Is upwork in China working?

[flmarija]

I have been contacted by a person from China asking to borrow my account and wanting to see my profile. The explanation was that they cannot use Upwork in China. Is this some kind of fraud? He/she asked to see my profile (profile url) and said that they could not use Upwork in China. 
I quote: 
**Edited for Community Guidelines**
Thanks.

[martina_plaschka]

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Maria T wrote:

I have been contacted by a person from China asking to borrow my account and wanting to see my profile. The explanation was that they cannot use Upwork in China. Is this some kind of fraud? He/she asked to see my profile (profile url) and said that they could not use Upwork in China. 
**Edited for Community Guidelines**

Thanks.

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Wow, this is bad. 

Stop talking to this person, block him, and flag the job posting for fraud immediately.

It is not allowed to give any other person your login data or let them use your account. It can get you suspended or banned from upwork. 

[luce-neidert]

It's not just bad, it's terrible! How could someone write a contract allowing someone to borrow your Upwork profile! That's rather dumb!

[yitwail]

According to this article, Upwork doesn’t prevent Chinese citizens from using the site.
https://support.upwork.com/hc/en-us/articles/211067778-Eligibility-to-Join-Upwork

That doesn’t mean the Chinese government couldn’t prevent it, however. But obviously the person in question was able to create an account somehow in order to send this offer, so besides asking you to do something that would get you suspended, the story you were told seems highly suspicious to me.

[luce-neidert]

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John K wrote:
According to this article, Upwork doesn’t prevent Chinese citizens from using the site.
https://support.upwork.com/hc/en-us/articles/211067778-Eligibility-to-Join-Upwork

That doesn’t mean the Chinese government couldn’t prevent it, however. But obviously the person in question was able to create an account somehow in order to send this offer, so besides asking you to do something that would get you suspended, the story you were told seems highly suspicious to me.

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Well, one of my repeat clients is in China and contacted me four days ago. 

[g_vasilevski]

Hi Maria,

Please send me a PM (Click on my name) with more details about the person who contacted you and our team will investigate it further. Thank you.

[prestonhunter]

I appreciate the original poster taking the time to ask for help and clarification here in the Forum. She is doing the right thing.

However - one has to admit that within the context of what is happening, this is kind of a silly question: Is Upwork working in China?

First of all, Upwork DOES work in China. But that is beside the point.

Somebody asked the original poster if he could use her Upwork account. Well, not only is this an extremely dangerous thing to do, with regards to the damage that could be done to one's account... It is also a violation of one of Upwork's most important rules. Nobody is allowed to log into another person's Upwork account.

So it doesn't matter if Upwork works or doesn't work in China, or any other place. There ARE actual countries where Upwork can not be used. That doesn't make it okay for someone from one of those places to "borrow" somebody else's Upwork account.

Just like it would be EXTREMELY AGAINST THE RULES for the original poster's mother or roommate or anyone else to "borrow" her Upwork account.

[gau_star007]

I am also facing the same issue. A profile name "**Edited for Community Guidelines**" sent me messages on LinkedIn and asking me to create Upwork account for him. He says, Upwork is banned in China.  It would be great if you look into this. It is really very frustrating.

[g_vasilevski]

Hi Gaurav,

Thank you for reporting this. One of our team members will reach out to you via ticket where you can share more details with us, our team will investigate it further and take proper actions. Thank you.

[9b23bdcc]

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

Hey, this guy is messaging my mate on Linkedin with the same scam. I told him it's a scam and to not take the bait. I did want to report him though so you guys can see. 

Here are some screenshots of their conversation so that he can't deny it ever happening. 

[abinadab-agbo]

Mike,

I flagged you for sharing private messages/conversation screenshots in an accusation of misconduct.

[5da6e02d]

Hi, I've been contacted via CouchSurfing by someone saying Chinese are not allowed on Upwork.

Attached is a screen shot.

Thanks,

Frank Turner

[AveryO]

Hi Frank, 

Thank you for sharing this here. Please know that we have very successful freelancers from China, and Chinese freelancers are welcome to Upwork. It is very likely that some users' registrations were not accepted on Upwork. As such, if any freelancer approaches you and requests to use your Upwork account, please decline the request and report it to us so that we can file a report and investigate it further. 

Sharing Upwork accounts, or creating an account for someone else is a violation of the Upwork Terms of Service, and will not be tolerated. You may read up on this help article to know which actions may constitute a temporary or permanent hold on a freelancer's account. 

[JoanneP]

Hi Mike,

Please send me a PM with more information so I can share with the team for further investigation. You can send me a message by clicking on my name, thank you.

[ronlorraine]

To the OP one of my favorite lines is "RUN FOREST RUN". I have remote server logins all over asia and China is one of them. China does have a great firewall and they do block many things but I checked just a minute ago and Upwork is currently working in China.

