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bopaul1
Community Member

How to know if my client is legit

Can anyone tell me how to check my client? Or if your client gave you a contract, does it mean that i'll get paid for sure. 

39 REPLIES 39
lyambarreau
Community Member

I know fixed price contracts doesn't guarantee payment but I think hourly ones do (provided you're above a certain activity level)

 

There's a post somewhere here which helps root out those 'scammers'.

 

Do the basic checks (finance, feedback, hire rate, etc...) Also, if it's a new client offer a fixed-contract, and you feel your credibility is a lot higher, you can ask for frequent milestones and upfront payments. 

 

So if someone wanted to pay $200 for a 10,000 e-book. Ask to pay an upfront payment for 1,000 word milestones.

 

Soon enough, you start to recognise the illegitimate clients.

 

Hope this helped!

prestonhunter
Community Member

The main way to know if a client is legit is if they pay you money.

 

I work for clients who have no established track record at all, no previous jobs, no paper trail, etc., but they pay me, so all is well. But I didn't do a large amount of work for such clients up front. I took their job, and broke it down into smaller pieces, did the first piece, and made sure I was paid in a timely and professional way.

 

Then I moved on to doing bigger projects with them, after establishing trust.

 

So just to be clear, yes, I am the contractor. And yes, I pretty much always set up test jobs for clients. I'm evaluating the quality of the client, and if they don't measure up, I will "fire" them by not working for them.

anne_ginger
Community Member

Hi Paul,

 

Lyam and Preston both gave great advice and I would just like to add some bits more. Clients can have no track record at all or have all 5 stars but the only real way to know if they are legit is to do a test job with them, just like Preston said. The reason for this is because sometimes, established clients turn rogue for some reason, perhaps feeling invincible but this is very rare.

 

For your peace of mind, make sure to do some background check by seeing what past projects they've had, what other freelancers have to say about them and very important - how they treat people. You can check the last one by evaluating how they communicate with you and reading what feedback they left for previous hires. 

 

For more info, here is a link to the freelancer resource centre and here's the downloadable oDesk freelancer manual. 

 

Please do read this forum post about getting your first job on oDesk. It is full of great insights. 

 

All the best!



❄❄❄ Just A Forum Contributor --- This isn't against forum guidelines ❄❄❄

 May I asked? What if the employer hired me directly with out taking any test or evaluate me and doesent have contract given?

 

This is the Employer's message..

 

**Edited for Community Guidelines**
Thanks.
 

Kris, it's a scam.

 

Reporting the blogger blog but not sure it will get taken down, but I can always try!

Hi Kris,

 

I'm glad you decided to seek advice from our Community before making a mistake and disintermediating. Paying and receiving payment outside Upwork is against our policy and carries a penalty for all parties involved. This policy is there to keep our marketplace secure and to protect both freelancers and clients. We do ask our members to report job posts and clients offering direct payments either by flagging them, or directly to Customer Support.

~ Vladimir
Upwork

Hi I'm new to upwork. I got hired and will be paid for my hours. May I ask do I need to upload an ID to get my Identification Badge to withdraw my earnings?

i always landing on this kind of client ,im new in upwork and up to now they always message me outside upwork but this time i know now that those client are not true.

 

Kris, if your instincts tell you something is wrong , then take my word for it the best thing to do is what you are doing now - begin to do some due dilegence and do it fast.

 

 

Some one or two pointers to know if you are being setup.

 

1. Your instincts tell you it is a setup

2.Client asks for 'freework' up front.

3. Has a record of high job post but very few conversions ( or none) to projects.

4. Tries to ask if he can pay you outside the platform ( That my friend , is a big red flag.)

5. Begins to give excuses that sound flimsy to both of you or does not communicate as often as he/she should.

6. Again you instincts tell you everything is going south.

 

Fortunately there are very decent clients/consultants on this platform so there is no need to get paranoid.

 

And like the exprienced contributors have said , you get a feel for timewasters as you mature on the platform and politely decline 'indencent proposals' and move on.

 

If on .the other hand you have been 'lead on' or scammed , there is no need to get into a rut over it. It happens to the best of us. Just make sure you move on.

 

Wishing you the best

Kris, it is perfectly fine for a client to hire you quickly, without an interview and without making you take "tests."

 

It is not okay for a client to hire you without an Upwork contract, or hire you and offer to pay you in some way that is outside the Upwork system.

Hi I'm a newbie here in Upwork and today I just received 1 active candidacies, now the client told me that I will be paid but I need to email him , He gave me alot of intsructions about my job with him and he gave me 2 websites to log in he provided me a username and pasword, but then when I opened the links I there's a warning that I am going to browse outside outwork, is this a scam ? Need help here thanks a lot! Godbless!

lysis10
Community Member

Did he award you the job? Linking you to an outside platform to get feedback is normal, but asking you to work without awarding you the job is not OK.


@regine v wrote:

Hi I'm a newbie here in Upwork and today I just received 1 active candidacies, 


 Regine,

 

An 'active candidacy' is just that - and nothing more. As Jennifer pointed it, it doesn't mean the client has hired you.

