Fraud Job

[mochapucho]

I was recently offered a job by an agency here on upwork. The company was a fraud and was able to tamper with my physical bank account. On upwork at the time I had declined the proposal due to to many work hours but my e-mail a woman named **Edited for Community Guidelines** who sent the proposal offred flexible hours so I agreed. I was wondering if there is a phone number i can call or if the upwork company is going to take any action on this fraud account seeing as though it was offered through your agency that connected me to this woman.Please respond and let me know if there are any safe regulations your willing to make to prevent this in the future.

[bobafett999]

I do not know how that would be possible.  It is my understanding that Upwork does not release any personal information to client and vice versa.  Unless that person offered to pay you directly by depositing money in your bank account and you gave it to them.

[mochapucho]

The company was posing as another company **Edited for Community Guidelines**. They offered me a graphic design job and indeed sent me a check to deposit that would allow me to buy the necessary tools i needed for the job which is normal in my field. The next day unfortunately she asked me to withdraw the money given to me and put it into a Wels Fargo account. This made no sense so that morning i rushed over to my bank and they confirmed that it was a bad check. Im just surprised Upwork doesn’t run more thorough background checks and someone was able to pose as a major corporation so easily. Because of this I haven’t been able to use my bank account and even my back during this time is unwilling to help me continue to get it back.

[kat303]

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@Stacia R wrote:

The company was posing as another company **Edited for Community Guidelines**.

That's what scammers do. They tell you they are employed by a well known company. They do that to gain your trust.

They offered me a graphic design job and indeed sent me a check to deposit that would allow me to buy the necessary tools i needed for the job which is normal in my field.

It's obvious that you didn't take the time to find out about this site, How it works, the procedures and what to look out for. Accepting payment outside of this site is a violation of Upwork's TOS.

As to buying the necessary tools that you need for the job. IMO I would assume that if you are a graphic designer you would have the tools and programs that are needed for this line of work. There is no need to purchase tools, computers and software from a company.

The next day unfortunately she asked me to withdraw the money given to me and put it into a Wels Fargo account. This made no sense so that morning i rushed over to my bank and they confirmed that it was a bad check. Im just surprised Upwork doesn’t run more thorough background checks and someone was able to pose as a major corporation so easily. Because of this I haven’t been able to use my bank account and even my back during this time is unwilling to help me continue to get it back.

Upwork is just a site that allows freelancers and clients to connect with each other to get work done. They do have algorithms to pick out and prevent certain jobs from being posted. And there is a link to report a client when something suspicious goes on. But when communications is taken off site. which is what happened to you. Upwork can't know whta's going on. it's basically a freelancers responsibility to know what to look out for. And freelancers get that knowledge from coming on here and reading DAILY the same old scam that happened to you. There's also posts about it from Upwork under the forum heading Getting Started.

No one can get your money back. And I don't know why you can't use your bank

Please, before looking for any more jobs, take the time to find out more about what to look out for and how to use this site safely.

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[mochapucho]

This fraudulent job was only offered to me about a week into making my current account. Yes, I did take the time to read about your website I was referred to Upwork by a fellow friend. Though I haven’t been on Upwork long basic things such as finding potential clients, community questions, reports etc. I was aware of this and was STILL in the process of gaining more information. Before accepting the check for the items listed i asked my professors at school if it was normal to accept large amounts of money to buy equipment from big corporations. For Graphic Design it is normal and is often called the corporate suite. Knowing that the fraudulent company only seemed more normal.

I just wasn’t expected to be victimized so quickly through the platform. In addition to gaining more information about Upwork I sadly had not knowledge yet about that violation. Having most of the responsibility for the freelancer knowing what to look out for puts beginners like me who want to get experience at a disadvantage. Even though the information was there, and I sadly didn’t get to it in time to avoid this. I appreciate you replying and will take your advice in the future.

Thank you for your time.

[felixmena]

Hi Stacia,

Thank you for reporting this situation and for your concern in making Upwork a safe place for all of us. We will forward this report to the team for further review.

[bobafett999]

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@Felix M wrote:

Hi Stacia,

Thank you for reporting this situation and for your concern in making Upwork a safe place for all of us. We will forward this report to the team for further review.

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 Felix:  Perhaps a warning when you apply for a job that says something like,"Be weary of jobs that require your personal information such as bank account, purchase some crap, deposit some check, and conduct an interview on outside medium like skype, Goggle hangout blah, blah, blah.  Also, if you or client engage in any agreement that bypasses payment through Upwork you are on your own.  In addition, you will be violating Upwork Terms and Conditions which would result in suspension of your account" - might be appropriate.

[mtngigi]

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@Felix M wrote:

Hi Stacia,

Thank you for reporting this situation and for your concern in making Upwork a safe place for all of us. We will forward this report to the team for further review.

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Seriously, my post was deleted for stating an obvious truth - that clients asking us to buy tools needed for a job is not normal?

[mtngigi]

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@Stacia R wrote:

The company was posing as another company **Edited for Community Guidelines**. They offered me a graphic design job and indeed sent me a check to deposit that would allow me to buy the necessary tools i needed for the job which is normal in my field.

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There is absolutely nothing normal about this in the field of graphic design. Freelance graphic designers have the software and the hardware to do what they are hired to do.

ETA: You  also need to remove the link to your website on your profile. This is against TOS.

[justinparsons24]

I just got an identical message. I thought it was weird and googled the name and this post was the first thing that showed up. So thanks for bringing you issue to attention here and helping others.

Seems like someone is hitting a lot of people on here right now. 

[katrinabeaver]

They prey on new people because most people don't take the time to read the TOS of the site or the large amount of helpful articles on job warnings and how to get started. 

These scammers wouldn't thrive if freelancers would just take the time to read the TOS. If you follow the TOS there is no reason a person should be scammed. 

[kochubei_valeria]

Hi Justin,

I checked and it looks like the invitation you are referring to has already been archived because the job was removed.

I'm glad you came across this thread and found some helpful information.