Sep 25, 2017 05:52:10 AM by Elizabeth Y
I am on the verge of closing this account down and being down with upwork. I signed up about a week ago and was so hopeful that I could do some work from home given my poor health. Well I almost got scammed twice luckily my husband helped me figure it out before it was too late. The only info they got was my name and mailing address. I also called the company they were pretending to be and warned them of the situation. And forwarded the conversations and emails to the companies IT dept so that they can make sure to set up a investigation. I am very upset by this and now I keep getting fishy invites for jobs, plus all the legit jobs I apply to don't respond. I am beginning to regret ever setting this account up.
Sep 25, 2017 06:14:42 AM by Vladimir G
Hi Elizabeth,
I'm sorry about your bad experience with the two potential clients you had thus far on Upwork. Please note that as long as you keep communicating with prospective clients through Messages, make sure not to share your ID, bank or other details with other users, accept only to get paid through the platform, never pay in order to be considered for the job, using Upwork Payment Protection programs and start working only after getting hired and seeing a contract under the My Jobs tab, you'll avoid all pretty much questionable jobs.
Please review these safety tips, derived from our ToS, and note that you don't need to do a background check of prospective clients but only follow the steps outlined above.
Let us know if you have any questions and please also review these freelancer resources, in order to successfully start using the Upwork platform.
Please click on my name and pm the job post links of these two jobs, so I can confirm if our team addressed them already.
Jun 9, 2018 06:21:04 AM by Mandy L
I have a company wanting to interview me through Google Hangouts. I take it this is a red flag?
Jun 9, 2018 06:32:47 AM by Preston H
re: "have a company wanting to interview me through Google Hangouts. I take it this is a red flag?"
Mandy: They are scammers who are trying to steal your money.
Block them and forget about them.
Apr 10, 2020 05:51:08 PM Edited Apr 10, 2020 07:23:51 PM by Joanne Marie P
I have an interview today using Telegraph. I'm new here in upwork. The hiring person said the company name is **Edited for Community Guidelines**. He told me a lot of introduction about the company. in Upwork posting a diferent person has the name posting and told me to create a telegram ccount which I need to use to have an interview session with a the Hiring manager names **Edited for Community Guidelines**. When I contacted **Edited for Community Guidelines** he intriduced hmself as the Quality Control Supervisor. I have attached some chat conversion he sent me. I hope it will help to identify if the job in legit. I also attached the contract the wanted me to sing and return to him. Please help me.Thank you.
Apr 10, 2020 07:35:02 PM by Joanne Marie P
Hi Milanie,
Thanks for reaching out, and for bringing this to our attention. I checked the job post you mentioned, and our team has already removed this job post for violating the Upwork ToS. We won't be able to share details about the client's issue here in the community, but please know that appropriate actions have already been taken. If you see a job or invitation that looks suspicious or inappropriate, you can flag it using the flagging option found on every job post or Upwork profile. This sends a notification directly to Upwork, allowing us to investigate and take the appropriate measures. You can read more on this help article and also, please check out Tips to avoid questionable jobs.
Apr 22, 2020 12:56:17 PM by Brian W
Was this a legit offering. I think I have the same offer right now
Apr 22, 2020 12:59:57 PM by Margaret C
Apr 30, 2020 03:29:48 PM by Geoff W
I've also been contacted by someone asking me to sign up for Telegram for an interview for a gig. They claim to be a big name US publishing company but the English in the invitation is extremely unnatural. Scammers.
Apr 30, 2020 08:18:00 PM by Avery O
I'm glad to know that you were able to identify the red flag on this job, Geoff.
If you haven't already, please flag the job post as inappropriate so that it goes to the team's queue for their review and action.
Jun 22, 2018 10:45:57 AM by Tiffany N
Jun 22, 2018 11:17:51 AM by Mary W
Tiffany, UW already has a scam button. On the job posting, flag (upper right) and tick off the scam option.
Jun 22, 2018 11:54:34 AM by Petra R
@Mary W wrote:Tiffany, UW already has a scam button. On the job posting, flag (upper right) and tick off the scam option.
It might not work when you're sideways....
Jan 21, 2020 08:42:56 PM Edited Jan 21, 2020 09:20:37 PM by Avery O
Hello,
I recently got two clients who wanted interviews. One was today, but after texting with them, I am not so sure they are legit. This person claims they are from **edited for Community Guidelines** but I cannot find them anywhere online. Is this typical for some people? This is concerning. How do you know clients on here are legit?
Jan 21, 2020 09:35:16 PM by Avery O
Hi Guadalupe,
If you feel that this raises a red flag, you may opt to stop communicating with these clients, and flagging their job post as inappropriate so that it goes to the team's queue for their review.