He needs to send you an offer, that you can review and then accept or decline. Once that has happened, the job will show in your 'My Jobs' tab and the candidacy will disappear from the 'Proposals' page.

 

Don't do any work or log in to any websites until you have been properly hired.

 

 

If and when you have been hired, take into consideration Michael's suggestions below!

regine,

 

Leaving the site is not the issue. The issues are that your prospect wants you to:

  • use outside facilities for the management of your job
  • presumably, use outside facilities for (likely quite hypothetical) payment
  • use someone/thing else's already established account
  • follow "a[]lot of instructions about [your] job" when you have no job, only a candidacy

Best,

Michael

Regine,

This client is PROBABLY just wasting your time and trying to scam money off of you. But we don't know that for certain yet.

 

You can send him a short note saying:

 

"Thank you for your interest in working with me. Please use Upwork's client-side interface to send me a "Hire" button for an hourly contract. I can start working on your project as soon as I see that."

 

Then you WILL NOT RESPOND TO the client unless he does that. If he hires you OFFICIALLY WITH AN UPWORK CONTRACT, then feel free to work for him, as long as you do not need to enter personal information into a website or pay him anything or do anything "scammy."

 

If the client needs to communicate with you in any way, you will log time and bill him for your time for all the time you spend reading his instructions or communicating with him, whether it be via email or Skype or whatever.

 

This client will probably never write back to you again.

 

But maybe we misunderstood this client and his intentions.

 

There ARE LEGITIMATE JOBS that require you to log into external websites using a username and password that a client provides (NOT PROVIDING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION or username/password information you use on any personal accounts).


If this is a legitimate job that we misunderstood, then the client can pay you for your time, including training. If the client doesn't hire you so that you can see his job listed in your "Jobs" tab on Upwork and so that you can begin logging time, then ignore all communications from this client and block him as much as you can.

how will i know if there is a contract


@Brittney L wrote:

how will i know if there is a contract


 Go to your My Jobs Page - If you have a contract it will show there.

Usually you should remember receiving and accepting an offer?

Go to your Proposals Page. Does it show an offer there (under the first heading "Offers"?

what if the client says you wil get paid every few sessions and how do i find if they have had previos work

4fa3b487
Community Member

This is great advice. I just signed up yesterday and received two offers so far. However, the first one almost caught me. They told me to contact them outside of the network. I started to ask questions and it turned out they wanted something totally different to what they posted on Upwork. Right now, there is another that has given me their 'admin email'. I have told them we can follow the Upwork rules. No response at this stage. I do hope this platform does indeed have real jobs on it and not just a lot of scammers.

irene_r
Community Member

Hi! 

     I'm also a newbie here. Last Feb. 18, I received a message from someone(Client) asking me if I'm still interested with their task. So, I respond right away that yes I'am. And we discussed all  about the task, payment, deadline, milestone, etc. I also reviewed his post, feedback, spend, etc, and everything was fine. And I'm so happy that time, cause I got my first job! (a real job, from a real client, not a scammer, I'm hoping), and that I will be able to earn extra to help my brother who is really sick. Since then nothing comes to my mind but to do my best to finish the given task, to empress my client(so I could get a milestone, good review, and earn more), and to do my job ahead of time (I spend most of the time just to finish that project). I sent him the task in upwork inbox.

 

He said:

I apologise for not getting back to you. I am currently away on business. I am hoping to check through your work tomorrow.

Apologies for the delay.

 

I said:

no worries.  Anyway I'm just one message away. Have a great day ahead!

 

he said: 

At first glance the work looks great!

 

he said: 

Many thanks Irene!

 

But the sad part is, I forgot about the contract, and the milestone which is very important. The deadline of the task given to me was Last Feb. 26, and I submit it to him on the 24 for him to review if I did it right or what. So I will be able to receive my reward from that task. But until now, he didn't respond to any message I sent to him.

 

After I sent him the task here in upwork, he never go online since then. 

 

Did he blocked me? why I still have 1 active candidacy?  Did I do something wrong? 

 

Need your advice pls.

 

Thank you in advance, and God bless us all!

VladimirG
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi Irene,

 

Thank you for your question. Unfortunately, you were not hired for the job you completed. 

If you go to Find Work > Job Applications you will be able to check whether any of your applications were accepted. Applications you see in the "Active Candidacies" section have been accepted and the client would like to discuss the job further or have an interview with you, but that doesn't mean the job is awarded to you.

Don't start working without an active contract, which would show in your "My Jobs" tab. You can find more details here.

Please report the client to Support and share screenshots of your communication and tasks you worked on.

 

Let us know if you have any further questions.

~ Vladimir
Upwork

Yes, base on our conversation in my inbox. But I wasn't able to get the actual contract since I'm so excited about getting this job done to empress him, and I trusted him as my first client. So, I guess it's my bad too, cause I let him do it later. But I didn't expect that later than this. Lesson learned here... And I surely do as you guys say.  Anyway, Thank you very much for your response! Really appreciated much.... 🙂 

I wouldn't assume because the person sends you something before awarding you the contract that they are out to scam you. I was hired a couple days ago for a job where the client agreed to hire me, then sent me a file to read that I had requested to get the project started. I just sent him a message saying "Dod you send me the contract?" He apologized for forgetting and sent it right away. In my experience, you can't assume if someone doesn't follow things to a T that they are intentionally behaving badly.

