve-here-no-FTC-BBC-FBI-PD-etc/m-p/678783

Your recommendation to never leave money in your Upwork account is correct.

[jeremiah-brown]

Your answer is in the first line of your post:  "I suddenly received an email from Upwork stating that my Upwork account had been suspended because of suspicious activity on 17 march. Following that, they asked for some identification documents, which I submitted."  

It sounds like you were phished or spoofed with a fake email claiming to be from Upwork.  This is a common scam and not exclusive to Upwork - scammers do this with banks too.  The logos and messages are so well done that unless you are very keen, you'd never notice the difference.

Next time you receive a message asking you for information to verify accounts (among other things), do not send anything.  Take moment to look over the message.  Then go find the real phone number to the website or bank and call them yourself.  Initiate the conversation from your end.  Never let someone else initiate it.

Most legitimate places, websites, banks, etc will never message you and ask you for personal information. 

[martina_plaschka]

I wonder how this scam works. His account must have been compromised at the same time he received this email, since he was unable to log in apparently at the same time. Somebody was able to access his account an input bank information, and withdraw the money. 

[jeremiah-brown]

Hard to say without knowing what information was given to them.  They may have logged in and entered different bank account information routing his funds somewhere else.  He says they didn't respond for a few days - which is all it takes to release funds to a bank account.  All they'd have to do is keep him on the hook for a couple days until payment is released, then withdraw from whatever fake account it went to.

If the OP wasn't looking at his methods of payment, he'd never know it was changed,  All they need to pull it off is a name, a password, and maybe the security question/answer.  Next time you access your payment information, take a look at how little is required to navigate and change various things.  I was just in mine looking at the instant pay feature so its still fresh in my mind.

[martina_plaschka]

If he has money in available, there is no waiting period. They can withdraw immediately after inputting another bank account. I am wondering how the account was restricted so he couldn't log in. 

Possibly the hackers changed his password and that's why. 

There are a number of reports of this kind of thing, all with quite substantial amounts. I wonder how they target these freelancers, how do they know it's worth it? 

[jeremiah-brown]

Even if the Upwork funds are available immediately, they will still require a few days to process at the receiving bank.  How much time really depends on the bank itself.

Its a good possibility that they changed the password or login information to keep the person from discovering it.

Figuring out who the top earners are is easy - just look at your profile.  It tells people how much you've earned.  Would you waste your time on someone with less than $1000 earnings for the entire year? What about $10,000 or $100,000?

[martina_plaschka]

How much somebody has earned in his lifetime on upwork is no indication how much he has in available. I never keep money on upwork. I don't believe many people do, or at least always assumed that. Upwork is not a bank, it makes no sense to let it accumulate. 

[a_lipsey]

But they can't just look at your profile. They'd need to get your email address too. 

[jeremiah-brown]

Upwork - please do everyone a favor and tell us how many of these cases involved A REAL EMAIL FROM UPWORK requesting verification information.

I would be willing to bet that these are 100% phishing emails and not authentic messages originating from Upwork.  Just a hypothesis.

[d_samuel_udokpok]

After reading these threads, I am removing my money from Upwork 

[prismitsys]

Am sorry to say, but you will not receive your money. I faced the same issue and upwork put the onus on me that my computer was hacked and this thing can happen again. 

This happned to me despite of 3 layer password protection in place and Upwork still says that your computer is hacked and this can happen again as they have no control over it.

I use a MacBook with best internet security and stilll Upwork has put the onus on me.

The reality is that its Upwork's system which is flawed and its their system that has loopholes and is hacked. But they will not agree to it.