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39412916
Community Member

Typing jobs - are they legit?

I am new to this platform and freelancing and I see all these offers for easy typing jobs, where PDF documents need to be retyped into ms Word. Since there are so many of these similar jobs, I was wondering if this is a real thing? Because don't converters for PDF to Word exist? I'm not sure how this could be a scam since payment goes via upwork, but I'm also not sure how this could be a real job.

25 REPLIES 25
ashrafkhan81
Community Member

That's the catch right here! The payment does not go through Upwork and they make you pay instead of paying you...so that's how it is a scam. 

 

Most of those jobs advertise very attractive compensation for simple jobs, people get attracted to it, the "client" then asks you for some kind of payment for "verification fee" or "Id card" or "security deposit" the payment asked is not very high but in return, you are promised high-income opportunity so many fall for it....like pay $50 for verification once everything is verified you can earn $800-$1000 each week ...

 

in some cases they fund the escrow and ask you to transfer part of that to their friends in need from your bank account once you do that, they charge back the transaction so they receive your payment and get their money back ...

 

since you are new, my advice to you is to stay away from "easy" money jobs, and if it looks suspicious it probably is...

Hello, I have this situation exactly, this is happening to me and I do not know what to do and how to make them to pay me back my money, can you please help me or if you know someone who can help or someone who has been scammed like this? I would appreciate it a lot... 

re: "Hello, I have this situation exactly, this is happening to me and I do not know what to do"

 

What you are supposed to do is learn from your mistakes and don't make those same mistakes again in the future.

 

re: "and how to make them to pay me back my money"

 

Um... sorry.

You can not get your money back ever.

 

re: "can you please help me"

 

I just did.

 

re: "or if you know someone who can help or someone who has been scammed like this?"

 

Yes.

Many people have been scammed like this before. In the Community Forum, one can read hundreds of firsthand accounts of getting scammed the same way.

Any employer asking for money is fake. You are supposed to get money for your service, not to be paid.  

paywell
Community Member

I would recommend Upwork to create an algorythm to calculate the usual price for every job type and mark much higher rates red, if they are above market level. 

 

Since typing jobs are a frequent scam, I would recommend making it harder to post such jobs.

 


A way to do this would be to make clients input the amount of words/pages / video hours to be transcribed, and a budget, so that an algorythm can be put in place to analyze the price and compare it with the usual price level.

 


If the level is above average, it should be marked red for the Freelancer, with a hint popping up, containing a link on how to filter out scammers.

 


Another, more sophisticated way, would be making it mandatory for the client to upload (and either make visible or hide).

This shouldn’t hold real clients back because they have to do this either way, since all job-related communication has to be done through Upwork, and the client has to upload the file sooner or later.

 


As soon as a file is uploaded – it can be hashed by Upwork or even put through an algorythm, which could analyze / sample the audio (in order to compare it automatically).

That way repeatedly uploaded PDF/Picture/Audio-files could be automatically "red flagged" for the security team and action can be taken on such clients and/or their posts.

 


I would have such „clients” shadow banned.

I wouldn’t recommend outright banning scammers, since they will look for a workaround.

Just make them unable to get proposals (or even better - make them think they are receiving proposals through faux „Freelancer” replies).

 

Since Upwork is interested in getting the client to pay on the platform and scammers don’t pay – this will be a winning solution both for the platform as well as the Freelancers.

Real Clients win as well, because Freelancers will propose to their jobs, not to the scammers.

 

martina_plaschka
Community Member

These jobs are ALL scams. Nobody pays that kind of money for typing. A client pretending he doesn't know how to copy/paste is just laughable. 

prestonhunter
Community Member

Waste of your time.

Don't bother.


First of all:
They're all scams. These aren't real jobs. These are scammers trying to steal money from you.

Second: If you run into something like this which is NOT a scam (unlikely), it's still a waste of your time. There's no money to be made doing something like that. You would be better off finding money-earning opportunities in your non-online local economy.

renata101
Community Member

Hi Rosalie,

This is a good article to read if you're new to Upwork. It explains a lot of common scams, so it can help you avoid bad experiences.

https://community.upwork.com/t5/Community-Blog/Top-Red-Flags-for-Scams-From-Community-Member-Wes-C/b...
Also, the rules of the platform require you to keep communication on Upwork until you have a contract in place.  And make sure that you have a contract before you start working. If the client hasn't sent you an offer through the Upwork message system, and you haven't accepted it, you don't have a contract.

Never pay any kind of fee for anything directly to a client (registration fee and ID card fees are common scams) and you don't need to share personal information by filling in extra forms. The contracts are on Upwork.



6aa7a598
Community Member

I had the same incident where they asked me to contact me through telegram and sent me some images. When i finished my work, they asked my bank nam , bank account number and name for the payment. I am so confused what to do

re: "I had the same incident where they asked me to contact me through telegram and sent me some images. When i finished my work, they asked my bank nam , bank account number and name for the payment. I am so confused what to do"

 

You could be terminated from Upwork for what you did. You violated serious Upwork rules. You must never do something like that again.

Did you get paid though?

 

elisa_b
Community Member

Scammers don't pay

I need a typing job

 

I experienced something similar where they asked me to contact them on telegram instead and when I was done with the typing job they offered me an unrealistically high amount, 45 dollars for a page to be precise and then asked me to register into some unknown bank. And when I did ask them about it they just went on about it being part of a private banking system for said company for a more secured payment to make sure we're under their payroll and payment system or something. Seemed rather shady.

So did you get paid??because I just got exact same kind of offer. And I am conflicted whether it is a scam or not

It doesn't matter if he got paid. If you do the job and they do happen to pay you, which they wont, you will be kicked off of upwork for violating the TOS. Stop responding to them and report it.

No one seems to be kicked off of Upwork for violating the Terms.

elisa_b
Community Member

Swetha, your profile is basically empty. You will not receive any real proposals with such profile, and only scammers will reply to your applications. Please take the Academy courses and learn how to protect yourself.

whatever you do don't give them the name of your bank or your bank account you'll get taken for a lot don't give them anything they're scammers specially your bank account and your bank number PayPal pays by an email address that's a lot safer but these sound like scammers don't ever give anybody your bank account number

No, don't give them your paypal either, or any other payment method for that matter. It all goes through Upwork. Don't give people advice that will get them banned from the site.

d0e87d89
Community Member

Thank God for this article. I was almost fell into this trap as there was really something holding me back not to pay them $50 for the linking system in return of $2650 just for a typing job - 50 pages. It is too good to be true. Please be careful. I can share more details if someone need.

i got the same offer i dont know what to do but tehy didnt ask me to pay

 

d4fc8c26
Community Member

Can you share more details please because I am really seeing a lot ot tasks like these on upwork.

Typing jobs are always a scam when presented in this manner. I have never seen, in all the years I have been here, any legitimate job that requires typing words from one format to another. Why would you? It's a nonsense job. No one needs to type in 2023; you use programs.

 

Just because it's on Upwork, and the payment is verified, it means absolutely nothing. It is no guarantee of a real job, or that you will ever get paid. You are on your own, and no one, including Upwork, will protect you.

 

You need to use the Academy and create an excellent profile, to deter scammers and find real clients.

Read this post from Wes, so you understand just how dangerous it can be here for people who don't follow the rules.

06eeff17
Community Member

This happen to me this weekend, it's a typing job, 30 page document, they suppose to pay me USD 2980, instead I pay to them USD 230, and I told them that you guys are scam, they deny it, **bleep**ing arabs, and muslim.

**bleep**ty religions and people.

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