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danieldobson
Community Member

What kind of scam are they pulling?

Hey Community! I was going to just write this to support, but i am so confused by a recent job I applied to, was interviewed and lost. This was the job:

**Edited for community guidelines**



I applied and was contacted by the client who asked me the following 

Hello!
When can you get started?
can you work on the weekend?
What is the final lead time? how much time do you need?

 

Wow, this guy means business 😄 I replied asking for more information as the job post didnt really say much and I like to know who I am getting in bed with. 

Today when I checked out the post I saw there was one hire. Now I am no stranger to losing jobs but I think usually I am one of the highest bidders. This job was awarded for almost 3 times what I had bid. In truth, thats probably a fair price and I was a little jealous, but it just didnt make sense. It had gone to someone with no job history, no portfolio and very little information on their profile. This is the lucky bidder! **Edited for community guidelines**



What is strange is that they call themselves Jessie in their spiel, but the profile is under the name Olga. Now surely they havent just set up a profile and copied someone elses spiel from another freelancing site? well... 

**Edited for community guidelines**



So i check into the client, to see if they are legit. 

 

  • $10k+ total spent
    13 hires, 9 active
  • $26.31/hr avg hourly rate paid
    872 hours

wait, 872x26.31 = 22,490? And they also have what must be some good fortune of finding freelancers with almost identical names to their client name (we only get to see the last initial, so there is a possibility they are different)

 

No maybe I am delerious, I am after all on my second whiskey (it's Friday and I'm GMT +8) so I am putting this out to your good, sober, honest people. Am I crazy or is someone scamming someone and if so then who??

Thank you all 😄

4 REPLIES 4
feed_my_eyes
Community Member

It's not just the whiskey (full disclosure: I'm on my second glass of gin and tonic); there are thousands of liars and scammers and freelancers who have stolen portfolios on this site, as well as people who buy and trade fake feedback reviews. You can try using the "flag as inappropriate" button on their profile; sometimes Upwork will take it down, sometimes not. Or, you could just pour yourself another whiskey.


Christine A wrote:

It's not just the whiskey (full disclosure: I'm on my second glass of gin and tonic); there are thousands of liars and scammers and freelancers who have stolen portfolios on this site, as well as people who buy and trade fake feedback reviews. You can try using the "flag as inappropriate" button on their profile; sometimes Upwork will take it down, sometimes not. Or, you could just pour yourself another whiskey.


I have not started on the wine yet and yes, that's dodgy as flups.

 

Client hires a dozen+ random newbies (profiles created day before) with stolen overviews from the same country (claimed, which is not in line with the displayed timezone) on hourly contracts with crazy different (and unrealistic) hourly rates and fake backgrounds. Some are already suspended.

 

My guess is stolen credit card(s) or PayPal account(s) or large-scale money laundering.

BojanS
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi Daniel,

 

Thank you for bringing this to our attention! I was able to gather all the information about the reported account and file a report for our team's review! The reported profile is already taken down!

 

You can use the flag option found on each job post or profile page anytime you suspect.

 

Thank you!

~ Bojan
Upwork

Thanks Bojan! I would also look into the client too, they like t to award highly paid jobs to freelancers without much on their profile, all based in Khazakstan.  And I suspect the client even awarded one job to himself. Its beyond fishy.

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