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jinkinson
Community Member

Scam

It appears I am talking to someone (supposedly) offering me a job who is trying to scam me. I think this mainly because what he said about himself in our Google Hangouts message, as well as his insistence on communicating using Hangouts, matches extremely closely to the scam described here:

**Edited for community guidelines**

I don't know how to report this user or the user who instructed me to email them. I have attached a screenshot of part of our Hangouts chat today as evidence.

ACCEPTED SOLUTION
BojanS
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi Jinkinson,

 

Thanks for flagging this for us. I've checked and it looks like the appropriate action has been taken on the client account due to violation of Upwork ToS.

 

Please, check this help article for more information on how to use the flag option found on each job post or message to report any suspicious or inappropriate content.

 

Also, check out this post for more tips on how to avoid questionable jobs.

 

Thank you!

~ Bojan
Upwork

View solution in original post

22 REPLIES 22
BojanS
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi Jinkinson,

 

Thanks for flagging this for us. I've checked and it looks like the appropriate action has been taken on the client account due to violation of Upwork ToS.

 

Please, check this help article for more information on how to use the flag option found on each job post or message to report any suspicious or inappropriate content.

 

Also, check out this post for more tips on how to avoid questionable jobs.

 

Thank you!

~ Bojan
Upwork
jinkinson
Community Member

Thanks for the quick response. I'm new around here but I actually had seen the link you sent me: https://support.upwork.com/hc/en-us/articles/211063118-Report-Suspicious-User-Activity

 

I specifically followed the step of contacting Customer Support, but did not receive a response, so I decided to post here instead. I will now delete the user in question from my Google Hangouts.

I've had 6 of these in the last 2 months alone. I never join Google Hangouts with them. But when I've reached out to support for UpWork I've never received a reply. I think we should get our connects refunded for these scam jobs. I used up 24 on scams and there are no signs before applying - super annoying. 

Did you flag these jobs?  Did you check your connects report to see which ones were refunded to you?

Hi Malorie, 

I checked your Connects History page (Settings > Membership & Connects > Connects History), and can see that some Connects was refunded to your account. Could you please confirm if these are the jobs that you were referring to on your post? If the Connects for the job post you are referring to has not been returned yet to you, please let me know so that I can assist you further.


~ Avery
Upwork

I was also scammed and when I went to flag the job, the job has been removed so I can't find where to flag the job.  This was the job posting:

**Edited for community guidelines**

re: "I was also scammed and when I went to flag the job, the job has been removed so I can't find where to flag the job."

 

Good.

This means that the job has already been taken down by Upwork. You will automatically receive your connects back from when you applied to the job. You don't need to do anything else.

0595bada
Community Member

I was just scammed and also had all of my banking information hacked by these **Edited for Community Guidelines**! I can't flag the post because it has already been removed! The absolute least that you guys can do is give me some free connects and an upgraded membership for all of this **Edited for Community Guidelines**

Hi Chelsea,

 

I`m sorry to hear about the bad experience you had. I can confirm the job post you are referring to was already removed and client's account addressed for violating Upwork ToS. Please take a look at the list of tips for recognizing fraudulent jobs Lena compiled and posted Here. Thank you.

~ Goran
Upwork
freethinker_1
Community Member

I just went throught the process of being contacted by someone offering to speak with someone in Hangouts.  I shamefully when through the trouble by creating a fake Hangouts account just to see what they had to say and what they were offering. The gave me the name of the company (**Edited for community guidelines**) and even sent me a check to cash but they only wanted it cashed at a bank and were pushy.  I surprised them by saying I reported them to the BBB and haven't heard from them.  It's a shame that UpWork can allow people to join and pose as potential clients but not verify there payments to see if they are infact legit clients.  That's putting our time, work, money, and personal information at risk.  I hope this stops happening to others and doesn't happen to anyone else. I almost fell for it but first rule of business: no outside business which is why we have UpWork.

Le'Ecia:
I am glad you were knowledgeable and wise enough to not fall for this.

 

With all that you did, playing along with these people, I think have learned pretty much everything you need to learn about this particular scam.

 

You are probably planning to do this anyway, but let me mention for you or others reading:

Next time you encounter this scam, you can save a lot of time by immediately using the "Flag as inappropriate" link button in the right hand upper corner of the job posting screen.

 

If you report it and Upwork takes the job off the platform, then you'll automatically receive your connects back. So that is a good thing.

 

As soon as you see the Google Hangouts invite request, you'll recognize the other elements of the scam, and you can just report them and block them immediately.

aleeya_h
Community Member

I experienced something very similar but I cannot find where to flag the job posting.  I contacted customer service and provided a copy of the conversation I had with the "hiring manager" over Google Hangouts.  

