🐈
» Forums » New to Upwork » How to Report a Scam or Fraud?
Page options
jbroida
Community Member

How to Report a Scam or Fraud?

Hi All, Newbie here, wondering how to report an employer who asked me to communicate off-site, break UpWork's payments rules and write a false positive review for a company I never heard of before. How do I file a report with UpWork? Is this even possible? Is anyone in charge here? There appears to be no actual customer service or support. If so, this site will be of limited utility to me. Please share your candid thoughts and experiences.

ACCEPTED SOLUTION
cylver1z
Community Member

Hello Jean,

 

Could you please create a ticket about this at our Upwork Help Center? Please include important details that will prove your claim. Thank you.


Untitled

View solution in original post

38 REPLIES 38
shihab0915
Community Member

At the top right corner, previous to the bell icon you will find a symbol of 'note of interrogation' (help). Click on that and then Help & support.

 

note: you shouldn't mention anyone's name here. please remove the client's name form here.

 

edited: mention

 

 


@Shihab-Ul H wrote:

At the top right corner, previous to the bell icon you will find a symbol of 'note of interrogation' (help). Click on that and then Help & support.

 

note: you shouldn't mention anyone's name here. please remove the client's name form here.

 

edited: mention


@Shihab-Ul H

The word "interrogation" does not appear anywhere in the pull down menu for the support / forum areas..

 

@Jean B: Submitting a Support ticket is an option that not all freelancers have access to. But EVERYONE has access to the other report option which is what everyone should use, unless they have to submit files to the CS department.

 

@Jean B: you have two choices to report a fraudulent client. Yes, you can access Support by clicking the ? icon on your My Jobs page, and selecting Help and Support from the pop up menu.

 

Or you can use the Flag as Innapropiate link at the top right area of every job post page, which has several options to choose from. This is actually the better reporting tool.

 

If you have chat transcripts with a fraud client, you have to submit those to the CS team via a Support ticket.

 

 

@ Shihab-Ul H

Please remember that newbies who are actually needing support are going to read what you write. Including people who may, or may not, have a full command of the English language and it's slang terms.

 

In addition, most newbies may not be familiar with the Upwork UI, and telling them that they are going to see something that they will not actually see is just plain mean.

 

Edit: Clarity

Pandora, I really like you & the way you make me feel. I also have seen your post before 4 (four) times you edited and the way you were treating me. Reproach, criticism always helps me to improve myself because it works as a mirror to me. Atleast I have a mirror on this forum, not everyone have it. Really helpful.

Thank you, Pandora, very helpful indeed.

Is there a new way to do this? I do not see these options on the job posting that I need to report as a scam. Thanks.

re: "Is there a new way to do this? I do not see these options on the job posting that I need to report as a scam."

 

Click on the "Flag as inappropriate" link button in the upper right hand corner of the job posting screen.

There is no "flag as inappropriate" button on my screen, that's why I'm asking if something is updated or changed - I don't have that button and need to report a scam.

Is there any solid answer here? I'm going in circles and need to get in touch with upwork support. The bot answers all my questions with a link to get a dropbox discount and every time I think I'm almost getting the real support portal, I get circled back to community forums.


Melissa M wrote:

There is no "flag as inappropriate" button on my screen, that's why I'm asking if something is updated or changed - I don't have that button and need to report a scam.


Can you take a screenshot and show us what screen you are looking at? 

 

 

Hi Melissa,

 

Please click on my name and send me a PM with more information about your report. I'll be sure to escalate it accordingly.

 

Thank you.

~ Bojan
Upwork
704eb7a2
Community Member

@Bojan - I also have just discovered a fraudulent violation of a contract over the last several months. Can I connect with you?

 

Thanks

Rob


Robert F wrote:

@Bojan - I also have just discovered a fraudulent violation of a contract over the last several months. Can I connect with you?

 

Thanks

Rob


You have been defrauded over months?

Yes. 

 

I had a contract with someone in the early summer for some admin work; I would give him instructions weekly on what to do.

 

In early August, I had to leave work & put all of my projects on hold, as my dad began deteroirating from his cancer. This person, whos last email on August 4th said "Hello - awaiting your next set of instructions". 

 

I have a PayPal account attached to a credit card I rarely use, & have a different Upwork account I was using recently.

 

Yesterday, I noticed a charge from Upwork, every 2 weeks, for 56 dollars, since August. I had no idea what it was from and it took some time to even figure out what account was being charged. Eventually, I accessed the proper account and saw completely maxed out weekly timecards, every week. I don't have 1 email from him, 1 Upwork message, and the shared document he would update for me? Hasn't been touched since August either.

 

I don't know what he logged, or why - but it is all completely irrelevant, because at NO point did I ask him to continue; at no point did he even attempt to contact me; & I only didn't notice because of my personal life + the charges going to a card I don't use.


Robert F wrote:

Yes. 

 

I had a contract with someone in the early summer for some admin work; I would give him instructions weekly on what to do.

 

In early August, I had to leave work & put all of my projects on hold, as my dad began deteroirating from his cancer. This person, whos last email on August 4th said "Hello - awaiting your next set of instructions". 

