This verified company just scammed me out of $3100

[davenport71]

I am brand new to upwork. I accepted a propsal to **Edited for Community Guidelines** company. The short of it is they show as a verified plus client. They just scammed me out of $3100!!!

They told me I needed to get equipment to do the work. I should have KNOWN, however I've never done this and just didn't think about it until I was half way in! I know.....stupid. Nevertheless, it's happened.

How do I report this to upwork?? I'm not finding the option. Please help! 

[prestonhunter · Accepted solution]

Whoops!

Clearly "verified company" doesn't mean what you thought it meant.

re: "How do I report this to Upwork?"

This company has probably ALREADY been reported, but in case it hasn't:

Go to the job posting page.

Click on the "Flag as inappropriate" link button located in the top right corner or under the "Three Dots" icon.

Select the option:

In the freeform text box, add a sentence about the client sending you a check for equipment. You don't need to say much. This is the most common scam on Upwork, so the Upwork workers who receive your report will know what to do.

You won't get your money back, but if the job hasn't already been taken down by Upwork, you will be helping others by reporting this.

[prestonhunter]

re: "I accepted a propsal to J__ C_______ C________ company..."

I assume that you have already figured out by now that the people who contacted you have nothing to do with that company.

Scammers simply copy names of real companies off of the Internet.

An important part of the scam is that they want you to Google the names they feed you, so that you think you are dealing with a real company that has real money to pay you. Until you understand more about Upwork, I strongly advise you to NOT Google or otherwise search for information about any companies or client names. ONLY use the information you see on Upwork.

[davenport71]

Clearly...

[colettelewis]

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Stephani D wrote:

Clearly...

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__________________________

Stephani,

There is no harm in doing a little due dil on a client through Google and to check if they have any history on Upwork. But the things to particularly look out for with scammers of this kind are poor English, and promises of things that are too good to be true: constant work, high pay, paid holidays, health insurance etc.  As a freelancer, you are responsible for all these things yourself. 

Absolutely essential to working on Upwork is to read the ToS, and  as many help pages as you can. If you haven't read it already, this is a good place to start, particularly the section on avoiding questionable jobs:  https://community.upwork.com/t5/New-to-Upwork/Getting-Started-on-Upwork/m-p/264214#M246.

One of Upwork's cardinal rules is that you do not accept to be paid off Upwork, if the client finds you on this site, and you risk losing your account if you do.  Another is that you do not communicate with a client anywhere other than Upwork before you have a formal contract in place. 

[davenport71]

Yeah. Thanks. I thought I read all the ins and odds and clearly I did not. 

Had I caught that...all would be well. 

Nothing I can do now. These people have scammed several people here and on linked in. The company said it has reported it already to upwork so....that's that. 

thanks for the response.