In the meantime, I highly recommend that you read up the "Safety First!" section of the freelancer resources we have compiled, and these tips for avoiding questionable jobs for more information about working safely through Upwork.
Feb 28, 2020 08:32:15 AM by Gregory A
Feb 28, 2020 08:36:18 AM by Preston H
Gregory, when jobs are scams or aren't real and are taken down by Upwork, all freelancers with proposals in for that job get their connects refunded back to them.
Mar 28, 2020 05:38:07 PM by Yuanting W
Mar 28, 2020 07:45:33 PM by Joanne Marie P
Hi Yuanting,
Could you please share with me more information regarding this so I can check with the team? You can send me a PM by clicking on my name. If you can include the screenshot of your conversation that will also help. Thank you.
Apr 22, 2020 01:03:42 PM by Margaret C
Jan 18, 2019 02:55:23 AM by Jakob Matthew M
Yes, clients offering anything outside of UpWork is more than likely a scam, especially google hangouts. They are just phishing for your info under the guise of a potential job.
Mar 19, 2019 01:34:03 PM Edited Mar 19, 2019 05:49:15 PM by Avery O
Had something similar with a recruiter from **edited for Community Guidelines**. Would trust a real person potentially but not someone who only speaks over message
Mar 19, 2019 03:02:27 PM Edited Jan 20, 2020 01:45:59 PM by Bojan S
Timothy T wrote:
Had something similar with a recruiter from**Edited for community guidelines**. Would trust a real person potentially but not someone who only speaks over message
It's not the use of messaging to communicate but the identification as a "recruiter" that should be your tip-off. Sometimes a phone convo is required to fully scope a project but there's nothing sinister about not needing it. But I've never been contracted for a FL gig (online or in the b&m world) by anyone whose title was Recruiter or Hiring Manager. This is not a jobs board, but scammers often use that kind of language to encourage a newbie's notion that s/he has stumbled onto a golden opportunity.
Aug 14, 2019 11:04:32 PM by Jiyoung N
Nov 15, 2019 02:02:33 PM by Krista M
That's how they interviewed me so I would say yes. Why wouldn't a company want to at least have a phone interview with a prospective employee? I even offered a video interview and they preferred google hangouts...which is a platform no one uses anyway.
Nov 15, 2019 02:22:27 PM by Bojan S
Hi Krista,
Thank you for flagging this to us. I was able to locate the job post from your report and will escalate it to our team for their review.
Please check out this post for more tips on how to avoid questionable jobs and please use the flag option found on each job post or message anytime you’d like to report a violation.
Thank you.
Jan 20, 2020 12:55:10 PM by Melissa M
Apr 14, 2020 07:46:50 AM by John P
I had the same thing happen to me. I ended up waiting on Google Hangouts for nearly 15 minutes and it was nearly dead silence. Though I couldn't imagine what the scam was, it certainly was a waste of time. The next day, I got someone that wanted me to contact another through Gmail in order to start the interview process. While it certainly could be legitimate, I certainly prefer the ones that keep the correspondance through Upwork.
Jan 31, 2020 02:02:44 AM by Brenda K
Jan 31, 2020 02:34:15 AM by Petra R
Brenda K wrote:
Hello ? Does it mean that when invitations are zero interviewing zero its a scam or? When a job has been advertised.
No, of course not!
Jan 31, 2020 05:57:05 AM by Raphael E
Thanks for the Informative reply above, well hopefully it will enable me also secure even a simple job here in Upwork
Apr 20, 2020 05:00:50 PM by Zachary S
Vladimir,
I have submitted proposals to several job postings that are scams and I would like a refund. Most, if not all, of these scams, are literally the same scam and its unbelievable you all let them sit there and collect proposals. I need to know whom to contact to get a connections refund for at least 10 submitted proposals. I have proof of these scams.
-
Apr 20, 2020 09:30:44 PM by Avery O
Hi Zachary,
I checked your account and can see that for some of the jobs that you submitted proposals to last February, Connects were refunded for these jobs. You may check your Connects History here. As for the jobs you submitted proposals for this April, none of the jobs have been closed for a TOS violation. If you are referring to other jobs, let me know so that I can look into this further.
Apr 21, 2020 12:23:47 AM Edited Apr 21, 2020 12:46:01 AM by Goran V
I’m not **Edited for Community Guidelines**-so did you check the right account? Regardless, I will check my connects history and thank you very much for the link to do so! Have a great day.
Apr 22, 2021 04:28:23 PM Edited Apr 22, 2021 05:20:49 PM by Joanne Marie P
**Edited for community guidelines** is a fruad company.
I just lost 2,000USD to pay for the 'office equipment'.