 

I have a PayPal account attached to a credit card I rarely use, & have a different Upwork account I was using recently.

 

Yesterday, I noticed a charge from Upwork, every 2 weeks, for 56 dollars, since August. I had no idea what it was from and it took some time to even figure out what account was being charged. Eventually, I accessed the proper account and saw completely maxed out weekly timecards, every week. I don't have 1 email from him, 1 Upwork message, and the shared document he would update for me? Hasn't been touched since August either.

 

I don't know what he logged, or why - but it is all completely irrelevant, because at NO point did I ask him to continue; at no point did he even attempt to contact me; & I only didn't notice because of my personal life + the charges going to a card I don't use.


___________________________

How many Upwork accounts have you got? 

 

You say the freelancer did not contact you, but he wrote on August 4 asking you for instructions, did you reply?  You could have closed the contract at that point. 

No, I did not reply. 

 

I left the contract open because I planned to work with him in the future; I did not see any word about charges or anything because it was a credit card I almost never use (and that is besides the point - I shouldn't be expected to be on the lookout for charges that I did not expect/ask for - I've used Upwork for years, and not one time has anyone taken advantage of an open contract; I also got to know this person personally, and am still blown away this happened).

 

I closed the contract the moment I realized he was logging hours for work I did not remotely ask him to do.


Robert F wrote:

No, I did not reply. 

 

I left the contract open because I planned to work with him in the future; I did not see any word about charges or anything because it was a credit card I almost never use (and that is besides the point - I shouldn't be expected to be on the lookout for charges that I did not expect/ask for - I've used Upwork for years, and not one time has anyone taken advantage of an open contract; I also got to know this person personally, and am still blown away this happened).

 

I closed the contract the moment I realized he was logging hours for work I did not remotely ask him to do.

 

_____________________

You are responsible for checking on the people you hire and what you hire them for.  If you can't cope with the load, then you should hire an assistant to do the job for you. 

 

It would have been polite on your part to have responded to the freelancer and to have made it clear that you had no more work for him at that point. It is easy to reopen a contract, so the onus was on you to close it. 


 


Robert F wrote:

Yes. 

 

I had a contract with someone in the early summer for some admin work; I would give him instructions weekly on what to do.

 

In early August, I had to leave work & put all of my projects on hold, as my dad began deteroirating from his cancer. This person, whos last email on August 4th said "Hello - awaiting your next set of instructions". 

 

I have a PayPal account attached to a credit card I rarely use, & have a different Upwork account I was using recently.

 

Yesterday, I noticed a charge from Upwork, every 2 weeks, for 56 dollars, since August. I had no idea what it was from and it took some time to even figure out what account was being charged. Eventually, I accessed the proper account and saw completely maxed out weekly timecards, every week. I don't have 1 email from him, 1 Upwork message, and the shared document he would update for me? Hasn't been touched since August either.

 

I don't know what he logged, or why - but it is all completely irrelevant, because at NO point did I ask him to continue; at no point did he even attempt to contact me; & I only didn't notice because of my personal life + the charges going to a card I don't use.


Oh, so you are a client, not a freelancer. That's really unfortunate, I hope you get your money back.  

re: "I also have just discovered a fraudulent violation of a contract over the last several months. Can I connect with you?"

 

Robert:
It is possible for you to click on the name of a Forum moderator and send that moderator a private message.

 

If you don't do that, or even if you do that, you can still describe your situation here so that all of the people who participate in the Community Forum can benefit from reading about your experience. And it is likely that one or more Forum participants will be able to provide you with useful information.

 

Tell us a bit more, and we can tell you what you can do to help you in your situation.

Hi Preston - please see my comment above with more detail. Thanks for your help!

 

EDIT: figured I should just paste it here too:

 

Yes. 

 

I had a contract with someone in the early summer for some admin work; I would give him instructions weekly on what to do.

 

In early August, I had to leave work & put all of my projects on hold, as my dad began deteroirating from his cancer. This person, whos last email on August 4th said "Hello - awaiting your next set of instructions". 

 

I have a PayPal account attached to a credit card I rarely use, & have a different Upwork account I was using recently.

 

Yesterday, I noticed a charge from Upwork, every 2 weeks, for 56 dollars, since August. I had no idea what it was from and it took some time to even figure out what account was being charged. Eventually, I accessed the proper account and saw completely maxed out weekly timecards, every week. I don't have 1 email from him, 1 Upwork message, and the shared document he would update for me? Hasn't been touched since August either.

 

I don't know what he logged, or why - but it is all completely irrelevant, because at NO point did I ask him to continue; at no point did he even attempt to contact me; & I only didn't notice because of my personal life + the charges going to a card I don't use.

BojanS
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi Robert,

 

I'm sorry to hear about your experience with this contract. One of our agents will reach out to you directly via a support ticket to look into this and advise you accordingly. 

 

Thank you! 

~ Bojan
Upwork

I'm happy to remove the employer's name. How do I edit my original post?

