Scam?

[cynthia-rostad]

Hi. I received an invite to interview yesterday from **Edited for Community Guidelines**. The listing was from **Edited for Community Guidelines**. I was invited to interview outside of Upwork in Google Hangouts. They said the job is full time working for them directly and not through Upwork. I am pretty sure this is a scam/ripoff. I haven't found the listing yet this morning, but my stats are saying I accepted zero out of one invitations to apply. I did accept the invitation, but then they wanted to take that out of Upwork. Wanted to put a warning out there and see if I can get my stats changed so it doesn't look like I ignored an invitation. I am new and do not want that on my record. Any advice? 

Thanks! 

[lysis10 · Accepted solution]

scam

[cynthia-rostad]

Thank you. I found the post and flagged it. 

[vladag]

Hi Cynthia,

I've checked and can confirm this job was removed, and the client's account addressed yesterday. Taking a job off the platform is a serious violation of our ToS, and we do advise users not to start working unless there's an active contracts for the job under their My Jobs tab.

Thank you.

[cynthia-rostad]

Thank you. I located and flagged two identical posts earlier this morning. Thanks for your reply.

[sguest2]

There appear to be so many scams on UpWork that I'm skeptical about applying to many of them. Any tips on how to spot s cam right way? Other than the obvious typos and strange screenames?

[mwiggenhorn]

Scams will:

1.  Want to interview you on Google Hangouts

2.  Will want to send you a check for software or want you to pay for training

3.  Will want to pay you outside of Upwork

4.  Will offer employee benefits

5.  Will offer an extremely high hourly rate (ie $20/hour for data entry)

6.  Will want you to provide them with personal information

Stay away from these guys.  And if it seems too good to be true, it generally is.

[kimberley-salves]

I just had a 2-1/2 interview in google hangouts...then the bank question, asked them to verify the branch office, emailed the company ...not employed by them....darn, now I am at 100% my job offers are a scam, how does one get a real job on this site?

I have flagged everyone of them.

[prestonhunter]

Kimberley, you need to focus only on jobs that you apply to.

Do not accept invitations. You're too new to receive legitimate invitations.

Ignore anybody asking you to use Google Hangouts. They're scammers.

[prestonhunter]

2.5 hour interview?

No, that is not acceptable.

Any interview that long means you are dealing with a scammer or somebody just wasting your time.

5 to 10 minutes is sufficient time for any job you would be applying to on Upwork.

Time beyond that means you are working for free as a consultant. The client needs to be paying you for your time.