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ab_creative_co
Community Member

What's telegram? Is this a scam?

I got a response from a proposal, but the message did not have a lot of information. Instead, it had me download a PDF about setting up an interview, but the document was full of VERY obvious grammatical errors and the layout was a mess. The PDF says the company is Continental, but I am unsure. They asked me to set up an Interview using an app called Telegram... is this a scam?

86 REPLIES 86

Hi Karen!

This too just happened to me. Thankfully I caught it pretty early. So sorry this happened to you!

I'm so sorry this happened to you but a company named **Edited for Community Guidelines** contacted me today stating he would provide me a check for my "mini office set up".  Something didn't seem right so I began to investigate while chatting on Telegram.  I was offered $35.00 an hour - glad I decided to research this app. 

 

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

Hi Joi,

 

Thank you for reaching out to us. I shared your report with our team for further investigation and appropriate actions will be taken according to our internal processes.

 

You may want to check this thread and this help article to help you stay safe on Upwork. 

 

~ Nikola
Upwork

yeah i think and it is obvious a scam, they want you to send 50usd for insurance or something like company i.d. hope upwork will ban those scammer. luckily for me i dont money to be scammed by the scammer heheh... i remember the otherday the scammer ask me to convert her 1k usd to crypto. told her i can do that. and suddenly she says to me, you buy 100usd worth of btc and shell return 250usd worth of btc, and i look at her profile pic. i remember her face. shes cathy wood from ark invest

Even if Upowrk does ban them they can just open up a new account because Upwork does not verify clients' identities like they make freelecers do.


Mark F wrote:

Ashleigh B wrote:

I got a response from a proposal, but the message did not have a lot of information. Instead, it had me download a PDF about setting up an interview, but the document was full of VERY obvious grammatical errors and the layout was a mess. The PDF says the company is Continental, but I am unsure. They asked me to set up an Interview using an app called Telegram... is this a scam?


I would error on the side of most likely.  The question you have to ask is even if this is legit, would you want to work with a company that is that unprofessional? 

 

Never heard of Telegram, it looks pretty sketch to me.

 


I would have thought you were --- experienced ---- enough to know what a telegram was. It was a piece of paper that the postman brought to you personally if somebody wanted to tell you something very urgently and could not be bothered to pick up a phone. A bit like a letter, but it could come at any time of day. It was weird. 

I have received proposal like this. Offering 35$ per page to edit papers via telegram Glad I caught up. He's asking for photo, government ID and country to send the money. I have asked what money transfer method is he going to use to ask for that kind of  personal details. He called me stupid. I called him too. He's English was not so good 😅

Do not communicate with a "client" outside of Upwork before an Upwork contract is in place. Don't ask questions, check them out, or do anything, except report to Upwork. Without that contract, anything you do with this person is a violation of the Terms of Service.

 

The level of a language is not indicative of a great client nor a horrible scammer; it means nothing. You should have never communicated with this person.

BojanS
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi Ashleigh,

 

Thank you for flagging this to us. I was able to locate the proposal you're referring to, and I can confirm that action has been taken on the client account due to a violation of Upwork's TOS.

 

Please check out this post for more tips on how to avoid questionable jobs and please use the flag option found on each job post or message anytime you’d like to report a violation.

 

Thank you.

~ Bojan
Upwork

Hi Bojan, 

 

Thank you for getting back to me so quickly. I figured it wasn't legitimate from that message, but I wasn't really thinking about the high potential for scams when submitting proposals. 

 

Is there any way I can be credited back for the Connects used to submit this proposal? 

 

Thank you,

Ashleigh

You will.


Mark F wrote:
You will.

Concise! Well deserved of a kudo. 

Yes I agree - the credits I used "7" to submit the proposal.  Unbelievable!!!

Use the "flag as inappropriate" link at the top-right of the job page to report it, then you'll get your connects back.

54ababd8
Community Member

Yes. Be careful of these people that seem overly eager to get you to download the software for an interview. They will soon ask you to send a check for a "hiring fee" or something similar, and then they will offer you a job, and "send you a check" to purchase supplies. The check is no good. Don't try to cash it- if you succeed, the bank will eventually want you to pay it back. Also... more than likely,, there isn't any job on earth that is going to pay you the $35/hr they are offering for data entry at an entry level position. Go with your gut. It sounds too good to be true, and it is.

