Suspicious activity from client side

[farjanahasan]

I have a client who is suspicious that i think he is a credit card hacker, he hired me from 2 accounts which is **Edited for community guidelines** for $48 per hours, i did .30 hour for first account and then his account got suspended and again he open another account which is monika thakur worked 30.30 hours and again contact suspended.

However another freelancer named **Edited for community guidelines** also working for him, I love my account that's why i am contacting with support,

He is asking another account to hire me again.

And for conversation he prefer skype.

he just took profile link and hire me no job posting and nothing else.

When i refused to continue the project he just threat me i don't want any legal problem.

Also he is demanded for refund i did his job perfectly and ask him to review he reviewed and did not complain about the task.

**Edited for community guidelines**

[BojanS]

Hi Farjana,

Thank you for this report. I'll escalate this to the correct team for further investigation and appropriate actions will be taken according to our internal processes.

[farjanahasan]

I have a client who is suspicious that i think he is a credit card hacker,
he hired me from 2 accounts which is **Edited for community guidelines** for $48 per
hours, i did .30 hour for first account and then his account got suspended
and again he open another account which is **Edited for community guidelines** worked 30.30 hours
and again contact suspended.

However another freelancer named **Edited for community guidelines** also working for him, I
love my account that's why i am contacting with support,

He is asking another account to hire me again.

And for conversation he prefer skype.

he just took profile link and hire me no job posting and nothing else.

When i refused to continue the project he just threat me i don't want any
legal problem.

Also he is demanded for refund i did his job perfectly and ask him to
review he reviewed and did not complain about the task.

**Edited for community guidelines**

I did hard continues work of 30.30 hours and completed 78 pages conversion
manually with successfully and i am not interested to continue the project
with new another upwork account. He ended the contract and ask refund.
Please do something.
Thanks
Farjana Hasan.

[BojanS]

Hi Farjana,

Thank you for following up with additional information. I was able to gather more valuable information from your report and will update our team with it to help their investigation.

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!

[farjanahasan]

My client ask for refund though i did the task perfectly. also ask him
about my work is there everything okay. He replied positively(sure). He
requested for refund and end the contact will the money automatically
refunded, if it is the process of refund then please make it stop first. I
had a hard work of continuous work 30.30 hours for this project. He asked
for another account to hire for the project and i refused then he started
making wrong word and threat me. He also said first added 10 min manually
must then start work, its seems suspicious for me too. **Edited for community guidelines** There are so many reason to suspicious that he is a credit card
hacker. He has too many accounts when upwork asked for verification then he
changed another account. I have 5 account mentioned before.
if i am disturbing you then please sorry, i am new for such type of
problem. Are you getting those massage. Thanks
I also want to make a dispute but can't find the option, trying to do live
chat also unable to find the option.
I don't want to lose my earned money. Thanks again.

[vstuart]

Sounds familiar https://community.upwork.com/t5/Freelancers/What-happens-if-client-put-abusive-review/td-p/755623. (If you read this post before all the "editing for community guidelines").

[ajays_nl]

I started working with client on the upwork . In the beginning He was behaving like he is a sales guy and he will provide me the client who hire me on 48USD/Hour and I need to give hin 38 USD /Hour as a commission, I agreed on the same. He asked me to share the id proof , I shared all ID prrof with him as security purpose. After one week , I received  one different account  from**Edited for community guidelines**. He was using the

**Edited for community guidelines**Id and told me that this was client id. I worked for 15 hours and after that**Edited for community guidelines**upwork account suspended by the upwork after few days 293 USD auto refunded to client account. After two weeks when I recived the payment at my account then he started asking the commission and send that commission to someone's bank account. So I asked him to share the details of person to whom I need to send the amount but he started threatning me that i will compalin to Upwork and your account will be suspended. I said no issue I won't transfer the amount until get any contact details of person. But He shared only the bank acount details but no other details about him. He told me transfer the amount into thsi bank acount:

**Edited for community guidelines**

I deined to send the amount until get any information about this person.

You can see now what he wrote on the review. Please see the attachment.

[gaspardjack]

So you agreed to participate in a fraud scheme and now you want Uwpork to help you get away with it?

[ajays_nl]

I have started the contract only in the upwork not outside of the upwork.  Yes I was agreed and I don;t have any issue to pay him but late I got know he is lieing with me then I started asking hm to provide me the recipient contact details because He has my personal details and he can do anythings with that.

