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natemylander
Community Member

PSA Scam: *edited*

Hey all recently encountered a fishy scenario. **edited for Community Guidelines** sent me a message on upwork to go through with an interview for this position as a translator for **edited for Community Guidelines**. He sent me a document that had instruction, see attached image, to contact his boss, **edited for Community Guidelines**. **edited for Community Guidelines** conducts a 1 hour long interview on telegram and claims that upwork take 30% from him so he wants to take it off site, specifically direct deposit. After the interview, he says that he and his team will process the answer and get back to you first thing in the morning. Look out for these photos and documents of these folks. Stay safe and don't give out your banking information.

ACCEPTED SOLUTION
AveryO
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi everyone, 
You may see that your posts were edited. I had to edit the subject of the post to make sure that it complies with the Upwork Community Guidelines. 

 

Hi Nate, 
I had to edit your post because we do not allow identifying persons or companies in an accusation of misconduct. This goes against our Community Guidelines. You may refer to the link I have noted above for more information about our Community Guidelines.

As for the client you have referred to on your post, I checked your account and can confirm that actions have been taken against the client's account. Please know that offering and accepting to be paid off the Upwork website is a violation of the Upwork Terms of Service. The team will reach out to you with more information about your account. 


~ Avery
Upwork

View solution in original post

19 REPLIES 19
petra_r
Community Member


Nate M wrote:

Hey all recently encountered a fishy scenario. XXXX (A person using a fake name) sent me a message on upwork to go through with an interview for this position as a translator for XYXYXYXYXYXYXYXYXYXYX


Did you really for one second believe that the real /name of publishing houe) would REALLY want to hire you as a translator?

 

You need to understand 3 things:

 

1) You are not allowed to name people / companies in this forum

2) Obviously that scammer is not using his or her real name, and the people / company you named have nothing to do with the scam

3) You telling the scammer that you want to be paid via direct deposit is enough for Upwork to permanently suspend your account for violating their most sacred rule.... 

 

If people were not so eager to defraud Upwork, this dumb old scam would be long gone from the platform.

 

a_lipsey
Community Member

Say goodbye to your account. Read the TOS next time. 

AveryO
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi everyone, 
You may see that your posts were edited. I had to edit the subject of the post to make sure that it complies with the Upwork Community Guidelines. 

 

Hi Nate, 
I had to edit your post because we do not allow identifying persons or companies in an accusation of misconduct. This goes against our Community Guidelines. You may refer to the link I have noted above for more information about our Community Guidelines.

As for the client you have referred to on your post, I checked your account and can confirm that actions have been taken against the client's account. Please know that offering and accepting to be paid off the Upwork website is a violation of the Upwork Terms of Service. The team will reach out to you with more information about your account. 


~ Avery
Upwork

Thanks Avery, I was not aware. I just wanted to get the information out there to help anyone dealing with the same people.

Much appreciated! I was just given a similar offer by the exact same person. Thank you.

Thanks from me too, I just got an offer letter from the same guy interviewed me on Telegram. He uses some big company's name: Bxxx&Nxxx Press. That's fake anyway, as his email address is in Gmail, not in that big company email account. The interview questions were strange and I was a standby for hours long. There is also something strange in the offer letter, about some payment I need to output for the company first, then I shall receive reimbursement. Anyway, I haven't committed to this offer, I just felt something not quite right. Thanks for your post here, and we need to watch out for one another! (Need the forum advice, if I can post that offer letter here or not? Thanks.)

I just had the same experience today. Watch out!
BojanS
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi Michelle,

 

Could you please click on my name and send me a PM with more information about the case you're reporting. I'll be sure to escalate it accordingly.

 

Thank you.

~ Bojan
Upwork

I applied to this position today and this lady, Bianca sent me the link of the PDF file that is exactly the same as the people talking about on the thread.

I just wanted to let you know the name of the person whom I contacted, the pdf File that she sent, also the screenshot of the app Telegram.

 

 

 

**Edited for community guidelines**

 

Hi Ai,

 

Thanks for flagging this to us. I'll be sure to share this with our team for further investigation and appropriate actions will be taken according to our internal processes.

 

 

~ Bojan
Upwork

Thanks Nate, I'd have fell for this scam if it wasn't your post! 

BojanS
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi Lap,

 

Could you please click on my name and send me a PM with more information about your report? I'll check it and escalate it to the correct team for their review. 

~ Bojan
Upwork

I got a similar email today, working through the same app telegram. How did you know it was a fake? Should I just drop the job?
j_wallace_jr
Community Member

There's an old adage, if it feels yucky, it probably is.

lizibarra17
Community Member

It happened to me as well, the only thing is that I actually received an email from carrers@ and the domain was a famous editorial house. How the scammers can create something like that? Be careful!!!
burrier_nicholas
Community Member

Thank you for posting this. The same people just tried to get me this morning, several months later.

Hi Nicholas,

 

Please send me a PM with more information by clicking on my name so I can check this for you. 

~ Joanne
Upwork

Hello.  I believe that this was the same scam as the original poster was talking about.  The sequence of events happend exactly as described.  He said that he didn't want to use Upwork for any payment, and I believe it was the same kind of work that the original poster was talking about.  Seems like it might have even been the same people.  

Thanks for letting me know, Nicholas.

 

If you have the link to the job post you are referring to, I can check it with the team and make sure that it is escalated accordingly. Please feel free to send me a PM when you're ready to share more information.

~ Joanne
Upwork
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