Pattern of clients asking for communication / Payment outside of Upwork

[aziz_92]

The most recently job is this: **Edited for community guidelines**

But i've seen a trend of these guys in the past few months. They give you a link and send you an 'onboarding' form where they collect your email, data, etc. Then they contact you outside upwork, and ask for you to work outside upwork. 

It's so easy to spot these guys too, but Upwork seems like they just don't care. 

Also, these guys are asking for 2 different "vetting assignment", 2 hour long quiz, technical interview, all without being paid. The vetting assignments is ACTUAL WORK haha, that they've disguised as 'test'. I thought this was against Upwork's TOS as well, to work for free?

[prestonhunter]

Aziz:
Thank you for your report.

Very interesting.

I don't doubt that these scammers are finding success. Of course anyone who encounters them should report them.

But their ploy can only work with freelancers who are both:

a) willing to violate Upwork ToS by communicating off-platform

[and]

b) willing to work for free (which is obviously not a wise or profitable thing to do)

II hope that's only a small percentage of Upwork freelancers.

[tinker_bell3]

Hi Aziz,

Thanks for bringing this to our attention. You can flag this job and any other job posts using the flagging option. 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. 

I'll be sure to share this with the team so that they can review and take appropriate action.