But I never used any abusive language against him still he wrote the absuive review. I need to know how I can remove it.

[gaspardjack]

And you have no problem participating in a fraud scheme/money laundering/illegal activity on Upwork?

[martina_plaschka]

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Ajay S wrote:

I have started the contract only in the upwork not outside of the upwork.  Yes I was agreed and I don;t have any issue to pay him but late I got know he is lieing with me then I started asking hm to provide me the recipient contact details because He has my personal details and he can do anythings with that.

But I never used any abusive language against him still he wrote the absuive review. I need to know how I can remove it.

---

You don't have any issue participating in fraud? 

[gaspardjack]

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Martina P wrote:

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Ajay S wrote:

I have started the contract only in the upwork not outside of the upwork.  Yes I was agreed and I don;t have any issue to pay him but late I got know he is lieing with me then I started asking hm to provide me the recipient contact details because He has my personal details and he can do anythings with that.

But I never used any abusive language against him still he wrote the absuive review. I need to know how I can remove it.

---

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You don't have any issue participating in fraud? 

---

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Yeah he is thinking using abusive language is bad but money laundring is OK.

[JoanneP]

Hi Ajay,

I checked your account, and it looks like you already have an open ticket regarding this issue. One of our team members will update your ticket to assist you further. Thank you.

[prachi163]

I am baffled by how you willingly agreed to participate in a money-laundering scheme and it occurred to you that something is wrong only when this 'client' did not give you a name attached to the account where you were supposed to transfer the 'commission'.

Also, it is beyond me how you conveniently use the euphemism 'commission' for something that's clearly a fraud scheme. Firstly, commission for jobs is against the ToS on Upwork. Secondly, who pays a 79%(!!) commission?

As for the review. The review alone would not have done much damage to your profile. But your response to the review is a clear confession that you were complicit in this fraud scheme.

[gaspardjack]

Yeah, and the funny thing is that another freelancer **Edited for Community Guidelines** who have participated in the fraud scheme is complaining about the same client in the forum.

The "client" hired 5 freelancers with the exact same hourly rate, and there are 3 "clients" with the same pattern.

Upwork should investigate all those accounts seriously!

[prachi163]

Yes. I saw the other thread just now. The $48 per hour seems to be the common link. Looks like the 'client' couldn't be bothered to have 5 different fraud schemes and used a one size fits all scheme for all freelancers.

It's amusing as well as disturbing that people's conscience nudges them to report a fraud only when they think the terms of fraud aren't fair to them. 

[gaspardjack]

The hilarious thing is that the OP is not even complaining about not getting his money. He want the recipient contact details to actually deliver the fraud amount.

No way I can understand this manner of thinking, these people are living in another universe for me where no conscience exists. How you can imagine to ask Upwork for help in this situation and get away with it.

[munendraparmar]

It seems like a big scam in making or already taken place. There are two jobs associated with almost tens of freelancers all charging $48/hour. All of these freelancers were charging less than $10/hour before April of this year and suddenly they are getting $48/hour.

I may be wrong, but it seems that these clients are connected for these two jobs. How exactly client is making money in this is beyond me unless there is some scam/scheme. I believe Upwork trust and safety team should investigate this.

[gaspardjack]

It's something very big, there are at least 8 clients accounts and dozens of freelancers involved with the same hourly rate.

Money laundering or credit card fraud.

[gaspardjack]

This is really HUGE, it can't be, a lot more accounts and some jobs date back to February with the same 48/h.

I don't know what's going on! dozens and dozens of accounts involved. Why this went unnoticed?

A lot of freelancers account seem legitimate but suddenly they changed their rates to 48/h.

[VladimirG]

Hi Farjana and Ajay,

I merged the threads you started since they are discussing the same scam. I'd like to confirm that I checked and our team has already taken action against the client accounts you interacted with and mentioned.

Please report any future interaction in case you receive an offer for a similar arrangement by flagging the message in Messages, reporting the job post by using the "Report as Inappropriate" link or by submitting a support request. Note that the terms of the arrangement you accepted are a serious violation of Upwork TOS. Please refer to the resource Bojan shared in his response in order to avoid questionable jobs and feel free to follow up with me directly if you have any additional questions or feedback. Thank you.

To all, I removed a few posts from this thread since making personal attacks and disparaging comments isn't allowed in the Community. Thank you for your participation and the information you've provided.

