Opinion required

[hassan9224]

Hi, I wanted to ask the community something. Recently, a client reached out to me for a job. He said that he wanted to hire me for a job, but the thing is, once payment is in my account and available, I have to send him some percentage of this money since he was outsourcing the work, and he needed screenshots of the work from me to send to his client, to approve the payment. He was hiring me for more than my hourly time, and in return, he wanted the extra when available in my account to be sent his way. I don't know if this is against the policy or some scam, so I wanted to take your opinion.

[sajal36]

No doubt there is integrity issue in the statment you mentioned. Being a professional, you must adhere to code of business coduct and poilitely let the person know that this is unethcal. 

[25005175]

3 things. First, the legality:

Unless this client opts to pay Upwork the fee to convert your business relationship, all financial transactions must remain on Upwork. Full stop.

Second, the scam:

The client will issue a chargeback through their bank as soon as you wire their "percentage" to them. Then you will have to pay that money back to Upwork or lose your account. "Client" has a net gain, you have a net loss.

Third, the nonsense:

I cannot think of a single legitimate reason that a contractor who outsources or sub-contracts would choose to hire someone for the same amount that they are being paid to do the job and upfront request a percentage back - especially through a separate channel. That is because the obvious solution is to just sub-contract for less than what they charged their client. Why add more transactions to the process? And why would screenshots of the work (reasonable) be tied in any way to this percentage return?

Top Red Flags for Scams: From Community Member Wes C 

Scammers Know How To Get Money Transferred TO Them 

ETA: I learned how to count

[hassan9224]

Thank you, Jonathan. It was informative, and I know for sure it is a scam. Luckily I didn't fall for it

and considered taking the community's opinion on it. 

[hassan9224]

I have been reading, you can say a lot about chargeback scams. I have come to know that scammers usually steal someone else's account. Once the real owner finds out they push the chargeback. And when the chargeback hits, the amount is deducted from the available balance. What are the other possible outcomes of the charge back?

[myvirtualsolutio]

Anytime a client is asking me to send them money (no matter the circumstance) I immediately associate them with a scam. Unfortunate I know but in todays time, it's better to be safe than sorry. 

[prestonhunter]

Syed:

The question you asked means that you are not ready to work on Upwork as a freelancer. You need to spend some more time in the Forum reading about:

a) Upwork rules/ToS

b) scams

Any Upwork freelancer should be able to immediately recognize that what that "client" was proposing to you is both:

a) a very serious violation of Upwork ToS

[and]
b) a scam which will lead to you losing money

[hassan9224]

Yes, I do believe I need to spend more time understanding it. Because the scams are just getting beyond asking for money transfers. Upwork is more of a side gig. I am a regular employee 9-5 job. But, I do believe I am naive to work among all the scammers. 

[hassan9224]

I am blown away by all the chargeback scams, and how people are losing $ thousands after months or in some cases year of delivering the work. But, thank you all for sharing your knowledge. I truly appreciate it. 

[myvirtualsolutio]

I ran across this article about red flags.  Thought it may be helpful to others 😃
Top Red Flags for Scams: From Community Membe... - Upwork Community 

[52a187a6]

You mentioned an issue of integrity in your statement. You should politely inform the person that this is unethical in your role as a professional.