Clients from Coworking Space with same IP address?

[ani1306]

Hi, I wanted to know if I have clients in a coworking space who shares the same internet provided by coworking space and if they hire me with there upwork account, will there be some risk to the mine and client upwork account?

[AndreaG]

Hi Anirudh,

It's not a violation of Upwork TOS if users are accessing their own separate Upwork accounts from the same IP address. Upwork users shouldn't share their login information or share accounts as that would be a violation of Upwork TOS. If any issues arise, Upwork team will reach out to account owners. For more information about most common violations that may result in account holds, please see this help article.

Thanks!

[ani1306]

Few queries:
1. No we don't share login details or accounts, and yes we are accessing our own separate Upwork accounts but the question is can he HIRE me on upwork?

2. When you say "If any issues arise, Upwork team will reach out to account owners.",
Does it mean upwork will reach out to me with "a warning to let me know" or "a mail of suspension with details"?

[NikolaS]

Hi Anirudh,

Unfortunately, we cannot provide an answer for a hypothetical scenario, but I encourage you to review the article Andrea shared earlier on this thread as well as Upwork TOS for more information about permitted and the prohibited site uses. In general, any possible violations are thoroughly reviewed by our team before any action is taken. In any case, the team will reach out to the user to discuss the issue if necessary.

[ani1306 · Accepted solution]

Listening to community it seems like too much risk to be hired by "coworking-space clients", what do suggest about "Upwork Direct Contracts" for such coworking-space clients, I think "direct contract" are designed for such scenarios.

[jr-translation]

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Anirudh K wrote:

Listening to community it seems like too much risk to be hired by "coworking-space clients", what do suggest about "Upwork Direct Contracts" for such coworking-space clients, I think "direct contract" are designed for such scenarios.

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I hope you do all the communication on Upwork otherwise it is a ToS violation.

[ani1306]

Kindly first gather the information and then reply. Read about upwork
direct contracts here
https://support.upwork.com/hc/en-us/articles/360025040794-Direct-Contracts-with-Clients
and here https://www.upwork.com/direct-contracts

[prestonhunter]

Anirudh:
It is not appropriate for you to be hired by a client with whom you share coworking space.

This sort of thing is highly likely to be flagged and could lead to account suspension or termination.

[lysis10]

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Anirudh K wrote:

Hi, I wanted to know if I have clients in a coworking space who shares the same internet provided by coworking space and if they hire me with there upwork account, will there be some risk to the mine and client upwork account?

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lol this is not going to work out well for you.

[ani1306]

How do you know, Please explain a lil more.

[martina_plaschka]

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Anirudh K wrote:

How do you know, Please explain a lil more.

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Gladly. This is remote work. Your client can be thousands miles away from you. A client that is in the same room with you is not a client, but your brother/ mother/ cousin or roommate. If they come to you and ask you to do something for them, tell them yes, and do it for free, or let them invite you to dinner. But don't let them hire you on upwork. That is not a scenario that makes sense to anybody with pure intentions, if you get my drift. 

[ani1306]

I am not sure if you have mistaken "coworking space" with "home", but in coworking spaces (for eg: a popular one like **Edited for Community Guidelines**) there are no blood relations, many freelancers operate through these coworking spaces to network with different startups working at one place, so to say different clients at one place.
So this is genuine concern of many freelancers operating from coworking spaces.

This was a query and also a feedback to upwork to further improve the platform (like when they improved the connects rule, returning the connects back to freelancers if the client didn't hire anyone for the job and many other rules).

[prestonhunter]

People here are trying to help you.

If you mess around with this, you could get in trouble. Nobody who works for Upwork is going to tell you all the things they do on the backend to check on your activities without telling you.

This is exactly the kind of thing that Upwork checks without telling you that they are doing so. Freelancers involved in schemes have had their accounts suspended and their funds blocked.

[martina_plaschka]

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Anirudh K wrote:

I am not sure if you have mistaken "coworking space" with "home", but in coworking spaces (for eg: a popular one like **Edited for Community Guidelines**) there are no blood relations, many freelancers operate through these coworking spaces to network with different startups working at one place, so to say different clients at one place.
So this is genuine concern of many freelancers operating from coworking spaces.

This was a query and also a feedback to upwork to further improve the platform (like when they improved the connects rule, returning the connects back to freelancers if the client didn't hire anyone for the job and many other rules).

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No, it isn't. Yes, a freelancer might work from a co-working space, but this co-working space will in 99,99% of cases not be shared with the CLIENT. 

