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06d39126
Community Member

I think this employer maybe trying to run a scam. How do I report this?

Greetings, 

Reasons I think this is a scam:

1) The person (**Edited for community guidelines**) said that he is with Uber Technologies, Inc.'s Human Resource dept.

2) He asked me to contact him on Telegram which I did.

3) He asked me what bank do I bank with because Uber doesn't direct deposit into all banks. And he asked me if I use Zelle, Cash App, etc. We are supposed to utilize the escrow account on Upwork.

ACCEPTED SOLUTION
a_lipsey
Community Member


Candice W wrote:

Greetings, 

Reasons I think this is a scam:

 

2) He asked me to contact him on Telegram which I did.

 


And that's where you violated TOS. Upwork can only keep you safe if you abide by the TOS. If a client asks you to communicate off Upwork or give them contact information outside of Upwork BEFORE you have a contract in place, this is a violation of the TOS. Once you have an Upwork contract, you can communicate anyway you like. 

 

Yes, he is a scammer. Flag the job post and move on, but stay on platform and abide by the TOS this time. 

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15 REPLIES 15
a_lipsey
Community Member


Candice W wrote:

Greetings, 

Reasons I think this is a scam:

 

2) He asked me to contact him on Telegram which I did.

 


And that's where you violated TOS. Upwork can only keep you safe if you abide by the TOS. If a client asks you to communicate off Upwork or give them contact information outside of Upwork BEFORE you have a contract in place, this is a violation of the TOS. Once you have an Upwork contract, you can communicate anyway you like. 

 

Yes, he is a scammer. Flag the job post and move on, but stay on platform and abide by the TOS this time. 

I read somewhere that contact outside of Upwork may occur before a contract is in place to review/discuss the details of the job before accepting it. I will have to search to see if I can find it again.

Instead of looking for that realize that you can review and discuss the job on Upwork perfectly well and assume it's a scammer if they refuse. 


Candice W wrote:

I read somewhere that contact outside of Upwork may occur before a contract is in place to review/discuss the details of the job before accepting it. I will have to search to see if I can find it again.


No, you cannot. There are a few, very limited instances in which you can share outside information, but simply for the purposes of discussing scope, that must be done on Upwork. And sharing that outside information can typically only be for doing things like: reviewing their social media to scope the projectl reviewing a website or codebase to scope the project - even in those instance, communication must remain on Upwork until there is a contract in place. 

 

Here is the Community Announcement thread detailing the TOS: https://community.upwork.com/t5/Announcements/Communicating-On-and-Outside-of-Upwork-Terms-of-Servic...

re: "I will have to search to see if I can find it again."

 

You don't need to spend time trying to find wording somewhere that will help you get scammed.

Not correct. It can only be used to access material that is important to determine, e.g., the scope of the work if these materials can't be sent in upwork messenger. It can not be used to just discuss something. 

Even if we follow the ToS, they cannot keep us safe from people who use stolen credit cards that lead to people doing work only to have their money "refunded" from escrow, as we're seeing happening more and more. Don't know how Upwork could reduce those numbers but that's not my department.

pgiambalvo
Community Member

Candice, yes it is a scam. You should not have contacted him off of UW before a contract is in place. That is a violation of the ToS, so read it and follow it to protect yourself from the many scams here that you will continue to encounter.

JoanneP
Moderator
Moderator

Hi Candice,

 

I can see that you have received some really helpful advice already. You can read more on this help article and also, please check out Tips to avoid questionable jobs. You might also want to check out the information here to learn more about staying safe on Upwork. 

~ Joanne
Upwork
zaraep
Community Member

Same thing just happened to me with the same**Edited for community guidelines**, should Uber be notified?

roberty1y
Community Member


Zarae P wrote:

Same thing just happened to me with the same**Edited for community guidelines**, should Uber be notified?


No. There is absolutely no use notifying any company whose name is used as part of a scam. It's so easy - anyone can write down that they're from Uber/Microsoft/Walmart, etc. - and the scammers are almost always beyond the reach of the relevant authorities.

I guess you must have applied yesterday and he just now got back to you. Because since this was reported yesterday, his post should've been removed by now, unless he was somehow able to post it again.

re: "should Uber be notified?"

 

No.

 

It benefits nobody to notify a company that their name is being used like this. ALL companies can have this happen to them.

aberg8321
Community Member

Hey! Wanted to flag that this same person posted another job with 'Content Writer' as the title.

AveryO
Community Manager
Community Manager

Thanks for sharing that here, Alexandra. 

If you haven't already, feel free to flag the job post by following the steps here. In the future, don't hesitate to report any suspicious activity by flagging the job post or the freelancer's profile. 


~ Avery
Upwork
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