Scam or Legit? University of Helsinki (????)

[d38fa3f2]

Hello,
I received an offer as part timpe translator from **Edited for Community Guidelines**, United States, member since April 6, sayin that she is "a representative from the esteemed University of Helsinki located in Finland. For those unfamiliar with our institution, further information can be found online".
The Accept button is not active, the chat button says 'conversation cannot be found', I should apply by Google Form.
One of the mandatory field in Gogole form is email address, that I would not give and I would remove also my personal contacts from my CV, but 'Unviersity of Helsinki' with an account that looks like being from the US, besides the good weekly pay, makes me want to double check if you have more info about it: if it's a scam (and someone says, if you need to ask, it is), what's their catch? Having my personal data? Getting some job done from me from me and then don't pay? do you have any experience?
Thank you.

[PradeepH · Accepted solution]

Hi Silvia,

I checked the job post you were referring to and it appears that it's already been taken down because it was in violation of Upwork TOS.

Please check out this course for more tips on staying safe on Upwork and please use the flag option found on each job post or message anytime you’d like to report a violation.

- Pradeep

[feed_my_eyes]

As you've already worked out, scammers can lie about being from a particular company (in fact, legit clients are unlikely to tell you where they work or encourage you to look them up online), and yes, if something sounds too good to be true, that's because it is.

What's their game? They'll give you some fake work and promise you a hefty payment (laughably, they'll often ask you to translate a well-known novel that's already been translated into multiple languages). After you do the fake work, they'll tell you that you need to pay for a security badge, or a currency exchange fee, or a PayPal linking fee, or some other such nonsense. They'll tell you that this fee is refundable and that you'll get paid as soon as you complete this one small step. Then if you pay the fee, they'll come up with another reason why you can't get your payment yet, and ask you to pay another "refundable fee". This will continue until you either wise up or run out of money, whichever comes first, at which point, they'll disappear without a trace. Of course, your "refundable fee(s)" won't be refunded and you won't get paid.

You can avoid 99% of scams by insisting that clients only discuss projects with you on the Upwork message board/integrated Zoom feature, and by refusing to receive or send money outside of Upwork.