Payment problems - URGENT

[jelena-maljevic]

Hello, I finished the first project. They confirmed that it is okay and they asked me to provide them bank details to get payed. I asked them if it is possible to be payed in my local currency, they said of course. Now, they sent to me that they want a collaboration with me as their remote worker and in order to receive the amount I have to provide them my ID number and to pay the fee of 83$. I checked here and for my country the fee is 30$. I am coming from Serbia. Is this normal situation or? Thanks in advance for your help. In the attachment you can find the screenshots of our conversation on Telegram. They first contacted me here and then told me to find them on Telegram.

[anna_babicheva · Accepted solution]

Payments outside of Upwork are against ToS! Communicating outside of Upwork before you have any contract is against Tos!

This is a scam. You worked for a scammer. Don't pay anything. Just ignore and move on.

[3linap]

Hi Jelena. 

I agree with Anna on this one.. Upworks supports freelancers in any way possible in order NOT to get scammed and get PAID as they should. It was a bad idea to trust someone and take your collaboration outside Upwork without being sure. 

Next time I suggest you stay on Upwork and follow all steps and instructions regarding Contracts, Milestones, Payments etc.

Best,

Elina. 

[812dd08c]

Hi Jelena,

Thank you for reaching out and bringing this to our attention. I've checked your account and can't find any contract being established with a client. Anna and Elina are correct! Please be reminded that sharing contact information before a contract has started is against Upwork's Terms of Service and that all communications before the contract start must take place on Upwork.

Additionally, real clients will never ask you to give them money to start working, cash a check for them, work for free, or provide your personal information. 

However, the job was removed for violation of our Terms of Service. We cannot discuss further details on the action taken on other users' accounts for confidentiality purposes. Please check out this post for more tips on avoiding questionable jobs and use the flag option found on each job post or message anytime you’d like to report a violation.

[jelena-maljevic]

Thanks to all of you for detailed explanation. Luckily, I did not payed anything except giving my personal infos, but I blocked them in Telegram so that they cannot reach me anymore. For the next time, I will follow all those steps you sent to me. Thanks again!