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msmrkcpn
Community Member

I THINK I HAVE BEEN SCAMMED WITH ALMOST PHP56,000+

Hello, good day!

 

I would like to report because it seems like Ive been scammed.

I have sent a proposal to a job posting "**Edited for Community Guidelines**. (Refer to the attachments)

This slovakian guy named "Dmytro Prokopovych, Dericont" replied to my proposal and proposed for me to become his affiliate market partner - in which I agreed. This started February 2021.

We never communicated outside Etsy, we abide by the rules. No payment was made internally and externally.

 

He asked me to set up my own Etsy account, which for me is suspicious but he assured me my card will never have money loss. I just need to set up and be Etsy verified using my own data.

And so I did.

 

He connected his email **Edited for Community Guidelines**to mine so that whenever a customer sent a message or inquiry, he will receive it too on his end.

He used a software (I don't know what it is) that imports products from their database to my Etsy store so that it is automatically posted and ready to sell.

 

March and April I have customers and the transactions were smooth. They inquire at my Etsy (e.g. What are the dimensions of a product, How long will the shipping be, etc) and **Edited for Community Guidelines**will send me a message in Upwork with the answers for each customer.

Customers pay via Etsy payments, then I'm gonna receive the money via the bank acct that I put in Etsy, and then **Edited for Community Guidelines**will give me a link from an e-commerce website to transfer the funds to him.

 

The shipping usually takes a month due to Covid and other reasons even though the store is U.S. based going to U.S. based customers. 

 

By the end of April, customers were starting to follow up on their orders. So I followed up on the tracking numbers.

By this time, suspicious events happen:

1. The gmail **Edited for Community Guidelines**is no longer active and I knew because emails from Etsy keep bouncing back on my email.

2. **Edited for Community Guidelines**rarely responds on Upwork. Whenever he responds, he's not answering my questions regarding the tracking numbers.

3. **Edited for Community Guidelines**informed me that his email was no longer active so I should message him on Upwork. (1000% suspicious. Aside from the fact that I am not communicating with him outside Upwork, I'm overthinking that he will ghost me eventually)

4. He did not mark me as "Hired" in Upwork which makes it hard to file a report. I already requested for him to mark me as "Hired" but he never did.

5. I saw that the job posted was canceled by Upwork.

 

To end this unfortunate event, one day he messaged me that he no longer works with the company and just left the Upwork chat. Pls see attached.

 

What am I doing now? I am giving the customers a full refund one at a time because they're getting mad and it's my name on the account and I'm afraid I might get sued (Currently refunded almost PHP4,000 - Overall Total is PHP56,510). BUT I REALLY NEED HELP BECAUSE I DON'T HAVE ALL THE MONEY 😞 

 

I just followed all the instructions. I don't know why this happened to me. Please help me. I don't have anything.

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

7 REPLIES 7
petra_r
Community Member

You were scammed. You were also really careless. And violated Upwork's terms of service by accepting payment outside the platform.


There is nothing Upwork can do because you worked without a contract, The "client" is already suspended. You'll clearly have to pay those people back.

 

NEVER EVER do anything like that again, NEVER use your own account(s) for anything, never do anything in your own name, never send money from your account to a "client".

 

This was a certain and surefire scam from the start

msmrkcpn
Community Member

Hi Petra,

I know. But I have not received payment for myself. They promised they will give me my commission via Upwork. And also, they have "Payment verified" tag that's why I think they are legit at first.

 

I learned my lesson. I will never NEVER use my own account(s) for anything, never do anything in my own name, never send money from my account to a "client".

 

Never again. 

Regards.

g_vasilevski
Retired Team Member
Retired Team Member

Hi Mariko,

 

I'm sorry to hear about the bad experience you've had. 

First I would like to confirm that In order to be eligible for our Upwork Payment Protection you will need to be hired on an official contract and fulfill the criteria required. This way you can always be protected on your contracts.

Also, I would recommend to check out this Post for more tips on how to avoid questionable jobs along with the Safety First section Here.

 

Lastly, I would like to confirm that proper actions have been taken towards the client. Thank you.

~ Goran
Upwork

Thanks Goran! I have learned a lot from all the links you've provided. And I also saw all the red flags that I encountered. It sucks that I've fallen to that.

 

I just hope Upwork will do something to those scammers so that they can no longer scam other people. 😞

msmrkcpn
Community Member

Are there any way that we can make them pay what they stolen from me?

re: "Is there any way that we can make them pay what they stolen from me?"

 

No.

 

You are only going to hurt yourself if you retain desire in your heart to ever get that money back.

petra_r
Community Member


Mariko C wrote:

Are there any way that we can make them pay what they stolen from me?


No. There isn't.

 

Mariko C wrote:

I just hope Upwork will do something to those scammers so that they can no longer scam other people. 😞


They have already done so. They removed the "client" from the platform.

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