I need to report fraud.

[switzerland12]

Hello. I received an email for a proposal that I submitted for data entry from **Edited for Community Guidelines**. from Upwork notification. The person said to start a chat on skype so that we can do an interview and I did, and the person who did the interview was named **Edited for Community Guidelines**. He said that there is a questionnaire and to answer the questions and send them back to him, I did that. I was then told that I was offered the job. I received a letter from the company ( **Edited for Community Guidelines**) saying for employment. I looked up the company it sounded for sure legitimate and then he said that he was going to be sending me a check and that I was to deposit it into my account so that I could pay for my equipment. I deposited it. Now my bank has told me that they are going to close my account and cut ties with me because it looks like I presented a fraudulent check. I really thought that this was real, but I was wrong and now I am in trouble.

[prestonhunter]

The good news is that you will never fall for that scam again.

[LuiggiR]

Hi Gabriela,

I'm really sorry to hear you went through this experience as well as the issues you're facing with your bank as a result. I'd like to reiterate that communicating outside of Upwork before a contract is in place and accepting payments off-platform isn’t only against Upwork TOS but also means that users lose the protection and safety Upwork offers when managing contracts and payments on the platform. I can also confirm that action has already been taken against the job post and the client’s account for violating the TOS. You may want to check this help article that goes into a bit more detail about circumvention and also check this post on tips for avoiding questionable jobs.