Connecting with a client through telegram

[#1]

As a reply to my proposal,  I got a message asking to come to an interview on telegram, and the link was given. But when I try to do so, I got a warning from upwork, that "This link takes you outside of Upwork's platform and we are not responsible for any third party content.". What should I do? I am new to this site, can I know what is the usual way of a client to conduct an interview?

[#2 · Accepted solution]

No, don't do it. You are not allowed too communicate off of Upwork until after a contract is in place. This is most likely a scam. Block them and report them.

[#3]

As demonstrated above, the message is much too vague to alert a newbie to a scam. "This link takes you outside of Upwork's platform and we are not responsible for any third party content." - This is meaningless. Nobody will ever think that there is a hidden meaning behind it, which is: "We don't want you to get scammed, but for legal reasons and optics this is all we are willing to do to warn you against scams. We know you will ignore it, be confused by it, click it away next time you see it, and never give it a second thought. Sorry, mate."

It would be completely legally unproblematic to point to the ToS, but no, not even that.

Upwork, do better!

If more than one person comes all confused to the forum, your messaging has failed. It should be clear and fool-proof. 

[#4]

Thank you for the reply. I reported the client. But next day i got 2 more telegram invitations. I am getting tired of these scams. One of them even asked me to deposit insurance fee of 150 USD.

[#5]

Finally they have a pop-up, but it should be much clearer than this. "This link takes you outside of Upwork's platform and those are 99% scammers." would be much better. 

[#6]

My clients frequently provide links so that I can download their documents or look at their website or whatever - they're not 99% scams, so it wouldn't be accurate to say that. There should be a different warning when the word "Telegram" appears, though; the link isn't the problem, the request for contact outside of Upwork is the problem (and I was under the impression that there IS a different pop-up warning in those cases, although I haven't seen it myself).

[#7]

Hi, I got 2 telegram scams today and have wasted 6 connections. Will I be able to get my connections back? Thanks

[#8]

If you were interviewed and responded to the interview, you may even get free connects, and if you flag them as inappropriate and they are taken down, you get the connects back provided you didn't withdraw the proposal.