I think I got scammed, too. Got an interview on telegram with “Philips” through upwork for a translating job. After I asked too many questions and a video interview they never answered back. Upwork dropped the job, too.

Hi Jim,

 

Please know that communication outside of Upwork before a contract is placed is a violation of Upwork TOS. You can read more about this here. You can read more on this help article to learn more about how you can stay safe on Upwork. Here's another helpful article to help you report suspicious activities, and also, please check out Tips to avoid questionable jobs.  

~ Joanne
Upwork
7d4fcabb
Community Member

Hi Ashleigh, Sad to say, this is really frustrating

22c9dc6e
Community Member

I think I got scammed too. I downloaded the Telegram app, but didn't hear back from them, at least not until I googled this thread. Then I deleted the app and reported them. I didn't know it was against TOS to interview on an outside app. I'm wiser now. Thankfully I got to this thread before getting scammed out of money! Although, being as cheap as I am, I probably would've said no thank you at that point. I wasted 4 connects sending a proposal for that one though, before I got the message 😞 

Good for you! You'll get the connects back when Upwork remove sthe job, Don't know how long that will take though. And MANY people don't know that it's against the ToS to interview on an outside app. Would you have like Upwork to EXPRESSLY tell you (and everyone) that part of the ToS when you first signed up, instead of just expecting you to read the entire ToS?

debi-f
Community Member
e14b640d
Community Member

FYI telegram is otherwise a great and very secure communications platform. If the scammer gave a phone number as their telegram contact info, it means that at the very least that number can be reported to the police and tracked down. It is likely a number rented out to a foreign scam-center, but the number hosting company could theoretically identify who the number had been rented out to.

Victor: You can't give a Telegram number to police and expect them to do anything. Your local police are not the "Internet Police."

I'm sorry, what? That's just flat out wrong.

Scams aren't just someone being rude on the internet or cheating in a game. They are a criminal activity. The police in most places have a cybercrimes division, which is precisely the "internet police", or a fraud division who deal, for example, with scams and phishing attempts which these telegram scams usually are. You can file reports on the non-emergency number of the police, or in person. If no illegal activity was carried out against you, you can still report scams in the US to the Federal Trade Commission, and the local Consumer Protection Office, who will have dedicated reporting options. https://reportfraud.ftc.gov/#/ for example.


Victor Cody T wrote:

I'm sorry, what? That's just flat out wrong.

Scams aren't just someone being rude on the internet or cheating in a game. They are a criminal activity. The police in most places have a cybercrimes division, which is precisely the "internet police", or a fraud division who deal, for example, with scams and phishing attempts which these telegram scams usually are. You can file reports on the non-emergency number of the police, or in person. If no illegal activity was carried out against you, you can still report scams in the US to the Federal Trade Commission, and the local Consumer Protection Office, who will have dedicated reporting options. https://reportfraud.ftc.gov/#/ for example.


People from 180 countries use upwork. The scammers are in one country. The victims in another. In many cases, none of these parties are in the US. Reporting this to a US authority therefore is not feasible. 

You do realise that fraud is an international crime and if enough reports come in and enough damage is done the police WILL file a report with the appropriate local police? It doesn't mean your local sheriff will go and investigate the mumbay area scammers, but he definitely can submit a report to the indian police.

Sorry, but if I reported a telegram number that I saw in a post to the FTC as you suggest, there is 0% chance they would try to track it down, let alone take any action.

I'm sorry, but what you write is nonsense. That page is literally there for this exact sort of report. This is the job of an entire department there. Literally just read what the government agency themselves write!

 

I'm not saying that you will get your money back, but the scamming operations can be shut down and are in fact shut down regularly. Which is precisely why scammers don't use the same decoy businesses in their home country for long.

Asking someone to violate the TOS is not a crime. What happens afterward often is but no police department is going to become involved with internal aspects of an internet platform. I doubt a Telegram account is enough to find the thieves.

 

I know two elderly people who were scammed out of hundreds of dollars through the Internet. Although in different locations, both were told there was zero chance of recovering the money. When all you need is a phone, the thieves can operate anywhere.

