Asked to pay insurance fee by hiring organization

[72e45a07]

Hi guys, I just signed up here today and I saw a job posting to type some ms word documents. I submitted a proposal and got a response from the poster who asked me to contact the secretary of the company.  I did, after introduction, he gave me a brief background of the company and gave me a document to read and choose the project I would like to work on, on the file it says I am to pay an insurance fee that will be refunded when the project has been completed, according to him it's the company policy. I want to know if this is normal, has anyone experienced this before or was I about to be scammed, this is foreign to me.

[martina_plaschka]

Scam. Tell them it's your company policy to not get scammed. 

Without a doubt, you communicated outside of upwork with this person. You need to know that this is not allowed. 

[72e45a07 · Accepted solution]

Yes I did communicate with the person outside of upwork, thankfully I was smart enough to know such isn't done so I didn't oblige. Thank you for the response and information, now I know better.

[BojanS]

Hi Cynthia,

Thank you for flagging this for us. I’ve escalated this report to the correct team for their review and the project has already been taken down because it was in violation of Upwork TOS and action has been taken on the client account. 

Please note that it is a violation of Upwork’s Terms of Service to request or share contact information before a contract starts.  You can check this help article for crucial information that will help you have a safe and successful journey on Upwork.

[4561bc7e]

Hi Cynthia, Hope you are well, I received the same and a person call **Edited for Community Guidelines**

asked me to speak someone called **Edited for Community Guidelines** on Telegram regarding the project and received details which says to pay a sum of money as insurance, thank you so much these I responded them as a scam. Thank you

[feed_my_eyes]

Read this before you make any more proposals: https://community.upwork.com/t5/New-to-Upwork/List-of-red-flags-for-scams/m-p/1017044

[72e45a07]

Hi Dinoosha, I am well, trust you are too. You did great in calling them out, I hope you reported the account too? Hopefully, someone doesn't fall for this scam someday.