Pending bonus

[megv_v]

Hi

I wish someone could tell me what to do. I'm a top rated talent and i have actually working at Upwork for a long time, but this is the first time I encountered this situation.

One of my client paid me for my work with a bonus, total $7740. but 6 days have passed and the bonus is still showing as pending(the date is also shown as pending). I have confirmed with the client and he said he has already paid for it.

What should I do now to get the money? Can the staff at Upwork help me with this?

Best

Meghan

[petra_r]

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Menghan Z wrote:

One of my client paid me for my work with a bonus, total $7740. but 6 days have passed

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Why would a client pay such a huge sum by bonus? Bonus payments are never protected, and accepting them as payment for work is incredibly risky. A bonus should be just that. A *bonus*!

The client never paid that bonus, despite Upwork trying repeatedly to charge them.

What "work" did you do for the client that took only 1 single day and earned you THAT much money? Especially considering that you aren't a "Website developer PHP larval full-stack" person according to your profile. You're a colorist and video editor...

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Menghan Z wrote:

What should I do now to get the money?

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Try to get the client to pay, but looking at the job it seems like you fell for the old "send me crypto or similar untraceable money and I will send you a much higher sum via Upwork as a bonus" scam. That client never paid and will never pay and never intended to pay.

That scam works because the scammer relies on the victim to believe in free money and being careless because they think they can make a lot of money for essentially nothing, and then violate Upwork's terms of service by sending money in some form to the scammer.

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Menghan Z wrote: Can the staff at Upwork help me with this?

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No

[megv_v]

Hi,

Thanks for your reply, i know it says "Pending" means the client did not pay this, i have read your answers under other questions. I have confirmed this with the client.

If bonus payments are never protected, why upwork charges service fees from bonuses?

My profile alreadly shows 5 star rating for this job and earnings of $7740.

[petra_r]

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Menghan Z wrote: I have confirmed this with the client.

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You have confirmed what with the client? That he didn't pay? What do you expect them to say "Yes, I'm a scammer"?

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If bonus payments are never protected, why upwork charges service fees from bonuses?

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Technically, you pay no fee on the money you never got and you don't pay the service fee for payment protection as such.

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My profile alreadly shows 5 star rating for this job and earnings of $7740.

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That doesn't mean the money was paid (which it wasn't).

What type of money did you send to the scammer?

[megv_v]

I see what you mean. 

I need someone from the Upwork team to check my account and tell me that the client didn't pay it, then I will go to the client and ask for it.

Isn't it a strange rule that if he hasn't paid the bonus yet, why can I successfully refund some of hte money?

Isn't a problem that everyone needs to go to Report > Overview page to see if the date is pending to know if the bonus has been paid or not?

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[petra_r]

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Menghan Z wrote:

I need someone from the Upwork team to check my account and tell me that the client didn't pay it, then I will go to the client and ask for it.

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But you can see yourself that the client didn't pay. Of COURSE the client didn't pay. It wouldn't be a scam if the scammer paid, would it?

why can I successfully refund some of hte money?

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Please tell me you didn't refund any of the money and sent even MORE money to the scammer? Hasn't that put your account in the red? (Never mind, just seen the screenshot... I'm frankly lost for words... What were you thinking throughout this whole nonsense?)

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Isn't a problem that everyone needs to go to Report > Overview page to see if the date is pending to know if the bonus has been paid or not?

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It's only a problem for people who violate the terms of service by sending money to a scammer outside of Upwork...

How much money and in what form did you send to the scammer? 

[megv_v]

I just refund him $2160. If he didn't pay for the bonus, why can i refund part of it?

[martina_plaschka · Accepted solution]

STOP!! NOW!

Let me explain: 

1. This was never a real job. Nobody pays that kind of money for that little time. Crystal clear scam from the start.

2. The money you see in your account was never paid. Once the card can't be charged for the full amount, it will disappear. 

3. It is possible that the client was able to charge this fraudulent or stolen card for a minimal amount to appear legit. But never for this amount. 