BojanS
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi Aleeya,

 

Thanks for flagging this job to us. I've checked and it looks like the job has already been taken down because it was in violation of Upwork ToS and action has been taken on the client account. 

 

Please, check this help article for more information on how to use the flag option found on each job post or message to report any suspicious or inappropriate content. Also, check out this post for more tips on how to avoid questionable jobs.

 

Thank you!

~ Bojan
Upwork
chelsea_scriven
Community Member

I'm honestly so done with Upwork. I've been using for a week and am totally fed up. I just want to give you feedback - I feel like its been a complete waste of time. It seems that every single job that appeared on my recommended page was fraudulent and later got removed from Upwork. It's really frustrating that Upwork doesn't even care about protecting freelancers and doesn't even bother to prescreen clients. I have had every single job respond in a shady way and then later they get removed. It is such a waste of my time especially when the posting appears completely legitimate. Where the heck do I find just 1 legitimate employer. I've just been contacted by another one that I believe to be a scam. This is just embarrassing on Upwork's part.

 

Question: will Upwork ever put any effort to verify employers ahead of time. EVERY SINGLE ONE has been a scam so far and there are not obvious signs! Upwork has no respect for people's time. I'm tired of doing their job for them by making them remove every single person on their site it seems. 

 

Seriously, try harder....

And out in the real world, Chelsea, there are lots of people who will try to take your money. Wake up, honey.

Ok thanks. I wasn’t exactly asking you, just trying to contact Upwork and
this is the only way to do it.

Thanks for the advice though... lol


Chelsea S wrote:

 

Question: will Upwork ever put any effort to verify employers ahead of time. EVERY SINGLE ONE has been a scam so far and there are not obvious signs! 


Unfortunately, if there were no obvious signs, then I don't know how Upwork would be able to tell that they're scams, either. Thousands of jobs are posted every week and it would take too much customer service time for employees to go undercover, pose as freelancers and see if a client does something that's a TOS violation (and by the time they did ascertain this, 20-50 freelancers will have already bid on that job). 

 

There are good clients on Upwork, but most freelancers don't get hired after only one week on the platform. If you stick with it longer and get a few contracts, you'll be a less appealing target for scammers.

 


Chelsea S wrote:

I'm honestly so done with Upwork. I've been using for a week and am totally fed up. I just want to give you feedback - I feel like its been a complete waste of time. It seems that every single job that appeared on my recommended page was fraudulent and later got removed from Upwork. It's really frustrating that Upwork doesn't even care about protecting freelancers and doesn't even bother to prescreen clients. I have had every single job respond in a shady way and then later they get removed. It is such a waste of my time especially when the posting appears completely legitimate. Where the heck do I find just 1 legitimate employer. I've just been contacted by another one that I believe to be a scam. This is just embarrassing on Upwork's part.

 

Question: will Upwork ever put any effort to verify employers ahead of time. EVERY SINGLE ONE has been a scam so far and there are not obvious signs! Upwork has no respect for people's time. I'm tired of doing their job for them by making them remove every single person on their site it seems. 

 

Seriously, try harder....


What Christine said ... and for those of us who have been here awhile working with good clients, we can pretty much tell when/if a job is a scam right away. In fact, we don't even see those fraud postings. Newbies do ... and because they don't read the material Upwork provides about how to work safely, they learn the hard way.

 

It is impossible to keep up with scammers - it is up to you to "try harder" and educate yourself. These scams happen all over the internet and not just on Upwork. Upwork has plenty of freelancers, what we don't have enough of is clients - making posting a job difficult is a good way to chase those clients away. Prescreening clients would mean the only people left on this site would be freelancers.

CS,

 

Welcome to UW!

 

As a veteran (over 8 years) I do wish I could share good news with you but, in the interest of transparency, I cannot.

I can confidently say, however, that you are not alone!

 

In my niche I would estimate that currently, perhaps 6-8 out of every 10 job posts are bottom-feeding garbage not worth anyone's time, energy or Connects. Of course, if you stick around, all newbies will/should quickly learn how to steer clear of these types of timewasters but...you'll have to make that call for youself.

Best of luck.

 

Work smart, work safe!

 

Care to share any tips William? Or the biggest red flags you've noticed? I'm generally very skeptical by nature but would love your opinion. thanks.

jade-stenger
Community Member

Just had this happen to me with a job yesterday. I continued to talk with him today. Unfortunately they took off the job posting already but if you get into contact from this address: 

**Edited for community guidelines**

The ask for Google hangouts like this thread has mentioned before, and they're expecting to send you a check to pay almost 4,000 dollars worth of office equipment. Be wary, I almost fell for it. 

Jade:

Now you know that if a "client" contacts you out of the blue and asks you to interview using Google Hangouts... it is just a scam. No need to waste your time with them.

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