I'm being asked for my social and address

[nastahia]

Is this normal?

[martina_plaschka]

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Nastahia R wrote:

Is this normal?

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Have they offered to send you a check, too?

It is hard to say what is normal on upwork, but it is definitely not advisable to hand out private information such as this. 

[nastahia]

This is the communication. Seems too sketchy for me.

**Edited for community guidelines**

[BojanS · Accepted solution]

Hi Nastahia,

Please, make sure you don't share any private information directly with clients on Upwork. All the information needed to hire and pay you via Upwork is available on your profile.

I will share this with our team for future investigation.

Please, check this post for more tips on how to avoid questionable jobs.

Also, 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.

Thank you.

[prestonhunter]

re: "I'm being asked for my social and address. Is this normal?"

No. This is NOT normal. After doing almost 200 jobs on Upwork, I have never had a client ask for my social security number and address.

YES. This IS normal.

It is normal for an employer to ask for a new employee's social security number and address.

But Upwork is NOT an employer. It is a freelancer work platform.

So IF YOU ARE asked for your social security number, there are TWO possibilities:

- You are dealing with a scammer or identity thief.

- You are dealing with a client who is very new to using Upwork, and is following patterns she learned in brick-and-mortar business, and she does not know that she does not need to ask for social security number or address.

What should YOU do?

No matter what, NEVER BE RUDE to anybody on Upwork. Even if you think they are a scammer, be polite and professional in all of your communications.

If you are not certain that this is a scammer, and think that this might be a legitimate client, then there is nothing wrong with continuing to communicate with the client. Tell her:

"Jackie, Upwork has rules against providing that kind of information directly to clients. But I authorize you to contact Upwork customer support to do anything you need to in order to confirm my identity. You may ask them for any information that you need."

If this is a scammer, then she will go away. If this is a client, then that is all you need to say to let the client know that you are legitimate. She probably won't contact customer support at all. But if she does, customer support representative will be able to answer any of her questions about the kind of information she is authorized to receive and they will be able to explain how Upwork works further.