Please click on "Post Options" and then "Edit Message". 

edit-message.png

 

Thank you

That worked. Thank you very much for your feedback, Shihab-Ul.

cylver1z
Community Member

Hello Jean,

 

Could you please create a ticket about this at our Upwork Help Center? Please include important details that will prove your claim. Thank you.


Untitled
jbroida
Community Member

Hi Ryan, I believe I was able to do this before I posted on the forum, but I got no visual confirmation. Can you possibly check to see if you received my report?

Jean,

 

Yes, it looks like you've flagged the job. We'll follow up and make sure it's reviewed and proper actions are taken.

 

Thanks!

~ Valeria
Upwork

Hello,

I would also like to report a job posting. I received a separate email from UpWork actually, about this "job." I was then invited to talk to this person via google hangouts. Mind you, I never put in a proposal or anything. They almost took my bank info. He offered to send a check to my email to "get started." I haven't been on here long and I am an expecting mother who has been looking for a remote position for work life balance. This person could have completely ruined my families lives if they had taken everything. I am really disappointed that there is not even an efficient way to report things like this. It took me 20 minutes of searching until I found the "support center," where you submit what is going on, an article pulls up and then asks if this solved your problem. Of course I said no. Then it linked me to the community board to post something. No HR, no # to call, no real way to report issues. I have attached a document of pictures I took of the invitation to this fraud below. I could not flag the job because it all of a sudden said it was "closed."

 

 **Edited for Community Guidelines**

 

Hi Rochelle,

I`m sorry to hear about the bad experience you had, our team will reach out to you directly so that you can share more details with us and investigate this further. You can always use our Flagging option on every job post, you can locate this feature above the Submit a Proposal button. I would also recommend to check out this thread: Getting Started on Upwork and spend more tome on the Safety First! section. Thank you!

~ Goran
Upwork

I am disappointed that I am reading this story from 2018 and I just had the same thing happen to me.  Excat same thing.  I was also lucky that my life didn't get effected.  The bank flagged the check as a scam and I was told the are not accpeting it.  I was lucky my bank was on top of it, since apparently this has happened before and its now happening again and you are not on top of it.  Very disappointing when I was hoping for this money since I am now out of work and it would have helped me out. 

BojanS
Community Manager
Community Manager

I'm sorry to hear about your experience, Renee

 

I've checked and the job you're referring to has already been taken down because it was in violation of Upwork ToS and action has been taken on the client account. 

 

Please, check this help article for more information on how to use the flag option found on each job post or message to report any suspicious or inappropriate content. Also, check out this post for more tips on how to avoid questionable jobs.

 

Thank you!

~ Bojan
Upwork


@Rochelle R wrote:

Hello,

I would also like to report a job posting. I received a separate email from UpWork actually, about this "job." I was then invited to talk to this person via google hangouts. Mind you, I never put in a proposal or anything. They almost took my bank info. He offered to send a check to my email to "get started." I haven't been on here long and I am an expecting mother who has been looking for a remote position for work life balance. This person could have completely ruined my families lives if they had taken everything. I am really disappointed that there is not even an efficient way to report things like this. It took me 20 minutes of searching until I found the "support center," where you submit what is going on, an article pulls up and then asks if this solved your problem. Of course I said no. Then it linked me to the community board to post something. No HR, no # to call, no real way to report issues. I have attached a document of pictures I took of the invitation to this fraud below. I could not flag the job because it all of a sudden said it was "closed."

 

 **Edited for Community Guidelines**

 


 ____________________________________________

Rochelle,

 

On the right of any job posting (when you have clicked on it) you should see "Submit a proposal" in a green box and under that you will see "flag as inappropriate". This will give you a drop-down menu with choices you can tick and also a box in which you can give more details. 

If you have been invited to one of the scam jobs, then from your invitation you will see "go to job posting" where you can flag it as inappropriate as above.   

 

If the job you are talking about was suddenly closed, then it means that Upwork had already delisted it. 

 

Can you please tell me why your link to the Upwork Help Center isn't working, nor is the Contact Support message button on any page, when I'm trying to contact you about a scammer who just sent me a message with a link to a site that is my web browser is telling me is an attack site?????????

 

Will the Post button even work? I don't know yet…

Thanks for reporting, Cecilia. I believe I found the interview you are referring to and the team has already taken actions against it. 

 

Are you able to access this page? Are you getting any errors trying to access it?

~ Valeria
Upwork
d9d5c741
Community Member

You know I had exactly the same situation with the attached job posting 

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

I actually did  the work and asked me to contact him out of the platform and "received" payment in Bitcoin wallet but it's just a fraud! And asked me for an ID card of their company and pay $300 refundable to get it.  But I said no way!

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

MichaelJ
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi Juan,

 

I'm sorry to hear you encountered this scam. We have removed the job post and taken appropriate action on the client. 

 

To help protect yourself in the future, ensure that you do not begin work until a contract is in place (the client will need to send you an offer and then you would have to accept it) and only agree to accept payment on Upwork.


Cheers,
Mike

Thank you so much, I sent you pictures of the contact profile on Telegram to aware the community.

 

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

 

 

Emails

 

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

Latest Articles
Featured Topics
Learning Paths