4. If you do absolutely nothing, this job will disappear from your profile, which is a good thing because it screams scam to everybody.

5. You didn't refund money from the bonus. You refunded money from your ACCOUNT, which means the scammer profited even more. 

6. You lost the money you paid for some virtual currency, and the money you refunded. 

You really need to educate yourself and avoid scams. It's not that hard. 

[martina_plaschka]

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Menghan Z wrote:

I just refund him $2160. If he didn't pay for the bonus, why can i refund part of it?

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Because you don't refund from a contract, you refund from YOUR ACCOUNT. 

If you have a contract for 400 and get paid, and the money is in your bank account, if you refund that client there is no money IN THE CONTRACT ANY LONGER, but you can always refund FROM YOUR ACCOUNT, which is what you did. 

[petra_r]

How much money and in what form did you send to the scammer?

[sofia2008]

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Menghan Z wrote:

My profile alreadly shows 5 star rating for this job and earnings of $7740.

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It doesn't mean anything. Ratings appear a few hours after the freelancer also gives a feedback.

It also doesn't mean anything because both gave bogus 5-stars review to cover things up. There was no work as per the job desription. 

[nyonomega0]

Look at the screenshots:-

They scream a scam! You got scammed. VERY expensively, in fact. There's nothing you can do about it now, except leave it behind.

As you go ahead the path of integrity, keep these things in mind:-

- Only accept bonuses as bonuses, not payments.

- Bonuses are NOT protected, so exchanging big amounts through them is always risky.

- You don't do the jobs you're NOT SUPPOSED to do, no matter how much money you're being promised.

- Jobs that have promises too good to be true, end up disappointing substantially.

- You don't violate Upwork's TOS by paying externally, in any form. You did that. You might get suspended for it.

Thank You.

[martina_plaschka]

Hired 12 people. That's a nice payday. 

[nyonomega0]

Indeed

[pgiambalvo]

And I wonder how many of those were hired AFTER it was flagged.

[roberty1y]

This is why I'm suggesting freelancers need to be given a test to ensure they're wise to these scams. There are really only two things you need to know to avoid being a victim: Don't communicate outside of Upwork until there's a contract, and don't ever conduct any financial transactions offsite. If a freelancer is ever asked to pay money for any reason, it's a scam.

It's not just those people who are being ripped off who are affected. It has repercussions for everybody, indirectly. The site gets a seedy reputation when it's infested with scammers. Their source of revenue needs to be cut off, and then they'll disappear.

[martina_plaschka]

Some good news - since scammy scammers think it's a good idea to invite me to their jobs in the last weeks, I get a lot of invitations, but when I go there to decline and tell them what I think of them, the posts are already gone. So I would say that upwork deletes A LOT of scammy posts right at the beginning now, and I only see them because I was invited to them. 

[feed_my_eyes]

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Robert Y wrote:

This is why I'm suggesting freelancers need to be given a test to ensure they're wise to these scams.

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Nobody should have to be told that real clients don't pay tons of money to freelancers for doing quick, easy jobs. That should be down to common sense.

[m_terrazas]

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Christine A wrote:

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Robert Y wrote:

This is why I'm suggesting freelancers need to be given a test to ensure they're wise to these scams.

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Nobody should have to be told that real clients don't pay tons of money to freelancers for doing quick, easy jobs. That should be down to common sense.

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You are right, but you know that "Common sense is the least common of the senses", Voltaire 🙄

[NikolaS]

Hi Menghan,

Thank you for reaching out to us and bringing this to our attention. I shared your report with our team for further investigation and appropriate actions will be taken according to our internal processes.

I see that you also created a support ticket regarding your concern. One of our agents will follow up with you as soon as possible to assist you further. 

I also encourage you to let us know if a TOS violation has happened by using the Flag as Inappropriate option throughout the platform. You can learn more about user reporting here. You may want to check this page to help you stay safe on Upwork.