 

Turn them in if you can, but again, with only an email, there is little to go on.

 

 

I am not talking about simply chatting on a different platform. There's two options:

1) The person notices that they are being scammed and isn't scammed out of any personal info or money. In this case no crime has occurred, but the scam can still be reported to the appropriate agencies, like the FTC in the US.

2) The person actually was tricked into giving over money or personal data. In this case a crime has occurred which can be reported to the police fraud division.

 

Getting the money back is an entirely different issue, because a lot of the scams use less traceable methods like gift cards, where it is nigh impossible to determine who transferred what. Even in more sophisticated scams with an air of legitimacy and bank/paypal accounts involved the money is usually transferred through sacrificial shell companies and immediately taken out as cash.

If a scammer is tracked down there is currently no mechanism in place by which restitution for damages could ve paid internationally.

This, however, does not mean that tracking down scammers is not possible or even done regularly. There are mechanisms in place for international police cooperation in fraud cases, preciseley because scams are usually international. And even if tracking down the scammers proves to be more effort than the appropriate reporting body is willing to undertake, their operations can be significantly hindered to the point of being unprofitable.

My point was precisely that telegram does make this possible. If you have a telegram handle upon request of the police the company can give out the phone number. Sometimes however the phone number itself will be visible in which case this step isn't even needed. Once a phone number is known, if it is a fake one the company issuing the fake phone number can block the appropriate account. This can and has been done by private individuals. If the phone number is foreign all the police or FTC or whoever need to do is to send a report to the appropriate local enforcement body about the possible involvement of that number in wirefraud.

 

In other words the topic is certainly not simple but the cynicism and resignation on display here by some is unwarranted.

the3dguru
Community Member

Just wanted to add to this, theres nothing wrong with Telegram. It's a fairly well known privacy focused communications app. The scammers could just as easily use Skype or Slack.

The point is that using any of those to communicate off of Upwork before a contract is in place is a violation of the ToS, and that clients who ask you to do that are most likely scammers. So if you see Telegram (or the others) in the job post, do not apply.

2ab5f8ee
Community Member

They are big scammers, don't even reply them.

e4ce2502
Community Member

Hi Sir Madam,

I'm an enthusiastic and professional fair data entry, copy paste and HR, Admin & Business support work, Lead Generation, Skip Tracing, Web Scraping specialist, Along with Over 5 years of experience!! I'm quick to grasp new ideas and concepts and to develop creative solutions to problems.

I have excellent written and verbal communication skills because communication is life blood and a strong desire to work hard and perform well. Skilled in planning and organizing with the ability to complete project on deadline. 

 

 My skills: 

  • Data Entry
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  • Data Scraping
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  • Data Conversion
  • PDF to Excel or Word
  • Typing in Excel or Word
  • Business Card Entry
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  • Property Research, Public Record Search
  • Real Estate Research and Data Entry (Name, Email, Phone, Address, etc)

 

Why trust on me?

  • 290+ Positive Customer Reviews
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Contact before placing the order thank you 🙂

 

Work Accuracy and Client Satisfaction is my top PRIORITY.

My accuracy rate is 100%

 

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From: Pakistan

Contact No. + 92 301 7427151       

 

 

Thank You

 

So, I guess contact information is not only all over the jobs but the forum now, too?

jamilhossain22
Community Member

No ma'am it's a Social communication media.

When a client wants to talk on Telegram or any place outside of Upwork before a contract is in place it is a scam.

6d80a040
Community Member

This is to bring to the Upwork communities notice that appen is/are scammers. I typed some 141 pages on MS word from PDF taking out 6 to 7 hours a day for the past 5 days and this is what I get in return. Instead of paying my fee this person is asking me for USD 50. Kindly beware of such scammers and Upwork shall ban this ID right away.

 

Find the below conversation, 

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

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**Edited for Community Guidelines**

  

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

  

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

  

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

Even if Upwork bans the client, they return with another name and another stolen credit card. In the vast majority of cases, the freelancer goes outside of Upwork for communication and money.

virtualbrix
Community Member

PLEASE READ!!! - Do not communicate outside of upwork. Especially before a contract has started!!!

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