[gaspardjack]

Hi Vladimir,

They are manipulating FLs profiles, if they rise their hourly rate and then resend the money outside Upwork to the "client", this should definitely be against the TOS and all those FLs profiles should be dealt with.

I found dozens of similar jobs post and probably hundreds of freelancers who suddenly got contract at 48/h and those "clients" are still hiring.

I don't understand the scheme, but all those similar jobs at 48/h can't be real!

[farjanahasan]

All contractor are helping him to hack more credit card account.

[VladimirG]

Hi Farjana,

Thanks for the follow-up. Could you please select my name/photo > select Message and share more information with me in a private message about the process you mentioned? Thank you.

[martina_plaschka]

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Vladimir G wrote:

Hi Farjana,

Thanks for the follow-up. Could you please select my name/photo > select Message and share more information with me in a private message about the process you mentioned? Thank you.

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Why is there no action taken against freelancers participating in this scheme? They are dragging the platform down, and are violating ToS by displaying a fraudulent rate on their profile, at the very least, and taking part in fraud. 

[gaspardjack]

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Martina P wrote:

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Vladimir G wrote:

Hi Farjana,

Thanks for the follow-up. Could you please select my name/photo > select Message and share more information with me in a private message about the process you mentioned? Thank you.

---

Why is there no action taken against freelancers participating in this scheme? They are dragging the platform down, and are violating ToS by displaying a fraudulent rate on their profile, at the very least, and taking part in fraud. 

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I think they are still investigating the issue, I can't understand till now what's going on, the profiles seem completly legits and a good portion are TR!

[jr-translation]

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Vladimir G wrote:

Hi Farjana and Ajay,

I merged the threads you started since they are discussing the same scam. I'd like to confirm that I checked and our team has already taken action against the client accounts you interacted with and mentioned.

Please report any future interaction in case you receive an offer for a similar arrangement by flagging the message in Messages, reporting the job post by using the "Report as Inappropriate" link or by submitting a support request. Note that the terms of the arrangement you accepted are a serious violation of Upwork TOS. Please refer to the resource Bojan shared in his response in order to avoid questionable jobs and feel free to follow up with me directly if you have any additional questions or feedback. Thank you.

To all, I removed a few posts from this thread since making personal attacks and disparaging comments isn't allowed in the Community. Thank you for your participation and the information you've provided.

---

Sorry, but my post was no personal attack but explained in the most neutral manner what part of the feedback left by the client would be considered abusive. It was directly linked to the OP's question. If you intend to edit this thread according to the Upwork Community Guidelines, you need to remove the posts mentioning ToS violation like money laundry, etc. which are basically all the post not from the OPs or moderators.

[gaspardjack]

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Sorry, but my post was no personal attack but explained in the most neutral manner what part of the feedback left by the client would be considered abusive. It was directly linked to the OP's question. If you intend to edit this thread according to the Upwork Community Guidelines, you need to remove the posts mentioning ToS violation like money laundry, etc. which are basically all the post not from the OPs or moderators.

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To be fair, the allusions in the posts would be considered offensive by a neutral person.

[m_terrazas]

Vladimir, I think it's good that you have taken action against these clients (which I suppose will reappear with other accounts), but, I'm sorry, it seems to me that you should also take action against all these freelancers who have knowingly participated in a fraud.
It seems that they are being treated as if they were victims, but they are part of the game.

[gaspardjack]

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Maria T wrote:

Vladimir, I think it's good that you have taken action against these clients (which I suppose will reappear with other accounts), but, I'm sorry, it seems to me that you should also take action against all these freelancers who have knowingly participated in a fraud.
It seems that they are being treated as if they were victims, but they are part of the game.

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Exactly my feeling! There are dozens of them, some of them are Top Rated with established profiles, I can't imagine how and why they accepted to be part of the scheme, and some FLs have 3 of these contracts on their profiles, they are definitely part of the game!

Another client account from "Austria" with the same pattern, 2 job posts, 9 hires 57/h for every contract, all FLs from India (prior FL hourly rate 8-15/h), doesn't make any sense!

[VladimirG]

Hi Mohammed,

Could you please send me a pm with the client/job post details that you're looking at? I'd like to take a closer look.

[gaspardjack]

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Vladimir G wrote:

Hi Mohammed,

Could you please send me a pm with the client/job post details that you're looking at? I'd like to take a closer look.

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PM sent.