SCAM WARNING: *edited*

csh013 · ‎11-09-2021

Since the job has been closed and I'm not able to flag it, if anyone gets an offer from a **edited for Community Guidelines** claiming to be in need of a virtual/personal/administrative assistant with a phone number **edited for Community Guidelines** it's a scam.

AveryO · ‎11-09-2021

Hi Courtney,

I'm sorry about your experience with this client. As a gentle reminder, I'd like to note that it's against the Upwork Community Guidelines to identify names/companies in an accusation of misconduct or post contact information in the Community.

Since you are relatively new here, I recommend reading up on these tips to avoid questionable jobs to help you work safely on Upwork.

If you see any inappropriate jobs in the marketplace or feel like it's something that the team should review, please don't hesitate to report it by following the steps here to go to the team's queue for their review. If you haven't already, please do the same for the client's job post to be reviewed further.

I'll also look into this to make sure that the client is reviewed.

~ Avery

csh013 · ‎11-12-2021

I've viewed the Report Suspicious User Activity page several times to try and report this person, however, it only discusses about flagging which can't be done if the job post is already taken down.

Since you're part of the Upwork Team, I recommend you all be better at vetting who's able to use this site as the amount of scams on here are getting ridiculous. You all should also look into other ways we can report scams besides just flagging a post.

pgiambalvo · ‎11-12-2021

Hey Courtney, I completely and wholeheartedly agree with everything you said. UW should get better at vetting who's able to use this site as the amount of scams on here are getting ridiculous. They also should provide other ways we can report scams besides just flagging a post. And because of the huge increase in scam posts recently, it is more important than ever that freelancers read and follow the ToS to protect themselves when UW can't, and flag every suspicious post they come across immediately.

gilbert-phyllis · ‎11-12-2021

Courtney H wrote:
I've viewed the Report Suspicious User Activity page several times to try and report this person, however, it only discusses about flagging which can't be done if the job post is already taken down.

Since you're part of the Upwork Team, I recommend you all be better at vetting who's able to use this site as the amount of scams on here are getting ridiculous. You all should also look into other ways we can report scams besides just flagging a post.

If the job post has already been taken down, then there's no need to flag it.

Before you jump on the "Upwork should do a better job keeping scammers off the site" bandwagon, you might want to take Avery's advice and get thoroughly familiar with how the platform works. It's virtually impossible to get scammed if you comply with the ToS. At the same time, it's absolutely impossible for UW to keep scammers away because the scam doesn't start until the scammer latches onto a gullible mark. Up until then, they haven' t done anything wrong.

There are so many scammers on the platform because it's worth their while to be here because there are so many new FLs plunge in without learning the ToS and how to stay safe, or simply choose to ignore the rules and warnings. When you see a likely scam, flag it and move on with your life. Focus on your business and how to get traction with better caliber clients. Scammers are bottom feeders, preying on new FLs who don't know any better and are desperate enough to believe the unbelievable. Once you get some momentum, you won't see the scammers because you'll be operating in a different part of the marketplace.