SCAMS

[lizzy414]

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.

[vladag]

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.

[tjluv25]

I have a company wanting to interview me through Google Hangouts. I take it this is a red flag?

[prestonhunter]

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.

[mlaly12]

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.

[tinker_bell3]

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.

[b_wildman]

Was this a legit offering. I think I have the same offer right now

[grammarbelle]

I know google hangouts are a red flag, and Skype was for me but I wasn’t sure. I was more concerned about the “opt out”
notice included in the message they first sent in response to my initial proposal. I ended up flagging it and withdrawing my proposal. I also included a message to Upwork asking whether it was fraudulent.

[geoff-witek]

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.

[aocumen]

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.

[teejay808]

Yeah same thing happened to me, had me all excited and then. They said “google hangouts “ like what? And there email is also not a company email.

Idk how these people are getting away with...
(Pretending to be someone else’s company)
And asking if you want to work
For them.
Upwork you need a “SCAM”
Button that reports these fake
People.

[mwiggenhorn]

Tiffany, UW already has a scam button.  On the job posting, flag (upper right) and tick off the scam option.

[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....

[kochubei_valeria]

Hi Tiffany,

I located the client you are referring to and will make sure actions are taken. 

Please, check out this Post for more tips on how to avoid questionable jobs. 

[guadalupe_maldon]

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?

[aocumen]

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.

[gregarnott]

But the problem is that we’re spending our money on these connects in order to hopefully find work, and then these scams prevent us from getting the work, while the site also takes our money. I know that connects aren’t expensive, but it becomes worthless when we find out that the jobs were submitting ourselves for aren’t real.

[prestonhunter]

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.

[yuan-ting]

Hi
I have a problem about I got the job which was scams or not. The hiring recruiter let me to have the interview and conversation via google hungouts. And she said they want to use that app due to the department recorded. She gave me a check to buy training material. Is it a scammer? This confuse me. Thank you

[tinker_bell3]

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.

[7e8cd5ad]

You mean to tell me that Upwork is not free??

[grammarbelle]

Go back to the original posting and click “flag as inappropriate.” This brings up a list of things you can choose from and gives you a chance to also write your concerns in an open field.

[scimedlexicon]

Yes I got scammed by the same guy. 

[kasparov_sergey]

yah **bleep** them.

he wanted my bank info.

[jakob62]

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. 

[t_treu]

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

[gilbert-phyllis]

---

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.

[ferriphilip]

Very red

[99b933ff]

It is scam. I got tricked. The interview was weird and they in the end said they will send me a check to begin the work and they said they are not going to pay me through upwork and offered me much more money than what i offered etc. i didnt give them any personal information but please keep the conversation in the website.

[klynnm]

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.

[bstojadinovic]

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.

[8898bdd5]

This just happened to me.... unfortunately I am going with 99% safe to say, it’s a red flag! After they offered me the role, I requested a video chat or LinkedIn connection from the individual and have not heard anything since..

[postwiser]

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.

[esykemmy]

Hello ? Does it mean that when invitations are zero interviewing zero its a scam or? When a job has been advertised.

[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!

[eden-raphael]

 Thanks for the Informative reply above, well hopefully it will enable me also  secure even a simple job here in Upwork 

[zstone27]

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.

-

[aocumen]

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.

[grammarbelle]

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.

[bd770fe0]

**Edited for community guidelines** is a fruad company.

I just lost 2,000USD to pay for the 'office equipment'.