I received an email titled - "Join Upwork Payroll Ready Pool"

[a67a00ec]

I received an email titled - "Join Upwork Payroll Ready Pool" which asks me to provide a lot of personal information to a non-upwork site

"Edited per Community Guidelines"

Is this email sent by upwork? To me, this just looks like spam.

The email is sent from

From: Upwork Payroll <upworkpayroll@upwork.com>
To: Upwork Payroll <upworkpayroll@upwork.com>
Bcc: My upwork email (which I only use for upwork)

It looks like you are selling my information or there has been a data breach on your end.

[a67a00ec]

Here is the original content of the emails. Seems like it is sent using the upwork domain but I cannot understand why would upwork ask for my details outside upwork.

"Edited per Community Guidelines"

[lenaellis · Accepted solution]

Hi Akshansh, 

Yes, that email did come from Upwork. This was sent to you because you had previously expressed interest in payroll opportunities. The email is not asking for you to send any of this information to us. As stated at the beginning of the email, this email was to provide you with details about Upwork's payroll ready pool and the information you will be expected to provide if you receive a payroll engagement. In order to expedite onboarding, we are asking folks to have this information ready and available ahead of time so that it will be ready to share with the employer.  And the checkbox in the email is for you to select whether you are still interested in joining. 

-Lena 

[a67a00ec]

Hey Lena,

Thanks for your prompt reply. I believe I jumped the gun on this email. My apologies. 

Although, it is very off-putting that upwork will ask me to fill some of my personal details like Name, email, upwork username on a third party website - formsite.com. Upwork already has access to all this information. Clicking on the link just makes the email looks like a phishing email. Since I work in the information security field this is a very big No and it makes the email looks like a scam. Also, the email I use for upwork is not used anywhere else so I got worried about my data been leaked or something, which is not the case. 

I appreciate you getting back to me.

Stay Safe,

Akshansh

[lenaellis]

No apologies needed, I'm glad I could help and ease your mind.

Thanks for sharing your experience. I did forward your feedback to the payroll team. Chances are if you feel this way about the email content others may too. 

-Lena

[artistamibrown]

I too got the email and thought it seemed fishy - especially when there are links in the email. And they are asking for you to provide a list of personal documents. I understand it says to have them ready - but I thought it was a scam. You may want to re-think that email. 

 - Ami

[martina_plaschka]

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Akshansh K wrote:

I received an email titled - "Join Upwork Payroll Ready Pool" which asks me to provide a lot of personal information to a non-upwork site

"Edited per Community Guidelines"

Is this email sent by upwork? To me, this just looks like spam.

The email is sent from

From: Upwork Payroll <upworkpayroll@upwork.com>
To: Upwork Payroll <upworkpayroll@upwork.com>
Bcc: My upwork email (which I onlLolmation or there has been a data breach on your end.

---

Lol - judging from the title, I would have bet the farm (Disclaimer: I do not own a farm) that this is a scam. Payroll Ready Pool - come on, how is that English?

Well, I would have been mistaken. Live and learn. 

[elisseck]

FWIW I am also here, trying to find out if this email is a scam of some sort. I don't remember "previously expressing interest in a payroll opportunity" - of course, that doesn't mean it didn't happen.

Just seems super obfuscated and strange by the language and medium.

Adding the time crunch of two business hours makes it seem even more phishy like "act now or you'll miss out on unclaimed overseas government fortunes" hahaha. I couldn't commit to responding to anything that quickly if I wanted to; I turn off notifications for code sprints.

[researchediting]

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Eli L wrote:

....Adding the time crunch of two business hours makes it seem even more phishy like "act now or you'll miss out on unclaimed overseas government fortunes" hahaha. I couldn't commit to responding to anything that quickly if I wanted to; I turn off notifications for code sprints.

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Upwork's marketing obsession with speed is indeed unseemly, and some freelancers have commented time and again that in our domains speed is impractical, and it sounds unprofessional to promote it as desirable.

If there is a glimmer of hope in the communications ban debacle, it would be that Upwork has abandoned speed as a value in favor of obfuscation, complication, and delay. Oh, wait, that's not very hopeful, is it?

[researchediting]

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Martina P wrote:

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Lol - judging from the title, I would have bet the farm (Disclaimer: I do not own a farm) that this is a scam. Payroll Ready Pool - come on, how is that English?

Well, I would have been mistaken. Live and learn. 

---

It is recognzable as English to native speakers, although it would be more clearly legible with a properly placed hyphen. Hyphens are in flux in English, and nowadays rarely appear in the names of companies, products, services, or programs.

[martina_plaschka]

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Douglas Michael M wrote:

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Martina P wrote:

---

Lol - judging from the title, I would have bet the farm (Disclaimer: I do not own a farm) that this is a scam. Payroll Ready Pool - come on, how is that English?

Well, I would have been mistaken. Live and learn. 

---

It is recognzable as English to native speakers, although it would be more clearly legible with a properly placed hyphen. Hyphens are in flux in English, and nowadays rarely appear in the names of companies, products, services, or programs.

---

I know that these are 3 English words, but how to make sense of them? What is ready? The payroll? The pool? What does ready mean in this context? It makes no sense to me.

[91ef1f7c]

Agreed. This basically says "send me a bunch of info" -- with no context. 

WTF am I signing up for?

[shawnvw]

The long way to say it is:

The pool of people who are (in the words of the e-mail), 'payroll-ready' -- that is, ready to be paid by payroll. 

I'm really more interested in the pros and cons of joining the program. And would you get paid by W-2 instead of 1099?