To make it even clearer for you: if anybody you share your an IP adress with asks you if the can hire you on upwork, you tell them: no, dear prospective client, that could very likely get me suspended, lose my upwork account and any pending payments. As much as I value your business, that is simply not worth the risk. 

(What you said about connects being refunded when the client doesn't hire is not correct at the present time.)

[ani1306]

Then why do upwork have this(Plz Check the screenshot) on their upwork connect use policy.

[martina_plaschka]

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Anirudh K wrote:

Then why do upwork have this(Plz Check the screenshot) on their upwork connect use policy.

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You get connects back if the client CANCELS the job without hire. If the client does not hire but NOT CANCEL the job (lets it expire) you don't get connects back. Most of the time a client does not hire, he does not bother to cancel but just lets the job expire. 

[feed_my_eyes]

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Anirudh K wrote:

I am not sure if you have mistaken "coworking space" with "home", but in coworking spaces (for eg: a popular one like **Edited for Community Guidelines**) there are no blood relations, many freelancers operate through these coworking spaces to network with different startups working at one place, so to say different clients at one place.
So this is genuine concern of many freelancers operating from coworking spaces.

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May we ask why you need to go through Upwork when the client is in the same room with you? Why not just go ahead and do the work? Why is it so important for you both to pay service charges and lose money on the exchange rate?

[ani1306]

The same need for which upwork recently designed "Upwork Direct Contracts With Clients" and so now with Upwork Direct Contracts we both do not need to pay service charges, as a freelancer I only need to pay 3.4% not 20% and client does not have to pay any fees.

See one could not throw rules every time, when many people raises question and there is demand for that thing company has to find a solution for that, it is not good to suppress the demand with rules everytime. I am glad upwork find the workaround for this in the form of "Upwork Direct Contracts".

I am a lil amazed that only few people knew about Upwork Direct Contracts here, I thought I wud get a quick solution here but I had to find the solution by researching myself. Next time I will directly talk to upwork support chat before posting anything here.

"Change is the only constant, in a world that's changing so quickly".  Peace

[feed_my_eyes]

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Anirudh K wrote:

The same need for which upwork recently designed "Upwork Direct Contracts With Clients" and so now with Upwork Direct Contracts we both do not need to pay service charges, as a freelancer I only need to pay 3.4% not 20% and client does not have to pay any fees.

See one could not throw rules every time, when many people raises question and there is demand for that thing company has to find a solution for that, it is not good to suppress the demand with rules everytime. I am glad upwork find the workaround for this in the form of "Upwork Direct Contracts".

I am a lil amazed that only few people knew about Upwork Direct Contracts here, I thought I wud get a quick solution here but I had to find the solution by researching myself. Next time I will directly talk to upwork support chat before posting anything here.

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We do know about direct contracts, but that doesn't make any difference to your situation. 3.4% is still a fee, and both you and the client will lose money exchanging the payment to U.S. dollars and back again, for apparently no good reason. I'm a "lil" surprised that you still don't understand that this client is at the same IP address as you, and therefore looks suspicious. 

[ani1306]

Atleast you don't have any questions on the "need" now.

And I'm also "lil" surprised that you don't seem to understand "why upwork created direct contracts?" and "how IP addresses work?", the same IP address is not even a problem here....... (Whoever wants to know why?, post a separate post on community may be we will discuss it there) This is quite fun

[lysis10]

hey pal, this is gonna be you if you don't give up on what you're about to do https://community.upwork.com/t5/Freelancers/Upwork-blocked-an-active-contract-and-did-not-pay-2-000-...

[germansmirnov]

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Jennifer M wrote:

hey pal, this is gonna be you if you don't give up on what you're about to do https://community.upwork.com/t5/Freelancers/Upwork-blocked-an-active-contract-and-did-not-pay-2-000-...

What is common between these cases?

[prestonhunter]

re: "What is common between these cases?"

Both are cases in which some Forum participants thought that the situation seemed unusual and suspected that there was direct coordination by a freelancer and client to scheme. In THIS thread the suspicion is that friends in the same room as each other wanted to artificially build up a freelancer's job history on Upwork, instead of working directly with other. In the other, linked-to thread there was suspicion that two friends were trying to enrich themselves financially by artificially triggering a payout from Upwork's Payment Protection program. These are both very different suspicions, and I should point out that neither was "proven." The commonality between them is the suspicion that a freelancer and client knew each other before meeting on Upwork and were coordinating to do something in a way that runs counter to how Upwork intends for the platform to be used.

I don't think anybody here thinks that the original poster of this thread has done anything wrong. People are warning him that what he suggests looks suspicious.

It is a noble thing to avoid the very APPEARANCE of impropriety.