How to deal with frauds

[joanaalves22]

Hello! 

I'm new here and I've been struggling. I'm wasting connections making proposals to jobs and then they want to chat on telegram and ask for work fee (fraude).

I'm wasting connections and not getting any work.

Any tips? 

[hhk93627]

Try to make a checklist of the following items to make sure the client is legit. Once that is done, then comes how you're actually approaching the client:

1) Payment method should be verified

2) Hire rate should be atleast 40%

3) Client has 4 or more than 4 star ratings

4) Proposals status is Less than 5 or 5 to 10 proposals

5) Client has given positive feedbacks and ratings to previous freelancers

There are tons of things you need to consider from your profile to approaching and handling clients. I have written an e-book containing all there is you need to know. Sending it here. Do give it a read, grow and help others to grow. Cheers!

[d173df1a]

Hi,

Thank you for sharing your checklist and your e-book. I appreciate your generosity and willingness to help others.

[wescowley]

Joana, when that happens, use the "Flag as inappropriate" link on the job post and describe the issue. When Upwork takes the job down as a scam, you'll get your connects back.

[pgiambalvo]

Yes, then rinse and repeat forever because Upwork won't do more to prevent scams from being posted, or scam invites being sent to freelancers.

[d173df1a]

Hi,

Thank you for your helpful suggestion. I didn't know that Upwork would refund the connects for flagged jobs. That's good to know.

I appreciate your support and guidance. Have a great day!

[MichaelJ]

Hi Joana,

As Wes mentioned, using the "Flag as inappropriate" link is very helpful to our teams in catching these scams. We are continually working to improve our effectiveness at catching these scams. We published a post in December that outlines the efforts we're taking internally and also provides some red flags to watch out for along with our recommendations.

For additional tips, Wes also wrote a post about red flags to watch out for. 

[pgiambalvo]

After scams are flagged by freelancers, Upwork will remove them, but then allow the SAME scam posts to be posted again and again anyway. Now I’m starting to think, why remove them at all if they’re just going to let them get posted again?

[83241037]

Hi Mike,

I have flagged such a job post where they asked me chat via Telegram as inappropriate. However, the job post hasn't been removed yet by Upwork for days on.

How long does it take to get removed?

I still view the same job under the Active Proposals  Section on my profile.

[g_vasilevski]

Hi Koyel,

Could you please share the job post URL with me via PM (click on my name) so that I can check the details further? Thank you.

[marc_compte]

It can be frustrating, but you are not wasting connects. You are investing connects and if they ask you to go on Telegram the only thing you need to do is say "no" and just with that you will get back 10 free connects. So if you invested 6, your final balance will be +4 connects, you win.

Then, move on and forget about it. Worry about the things you can change and forget those you can't. You have a negative balance of connects if the client does not answer or they do and you don't reply back. It is still not a waste, but an investment.

[petra_r]

---

Marc C wrote:

 So if you invested 6, your final balance will be +4 connects, you win.

---

And when Upwork then deletes the job post, she gets the original 6 back as well

[408085cb]

I'm new at upwork! I recently got a message from the job proposal however they contacted me thru email at first then request me to communicate  via telegram and offered me a project. Can somebody here tell me if this is legit? The agent told me that the work is outside upwork and project will be send to me via email once im ready to accept. I told them to send contract offer via upwork. But told me they'll be sending via email.

pls help

[sofia2008]

This is not legit and your account can get suspended. Make sure to look at the Academy courses at the top of this page before accepting proposals or sending proposals.

[LuiggiR]

Hi there,

I shared your report with our team to investigate and take action based on our internal processes. In the future, please know that communicating outside of Upwork before a contract starts is a violation of the Terms of Service, and a client suggesting this is a typical red flag for possible scams. You may open yourself up to scams or fraud and lose Upwork Payment Protection. 

Whenever you encounter these situations, please report them using the available flagging options so the team can investigate further. Please take some time to read through this article for more information on how you can stay safe on Upwork.