 

For me the red line is if they want to hire me outside of the platform. I had one do this recently, and I suspected it before I went into the interview because simply from the way their business worked it didn't make sense to hire people through Upwork. But I went ahead with the interview for informational purposes simply because I wanted to know more about their business model because of a project I have considered starting in the very distant future that might benefit from working with businesses like theirs. And I made it clear at the beginning of the interview as well that I wasn't currently interested but I still wanted to know more about how their buisness worked and the interviewer explained it to me. And I was told duirng the interview that they paid on commission (which really doesn't fit the Upwork model) and there was a lot of other stuff about how their business worked that seemed really legally shaky but it was a good way to just see how people in their field of work might scam you.

Communicating outside of Upwork before being hired should also be a red flag as it is a violation of the Terms of Service.

petra_r
Community Member

Did the client HIRE you? Is there a contract under "my jobs?"

 

if there is only an active candidacy and no contract you were not hired and the client could not pay you if he wanrpted to, and you should not have done any work at all, let alone sent it to the client....

 

When you click on your "My Jobs" tab, what do you see?

 

is the job there?

Irene:

I am impressed by your positive attitude.

It is true that you will not be paid money for this work, but the lesson you learned is much more valuable than money.

 

You won't make the same mistake again, and you can succeed on Upwork if you continue to be positive and continue to learn.

 

Thank you for sharing your story here in the forum.

irene_r
Community Member

Petra R,

 

Yes, the way we discussed eveything, He hired me. That's why I'm so confident to do the job, and aimed to impress him as my first client. 

 

Is there a contract under "my jobs"?

But no, upon checking the "my jobs" the job contract wasn't there.

 

But as a client who hired people to work for them, it should be their responsibility to pay someone who do the job for them right? vise versa. Especially if you know that, that person worked hard to finished everything ahead of time. But I guess that person have no heart at all, God is watching!

 

 

Thank you for you advice! I'll do that next time.... 🙂

 

 

 

Irene

arimado_laurence
Community Member

Hello, I Am Newbie here. I have this one candidacy. And I did his test outside Upwork. After complying to the instruction he gave me, he emailed me and one thing that bothers me is that he is asking for a server fee(joining fee) 60 USD. together with his email is a contract in a form of MS word and instruction again. Can anyone tell me if this is how it works here? Thank You in advance. 

No it is not legit. You should not have done ANY work for the client off site, and the job and the 'client' is a scam. You must report this job to customer services and before you apply for any more work, do yourself a favour and read Upwork's terms of service, what clients and freelancers may or may not do, all the help pages, and the two top forum threads on how to get a job and the scams to avoid.

 

 

 

 

@ Nichola L.

 

Thank you very much for that information Ma'am. I appreciate it much. 

You should never, ever, ever, never have to pay a client to start a position.  If this is what your client is proposing, please report them to CS and run.  Meanwhile, check out this thread.  It will be of great help. 

"Fairness is giving all people the treatment they earn and deserve. It doesn't mean treating everyone alike-Coach John Wooden"

@ Katrina B

 

Thank You for your information. 

c125481c
Community Member

Hallo guys I have had clients who are asking for a fee to pay for the ID. well, am a newbie and  hopefully I will come accross a Legit client. 

Hi Finn,

 

Thank you for your message. We do not encourage freelancers to pay any fees to the client for getting hired. 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

Upwork


Finn W wrote:

Hallo guys I have had clients who are asking for a fee to pay for the ID.


It sounds like you know this, but just in case: this is a scam.

36968eba
Community Member

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

 i have this client in upwork, is this a scam? he says he will not give me a contract in upwork since i am directly hired by their company. 

Hi Kristal,

 

Thank you for reaching out to us. Please know that sharing contact information before a contract has started is against Upwork's Terms of Service and that all communications prior to the contract starting must take place on Upwork. We 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

You were not hired for this job and shouldn't provide any work until your client sends you an offer and a contract is created under your My Jobs tab. Please note that any request for free work is not allowed on Upwork, and it is a violation of Upwork's Terms of Service.

 

Additionally, you may want to check this thread and this help article to help you stay safe on Upwork. 

~ Nikola
Upwork
e048b898
Community Member

hi all, 

I'm new to upwork and a client hires me for a contractual job.
The job is to retype images in Word format. The payment is quite promising, $25 for each page with a total of 100 pages but the job should be done in 3 days.
Apparently, the job order in upwork is no longer available but the client is communicating with me via Telegram.
Is this legit?
please help

re: "Is this legit?"

 

No.

Not legit.

 

You violated serious Upwork rules by communicating outside of the Upwork platform before an Upwork contract is in place.

 

There is no contract. There is no job. The "client" is never going to use the work that you do. Will throw it away.

 

The scammer "client" is going to ask you to pay HIM money.

 

You need to read the articles about scams.

 

https://www.upwork.com/resources/upwork-scams

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