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saitaosla
Community Member

Help! Client asks for my username and password

Few months ago I had a new client, this client of mine hired me as a UI/UX Graphic design for his website. After completing the first job, he loved my work and decided to keep me as a regular.

After a while he wanted me to stop working for other clients and want me to focus on his work, in return he will double the pay every 15th and 30th of the month. Since I can manage my time and and deliver results for this new client and the other client, I thought of keeping them both, because my old client is with me for 2 years now we didn't have any issues at all.

This new client wants a video conference every 2 days, now this time I came up late. He was fraustrated and demanded to give my upwork username and password so he could check if I work on his project alone. I deliver good results for both client I just don't show up the video conference on time because sleep is important for my, its just the way I am, sleep is my only stress reliever.

Also for this new client i'm working for his other guys(collaboration) particularly with his backend guy, but they don't seem to do the job, so now im partially working as his backend as well and if the other guys make mistakes I get the blame because this client thinks I can work as a backend which I can, but choose to be a UI/UX because that is what I was hired for and UI/UX is what im passionate about.

 

I told the client that I became a freelancer so I could work on my own time whenever, where ever I want as long as I can deliver results. Please advice this is stressing me out. Im worried that this client will mess up my career which I've worked so hard. I've never expirience a client where we constantly need to talk over the camera, does it even matter? I mean I deliver good results and everytime I deliver results he's like "WOW! Genious, My gosh!" but his mood changes when I don't show up in a meeting. Please advice.

ACCEPTED SOLUTION


Jonathan C wrote:


My main concern is if did I violate any of upwork's TOS? Im not afraid of loosing this client but I fear upwork's policy if I violate any for working with 2 or 3 clients at a time.


Of course not.

 

View solution in original post

10 REPLIES 10
petra_r
Community Member

The client does not need your username and password to check, if he has any brains at all he can see on your profile who else you are working for.

 

Did you agree to work only for that client or tell the client that you only work for them?

 

Not turning up for a meeting you agreed to is unprofessional, and if you did not want to have meetings you should not agree to them or set a schedule to fit with your availability. I hope you didn't give the client that excuse with your sleep....

 

Anyway, what is it you wanted advice on? Obviously you won't and should not give the client your usename or password, but beyond that you need to work it out with the client directly, if that is still possible, or end the contract.

 

 


Petra R wrote:

Did you agree to work only for that client or tell the client that you only work for them?


Yes I did agree to work for him at full time which is 5 hours per day between monday to friday. Other than that I still have 5 more hours to work on my other client plus an extra 10 - 15 hours during the weekends for my other clients. And yes I don't have any days off, haha.


Petra R wrote:

Not turning up for a meeting you agreed to is unprofessional, and if you did not want to have meetings you should not agree to them or set a schedule to fit with your availability. I hope you didn't give the client that excuse with your sleep....


I did agree but I told him in advanced that im a heavy sleeper and which im a sleep the whole morning and ask if I could extend the time to two more hours.


Petra R wrote:

Anyway, what is it you wanted advice on? Obviously you won't and should not give the client your usename or password, but beyond that you need to work it out with the client directly, if that is still possible, or end the contract.


My main concern is if did I violate any of upwork's TOS? Im not afraid of loosing this client but I fear upwork's policy if I violate any for working with 2 or 3 clients at a time. I did not and will never ever share my account credentials which I work so hard to achieve.


Jonathan C wrote:


My main concern is if did I violate any of upwork's TOS? Im not afraid of loosing this client but I fear upwork's policy if I violate any for working with 2 or 3 clients at a time.


Of course not.

 

317d23d3
Community Member

I had a somewhat similar situation, where a potential client (during an interview) wanted to get started with onboarding right away as a data entry clerk. They started asking for ID and and other documentation and asked me a bunch of time sensative questions at the end they said they definitely wanted me for the job and asked for all my bank account information including Username and Password saying that "they were sending me equipment for work (as if that explains it). Im not completely sure what a perfectly normal conversation during an interview looks like, since Im new to upwork, but its a red flag when people start asking for my Username and Password to my bank account. Can someone spell out the highlights of how interaction with a client for a job post is supposed to look like? Maybe the client just didnt know any better??

petra_r
Community Member


Mike B wrote: Can someone spell out the highlights of how interaction with a client for a job post is supposed to look like?

Mike, if you avoid violating Upwork's terms of service by communicating with prospective clients outside of Upwork, you will be able to avoid almost all the scammers. An added benefit is that you are also not going to risk having your Upwork account suspended for it...

 

Stick ONLY to Upwork messages and calls through Upwork until you have been properly hired through Upwork.

 


Mike B wrote: ...saying that "they were sending me equipment for work

That's the good old fake check scam. It's been making the rounds for at least a dozen years.

 


Mike B wrote:

 Maybe the client just didnt know any better??


That isn't a client, it's a scammer and they absolutely do know better.


 

Someone asking for your Upwork username and password?

That is just goofy, no matter what the rest of the story is.

 

The answer is to that is always going to be "no."

No my bank account user name and password

(but anyone asking for that information is an instant red flag) 

But at the end they did say " I guess you dont trust this platform to be secure then" LOL

Hi Mike,

 

Thank you for reaching out to us and bringing this to our attention. I shared your report with our team for further investigation and appropriate actions will be taken according to our internal processes.

 

Please know that a real client will never ask you to give them money to start working, cash a check for them, work for free, or provide your personal information. Sharing contact information before a contract has started is against Upwork’s Upwork's Terms of Service and that all communications prior to the contract starting must take place on Upwork.

I also encourage you to let us know if a TOS violation has happened by using the Flag as Inappropriate option throughout the platform. You can learn more about user reporting here.

 

Feel free to also check this page and this thread to help you stay safe on Upwork. 

~ Nikola
Upwork
deborah-ponzio
Community Member

You have already received sound advice here regarding the sharing of personal data, which is not acceptable, but I would have a question for you: have you accepted the double pay from this client promising to work only for him in return? Or have you committed to to keep certain hours / time frames available for him/her only? 

No they didn't offer any extra incentives, that would have been another instant red flag for me as well. I like money as much as the next guy, but I after searching the help database I finally found this:

 https://support.upwork.com/hc/en-us/articles/360048876254-Interviewing-and-Scoping-Projects 

at the very bottom it told me exactly what I needed to know. Now I wont be taking any contracts without payment verification through upwork first.  

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