[mtngigi]

The Great Firewall of China

Someone had to say it ...

[acs51]

I faced the same dilemma. So is your issue resolved?

[AveryO]

Hi Ann, 

You can send me a PM with more information about your concern so that I can look into this further. 

[prestonhunter]

I am not sure what the dilemma is.

If somebody asks to "borrow" your Upwork account, then you say no.

If they contact you through Upwork - and thus have an Upwork account - then you can report them to Upwork Customer Support.

If they contact you from outside of Upwork, then there is not much Upwork can do about it. But you can block them.

If you keep running into people on Another Site pestering you about this, then can stop using that site.

[flmarija]

I really don't know what happened at the end.
But, meanwhile I realised it was a fraud, so just ignore it...i.e. if you
got the same message.

[porusn]

Hello! I have this Skype user **Edited for community guidelines**  asking me to give him an account in Upwork. He contacted me from workana. Can something be done about it?

[BojanS]

Hi Pablo,

Thank you for reporting this to us. Could you please share more information with me via a PM so that I can file a report for our team's review? 

Thank you!

[prestonhunter]

re: "He contacted me from Workana. Can something be done about it?"

Yes.

Never use the Workana website.

Remove your profile and contact information.

Then none of these goofball scammers will contact you from there.

[versailles]

They are all over the Internet. They spam you on all the cheap freelancing sites and ask for your Upwork account.

[prestonhunter]

re: "They are all over the Internet. They spam you on all the cheap freelancing sites and ask for your Upwork account"

Yes, that is what we have seen in various reports from Upwork users who also have accounts on those other sites, and reported these fraudulent solicitations here in the Forum.

But I did not want to name all of the cheap freelancing sites that have been the source of this kind of thing.

If Upwork freelancers don't want to receive such solicitations, then the only way to achieve that goal may be to stay off of all of those sites. There is no way for Upwork to control the activity on other sites.

The only way to make sure this sort of thing happens much less (or not at all) is if all Upwork freelancers are united in never cooporating with such requests. Right now, we have to assume that some scammers are indeed successful in "renting" other users' Upwork accounts, so the practice persists.

[flmarija]

Hello, I really don't have an answer to that. You can do what I did, report
to Upwork or something like that.
I have received a message (request) like that once and found it suspicious,
so that's why I reported it and placed the topic to Upwork community.

[stancic-velibor]

Hi Goran,

Some guy from China asked me to sell my UW account:

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

Find conversation print-screens in attachments

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

[g_vasilevski]

Hi Velibor,

Thank you for reporting this, our team will investigate it further and take proper action.

[daalma1054]

Hi Goran 

I sent you a message about the details of the information person who also contacted me to borrow my account,
any update about this person? what actually his purpose?

[g_vasilevski]

Hi Alfin,

While I can't share any details about our investigation or the results from the investing, rest assured, our team has already taken proper actions. Thank you.

[48dfefbc]

Take a look at these also talking about renting my account because he can’t use upwork in China, what should I do

**edited for Community Guidelines**

[AveryO]

Hi Jade, 

It would be best to ignore these requests as these are in violation of the Upwork Terms of Service. I've downloaded the photos you have attached so that I can investigate it further. Thank you for sharing this here.

[flmarija]

Hi,

Don't rent your account to anyone.

[danielfrodriguez]

the name is **Edited for Community Guidelines**

[AleksandarD]

Hi Daniel,

Could you please send me a private message with more information on this along with the screenshots so that I can send a report to the team for investigation?

Thank you.

[gelabz]

is this practice allowed? (besides ofcourse prob getting scammed) If someone is truly wanting to do this type of partnership, is this allowed?

[BojanS]

Hi Alpha,

I would like to confirm that Upwork users are not allowed to share their accounts with other users, or people outside of Upwork as it is a violation of the Upwork Terms of Service. Users are not allowed to rent/lease their accounts, and only the registered user is allowed to access and use their account.

Thank you! 

[dryland37]

Hi Goran, I've been contacted by three people recently on LinkIn wanting to use my account. This person **Edited for Community Guidelines** has been very insistent on me letting him access my account. I even offered to set up an agency so we could collaborate. How should I handle this?

[petra_r]

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Rylan W wrote:

Hi Goran, I've been contacted by three people recently on LinkIn wanting to use my account. This person **Edited for Community Guidelines** has been very insistent on me letting him access my account. I even offered to set up an agency so we could collaborate. How should I handle this?

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BLOCK THEM and have absolutely nothing to do with them ever again. They are not allowed on Upwork and have been suspended already, which is why they want to use your account (and get you suspended and in really deep trouble, with Upwork for sure, and also possibly into deep financial and legal trouble) 

[AleksandarD]

Hi Rylan,

Could you please send me a private message with more information about your report along with the screenshots of the conversation so that I can send it to the team for investigation? 

Thank you.