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pelc-rita
Community Member

how do I know a job offer is real

I received a job offer yesterday and it seemed to be too good to be true.  We texted outside of upwork for over 2 hours.  is this normal?   I have been scammed so many time I am scared

10 REPLIES 10
madison-russell
Community Member

In general, you should try to keep all communication with a client on Upwork whenever possible, so in case there is an issue with the client or the contract, Upwork has all of the information readily available. 

 

If the job sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Just remember to never accept payment outside of Upwork, don't give a client personal info like your bank account # or SSN, and ask questions. 

Thank you! How do *tell him I *want to be paid through Upwork, I told him
I wanted to go through work for communication from now on. All he has is
my phone number and address.
the client is Client**Edited for Community Guidelines**

That job description looks pretty odd to me. It looks like it was copy-pasted from a dictionary page about bookkeeping. Definitely in the future be careful about applying for jobs that lack any details on the description page.


Rita P wrote:

Thank you! How do *tell him I *want to be paid through Upwork, I told him
I wanted to go through work for communication from now on. All he has is
my phone number and address.
the client is Client**Edited for Community Guidelines**


Don't worry about it. You will never hear from them again. 

Ask yourself: who buys a stranger on the internet office equipment for thousands of dollars, when it should be reasonably expected that a person that signed up and created a profile already has everything he needs to perform his services?

prestonhunter
Community Member

This person who texts with you for two hours before hiring you is a scammer. Not a real client. Probably not even a client trying to trick you into providing free work or free consultation.

 

He is a scammer who is trying to steal your money.

 

Client DuPont?

I don't think so.

It can often help to think about things logically, and think about what you would do if you were a client.

 

Would you take up two hours of a freelancer's time texting? What is the purpose of that?

 

If YOU were the client, you would not quickly ask for a freelancer's phone number before hiring her. You would communicate using the Upwork Messages tool.

 

If you are a client, and you want to verify that freelancer you are hiring is really who she says she is, then you are going to ask for a Skype video call, or at least a phone call. That way you will be able to see that she is not a fake freelancer. You will be able to assess her competency and appropriateness for the position.

 

This "client" was not accomplishing that by texting with you. This "client" was texting with you in order to hide the fact that "he" is not who "he" says he is. He was using a personal fake name, a fake company name, and a fake location. The job itself is fake.

 

If YOU were a client, would you waste a freelancer's time for two hours like that? Or would you be respectful of the freelancer's time? If you want to communicate with the client for two hours, then you would hire the freelancer first. Then you can discuss the project for two hours while you talk on the phone, or via Upwork Messages, or even through texting if that is what you prefer.

 

If YOU were a client, you would not spend two hours "interviewing" a potential freelancer. Nor would you spend two hours getting free consultation time from a freelancer. YOU would hire a freelancer after a relatively short interview period, and any time you spend communicating about the project would be spent while the freelancer logs time.

 

If YOU were the client you would know that anything said and done that you do not pay for does not belong to you. You would know that according to common practice and according to Upwork ToS, only what you actually pay for belongs to you. So you would want all of your communications about the project to belong to you by virtue of being done while the freelancer is logging time.

 

If YOU were the client, you would not ask for the freelancer's home address. What does that have to do with the work that you need done? (Answer: Nothing.)

i gave a client my address because they said they wanted to send me a check and verify me due to wanting me fulltime instead of looking for freelancers for different jobs. they'd rather keep one person and they chose me, but they did ask me, which i provided, my name, address, email address, and phone number. i hope i did right. Smiley Indifferent

re: "i gave a client my address because they said they wanted to send me a check and verify me due to wanting me fulltime instead of looking for freelancers for different jobs. they'd rather keep one person and they chose me, but they did ask me, which i provided, my name, address, email address, and phone number. i hope i did right."

 

You provided your information to a scammer.

 

This scammer wants to steal approximately $3000 from your checking account.

 

Stop communicating with this scammer. Use the "Flag as inappropriate" link button on the job posting page to report them.

 

Do NOT panic. Throw away any check that you receive in the mail from the scammer. The check is fake.

 

This scam is all about the check. If you block this person and shred the check, you'll be fine.


You violated Upwork TOS, but because this was your first offense, Upwork is not going to penalize you.

Hi Alisha,

 

Preston is right. Sharing contact information should be avoided if there is no contract yet. All conversations before a contract is started must be through Upwork Messages, where you can send messages, have video calls, and more. We encourage you to let us know if a TOS violation has happened by using the “Flag as Inappropriate” option throughout the platform. You can learn more about user reporting here.

~ Joanne
Upwork


Alisha C wrote:

i gave a client my address because they said they wanted to send me a check and verify me due to wanting me fulltime instead of looking for freelancers for different jobs. they'd rather keep one person and they chose me, but they did ask me, which i provided, my name, address, email address, and phone number. i hope i did right. Smiley Indifferent


When you signed up, you committed yourself to adhering to the terms of service. Did you even read them? It's not like they are the fine print everybody skips. Not reading and knowing them can get you suspended. Please don't do anything else before you have done this. 

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