How can I determine if a job is legitimate?

[ifeoma49]

I received an invite for this job posting:

**Edited for community guidelines**

Who can I speak to to determine if it's legitimate?

[BojanS · Accepted solution]

Hi Ifeoma,

Thank you for reaching out to us with this query. I've checked and the job post you're referring to is no longer available. It has been taken down because it was in violation of Upwork ToS and action has been taken on the client account. 

Please, check this help article for more information on how to use the flag option found on each job post or message to report any suspicious or inappropriate content. Also, check out this post for more tips on how to avoid questionable jobs.

Thank you!

[florydev]

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Ifeoma O wrote:

I received an invite for this job posting:

**Edited for community guidelines**

Who can I speak to to determine if it's legitimate?

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As you can see you can't just add a link to a job post on here.  Can you tell us what reasons you may have for concern?

[ifeoma49]

Oh I see. Got an invite for a job posting and was to contact someone via google hangouts. I reached out on google hangout and the person's asked 'how are you'? It didn't sound professional to me but I responded, great. Next thing was to ask for my location. I just found it suspicious so I decided to do some investigation before going further with the discussion. 

[prestonhunter]

re: "Got an invite for a job posting and was to contact someone via google hangouts."

Ifeoma:

Google Hangouts invite = scam.

For future reference, if somebody invites you to interview and mentions Google Hangouts, then stop wasting your time with them. Immediately block them. Focus your job-finding efforts on jobs that you carefully select and apply to.

[ifeoma49]

Thanks.

[florydev]

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Ifeoma O wrote:

Oh I see. Got an invite for a job posting and was to contact someone via google hangouts. I reached out on google hangout and the person's asked 'how are you'? It didn't sound professional to me but I responded, great. Next thing was to ask for my location. I just found it suspicious so I decided to do some investigation before going further with the discussion. 

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Good job, you trusted your own instincts!

I hate saying blanket statements like Google Hangouts = scam but it would seem that it is.  I think the reason is there is no way to report someone in GH so they take advantage of that.

[petra_r]

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Mark F wrote:

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I hate saying blanket statements like Google Hangouts = scam but it would seem that it is.  I think the reason is there is no way to report someone in GH so they take advantage of that.

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No, it is because in Hangout you can program clever auto-responder bots so the scammers can conduct dozens of "interviews" at the same time with little actual input from themselves, as the bot will respond to the answers from the person being "interviewed" with pre-programmed responses.

[florydev]

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Petra R wrote:

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Mark F wrote:

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I hate saying blanket statements like Google Hangouts = scam but it would seem that it is.  I think the reason is there is no way to report someone in GH so they take advantage of that.

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No, it is because in Hangout you can program clever auto-responder bots so the scammers can conduct dozens of "interviews" at the same time with little actual input from themselves, as the bot will respond to the answers from the person being "interviewed" with pre-programmed responses.

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Well then that would not make Google Hangouts worth singling out because they can do that with anything.

[mwiggenhorn]

When you are new, pretty much any invitation will be a scam.  Send well-crafted proposals to posted jobs and pretty much decline invitations until you have some  traction on the platform.

[martina_plaschka]

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Ifeoma O wrote:

I received an invite for this job posting:

**Edited for community guidelines**

Who can I speak to to determine if it's legitimate?

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There really is  nobody to talk to about a specific job posting, because you are not allowed to post the actual job or link here. You will need to use your own judgement, and will be able to very quickly recognize the red flags, plus when you have a good history and a serious professional profile, scammers will not contact you any longer.