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endytech
Community Member

Stop a potential/serial scammer on Upwork

Hi everyone,

I got a response after submitting proposal on a job post.
The "client" requested for my Skype username for continuation of conversion.

On Skype, they said that they wanted to send cash to a family member who needed funds and that they would send me the cash from Upwork, but wanted me to go ahead and send the $600 to the intended recipient, while they set up a milestone for $900 including the cost of the project.

That was when I knew something wasn't right.
I played along until they categorically stated that I would be compensated for the offer.

I feel it is scam.

I have attached screenshots here to help. Please do something before a naive Freelancer falls victim.

 

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

8 REPLIES 8
mipaparazzi
Community Member

Hello Gaberial, that is a scam that has been discussed here this community a number of times.

But don't give out alot of information most especially before hire. 

 

 

Thank you
martina_plaschka
Community Member


Gabriel S wrote:
Hi everyone,

I got a response after submitting proposal on a job post.
The "client" requested for my Skype username for continuation of conversion.

On Skype, they said that they wanted to send cash to a family member who needed funds and that they would send me the cash from Upwork, but wanted me to go ahead and send the $600 to the intended recipient, while they set up a milestone for $900 including the cost of the project.

That was when I knew something wasn't right.
I played along until they categorically stated that I would be compensated for the offer.

I feel it is scam.

I have attached screenshots here to help. Please do something before a naive Freelancer falls victim.

A bit late. Freelancers who have read the ToS know that at The "client" requested for my Skype username for continuation of conversion. is the right moment to realize that something isn't right, On Skype, they said that they wanted to send cash to a family member who needed and that this is the moment they might lose their profile for violating the ToS. 

I urge you to educate yourself about the rules of upwork, and never play along with a potential scammer. Upwork can and will use this communication against you, if they believe you violated the terms you agreed to when signing up. 

NikolaS
Moderator
Moderator

Hi Gabriel,

 

Please note that sharing contact information before a contract has started is against Upwork’s Upwork's Terms of Service and that all communications prior to the contract starting must take place on Upwork. We also encourage you to let us know if a TOS violation has happened by using the Flag as Inappropriate option throughout the platform. You can learn more about user reporting here.

 

A real client will never ask you to give them money to start working, cash a check for them, work for free, or provide your personal information. I advise you to check this page for great tips that can help you stay safe on Upwork.

 

~ Nikola
Upwork
pgiambalvo
Community Member

Upwork will do nothing more than they already do to stop them. But they will remind you to read the TOS and never communicate outside of Upwork. All we freelancers can do is to depend on one another to flag these countless and ever increasingly frequent scam posts and make others aware of them like you did to protect one another.

 

roberty1y
Community Member

Just another day on Upwork. Scammers will be always with us. It isn't Upwork's fault. There's no way to stop dishonest people getting on the site pretending to be clients, short of implementing a hugely complicated and expensive vetting system that would mean it would take days or weeks to post a job. and it would have to be funded by raising the commission freelancers pay.

 

Here's a simpler way to deal with scammers: Read the ToS, and don't contact anyone off the site unless a contract has been started. If the scammers don't have any suckers to work on, they can't do any harm. 

So Upwork doing something as simple as verifying a client's payment method BEFORE allowing them to post wouldn't help weed out scammers? It doesn't seem like that would be that complicated and expensive, nor would it scare legitimate clients away. Of course, I could be wrong.


Peter G wrote:

So Upwork doing something as simple as verifying a client's payment method BEFORE allowing them to post wouldn't help weed out scammers? It doesn't seem like that would be that complicated and expensive, nor would it scare legitimate clients away. Of course, I could be wrong.


There's more to stopping scammers than verifying payment methods. But even that alone would slow down the process of hiring someone. A lot of honest clients prefer to post a job first and then set up a payment method when they've found someone to do it. Having to register their financial details before they even know they'll find the right person would put a lot of them off posting jobs here.

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