Poster contacting me on my personal phone...

[tammymckinney]

Recently, I submitted a proposal for a job. The job description stated that I needed to attach my resume, which I did. I didn’t think about my information being on it and now I’m being contacted via text on my phone instead of through the UpWork platform. How should I handle? Is this ok? What should I watch for? It seemed off somehow and I’m afraid to get scammed.

[wlyonsatl]

There's no rule against a client and freelancer contacting one another through any means they wish.

If you don't want to get these text messages, ask the client not to use this phone number. A good one will stop. And bad one won't and you can block them, if your phone and carrier allow that.

This is part of the reason why Upwork recommends no personal information be included in proposals.

[renata101]

Hi Tammy, 

First off, although my title is Community Guru, I don't have superpowers and I'm not employed by UpWork. So please take anything I say with a grain of salt. 

In and of itself, the call to your home number is not a conclusive sign of evil intent. After all, you sent the resume and it did have that information on it. It may be a sign that the client has not used UpWork before and/or is accustomed to traditional hiring approaches. 

Some things you can do:
1) Research the client page. Check to see if the client has used UpWork in the past to hire a freelancer. It's a good sign if the person has used UpWork to do business in the past. You can check any ratings previous freelancers have left about them as well, which is sometimes helpful.

If there is no client history, it may just be that the client is new to the platform, but if the person hired before, it's a good sign that this is all they're up to. 

2) Go to the search window at the top of the community discussions page. Research the various kinds of scams that people have posted about in the past. If you choose to contact the client, you'll know what to look out for. 

3) You could message the client and say that you would prefer use the UpWork system for all project discussions. There is a voice call option (I'm not sure what the odds are that it will function as it should, but there is one there). This means that everything you discuss is recorded. 

You could also just phone the client since the person already has your number. It might even be a good sign about their intent to communicate about the project.