Suspicious clients lately (Upwork, any protection?)

[#1]

Lately, one thing happen to me, it was already 3 times in the last 2 weeks.

Step 1) Client sent me an offer right away without saying anything. (job posting for that offer is not available anymore and I couldn't get any information about the client and his history, only his location and name (Upwork should do something with it to make it more transparent)

Step 2) When I'm asking the client how can I help him- He sends me FB community link of whatever company and their website, saying that he is from that company and hiring, usually an Advertising expert (I'm a video editor)

Step 3) They ignore me saying that I'm not an expert in that area, they still WOULD LOVE to work with me

Step 4) Usually on that step I'm already ignoring them, but today I decided to see what the will be next step. So the next step is that they ask for your Email and tell you to download some Archive (with the project details), "unpack using Winrar on Windows and use the password they sent".

I have 2 questions:

1) does anyone else have those clients?

2) UPWORK!! I can't even report that client to help other freelancers to avoid the SCUM because there is no job posted.

UPWORK!! I can't have any information about the client to check does he is trustworthy or not.

3) Here are some screenshoots

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

[#2]

I had sorta the same thing happen to me. She wanted me to send here my email information and complete some Walmart survey for a gift card that probably was gonna go to her also. Wish the people running this thing would take better steps to prevent these scammers. Because they are everywhere (no exaggeration) and they are wasting all of our time we could be using to earn money 

[#3]

Exactly! 

[#4]

Hey 👋 Pasha, 

Thanks for sharing your situation, I'm experiencing the same issue with a client asking for FB Ads services, sending Zip files .rar for me to figure out how to download it and also asking for me to share remote desktop on Anydesk, no way. This is SCAM first sight. 

Thanks again for sharing this, it gives me a better perspective about how insecure can be Upwork and lack of support on this.

[#5]

Yeah, those guys are trying to reach any possible victim, everywhere, always pay attention, brother

[#6]

For step 2) you can report message, not client.

[#7]

Thank you! just received another offer today. was thinking: "Maybe just accept the offer from scummer and log hours", but I gues that might lead to problems with my acc on upwork eventually 😛

[#8]

Keep rejecting, it is correct action.

You won't be paid for sure as scammer have no money. But will receive bad feedback, also may be suspended for cheating with hourly protection.

[#9]

I had this lately 3 times, you can just reject the offer and choose the reason "Spam offer (never spoke with the client)", that's all. Any offer without previous discussion is spam. Any attempt to send you an archive file as a project details is spam.

[#10]

oh, thank you, very nice to know that I have that option, never saw it 🤗

[#11]

I've had loads of these too. I decline and block. Obvious scam, and yet they continue being posted - like the 'Rewrite simple sentences' jobs that Upwork has failed to stop after months and months. 

What annoys me most about these latest ones is I can't just ignore them as that will affect my response metrics. Super irritating. 

[#12]

I feel you :c

[#13]

I had a client reach out to me yesterday about writing content for them. They wanted me to agree to use a tracking software that logged my keystrokes in addition to taking screen shots. I reported them to Upwork, but have no idea if anything was done about it. Just a word of advice to others here. Never agree to install software that tracks your keystrokes. That's a good way to get hacked or have your sensitive information stolen. They record everything.