Time waster turn scammer

[Vlad A]

Today I was offered a nice job via Upwork

**Edited for community guidelines**

I immediately smelled fake but checked that **Edited for community guidelines**, a company they are claiming to represent, is rather dysfunctional (which is OK with me - almost all my largest clients are like this), so I thought that may be the case.

They decided to hire me as a Payroll Specialist with the hourly rate 2-3x times more than such folks charge and after 2 hours of Google Hangouts chat "interview" (with someone sounding like a programmed tuned bot) we arrived to this:

Then they promised to send me the three basic software that you would be needing to start your training and told that Account Department would transfer funds to you which you are going to use to purchase the 3 main training equipment from our vendor.

I plan to keep talking to them until they stop (hopefylly be banned by Upwork) or finally demand my bank details or personal information, so feel free to check updates here. No need to waste time on those scammers.

[Petra R]

Don't waste your time, it s the ancient "We send you a fake check and you send us real money because you lived under a rock the last 10 years this has flooded the Internet" scam

Just decline and move on.

[Vlad A]

Petra, thanks, I don't believe I didn't know about this particular scam. That's embarrassing.

[Petra R]

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Vlad A wrote:

Petra, thanks, I don't believe I didn't know about this particular scam. That's embarrassing.

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You are not alone. They only target US freelancers (usually newbies though) as it does not work in other countries.

[Elba A]

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Petra R wrote:

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Vlad A wrote:

Petra, thanks, I don't believe I didn't know about this particular scam. That's embarrassing.

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You are not alone. They only target US freelancers (usually newbies though) as it does not work in other countries.

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Soooo true, I felt so left out when I was newer (not sure about that word) in the platform like other Fls had previously said, I was not part of the cool kids

[Bojan S]

Hi Vlad,

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!

[Martina P]

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Vlad A wrote:

Petra, thanks, I don't believe I didn't know about this particular scam. That's embarrassing.

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There is nothing to be embarrassed about. Your instincts were right, and you did not lose any money. You came to the forum to share your experience.

You did everything right! It is not your fault that you are new to the platform and live in the US, and are therefore a prime target. You did good.

Edit: oops retract the "new". Scammers get more desperate?