🐈
» Forums » New to Upwork » I think I made a mistake, Am I in trouble? An...
Page options
ryanleekeefe
Community Member

I think I made a mistake, Am I in trouble? And what should I do?

I got a job offer through my email that came from one of the proposals I made on here and I agreed to it since I have been desperate for a job.  I realized afterwards that I remembered something about having to do everything through Upwork.  I have started to do more research on this but in the meantime, the application process has been going very quickly and only now have I really started to question if I should be doing this, they have me scheduled to start work in 20 minutes.  I don't know if I will get in trouble with upwork and owe them a fee if I don't back out now or if I'm already too late.

I can go into more detail about the process and why I went along with it up to this point. It started with an email from upwork showing that someone responded to my proposal and it was now active. I logged into upwork to read their response. I was excited to notice that it seemed like a legitimate full-time job opportunity but I noticed that the original posting on upwork was a flat fee assignment, not an ongoing one. Aside from that, the details seemed similar though so I wasn't too thrown off.  At the end of this response the recruiter asks me to respond to her via her work email so I did.  Not long after my response which basically was just expressing interest in the job, I got another email that asked me to respond with a short answer to about 20 questions. These questions didn't strike me as scam questions so I answered them one by one and sent my reply. Much later that night, I got an email telling me I had been accepted and I was given a site to log into and a username and password I could use for that site. I was also told I would be starting at 9 am on the 6th of March which is today, 4 minutes from now in fact.  I signed into their platform and filled out information but I haven't started official work for them yet.  I have a feeling if I proceed we will both be in trouble and I hope we aren't already in trouble.  I don't have any money to afford the upwork fee that I read about.  

10 REPLIES 10
petra_r
Community Member


Ryan K wrote:

I got a job offer through my email that came from one of the proposals I made on here and I agreed to it since I have been desperate for a job.  I realized afterwards that I remembered something about having to do everything through Upwork.  I have started to do more research on this but in the meantime, the application process has been going very quickly and only now have I really started to question if I should be doing this, they have me scheduled to start work in 20 minutes.  I don't know if I will get in trouble with upwork and owe them a fee if I don't back out now or if I'm already too late.


On your My Jobs page, Is there a contract?

 

Do **NOT** do anything until this has been checked, it could be a scam designed to steal your data or your money.

 

The Upwork fee is charged out of whatever you earn. ALL payments must go through Upwork.

Does the client have history? Is their payment method verified?

 

 

Their payment method is not verified.  Would you like me to link the original posting?

Also the fee I was referring to isn't the regular percentage fee. I was referring to something I read in another post about how people can opt to work outside of upwork before the 2 year period but the employer has to pay a fee to upwork of 2500 dollars.  Maybe I would have to pay that fee as well?  I don't know if how far I have gone would constitute as working for the employer.  I haven't done any official work yet or been paid yet but I have been hired.  This is the main thing I am panicking about. It is possible that this person is trying to scam me in which case that might be something I should panic about too but I don't have any money in the bank account I gave them.  If they aren't trying to scam me and are just ignorant to upworks policies like I was, then I am as much at fault as they are and I hope I caught this before either of us got into any serious trouble.

Hi Ryan,

 

When working on Upwork, please make sure that you have a contract with a client. Ensure that they have a verified billing method so that the work you do can be covered by Upwork Payment Protection

 

I was able to locate the job you referred to and I'll share it with our team for further investigation. Kindly, communicate with your client about this, prior to providing any work for them.

 

Check out this post for more tips on how to avoid questionable jobs.

 

Thank you!

 

 

~ Bojan
Upwork

Thank you very much.  I have expressed my concerns to both the person who recruited me and the person who is to be my supervisor, they have not replied yet.  I assume that I shouldn't attempt to do anything further until I am fully aware of the situation and make sure that they have me working through upwork? 


Ryan K wrote:

  I haven't done any official work yet or been paid yet but I have been hired.


No. you have NOT been hired. You are about to get scammed big time.

 


Ryan K wrote:

It is possible that this person is trying to scam me in which case that might be something I should panic about too but I don't have any money in the bank account I gave them.  If they aren't trying to scam me and are just ignorant to upworks policies like I was, then I am as much at fault as they are and I hope I caught this before either of us got into any serious trouble.


You need to set your profile to private and educate yourself on how this site works. Why in the world would you give a random stranger on the Internet all your personal details?

 

I just checked and thankfully my profile is already set to private.  Thank you guys for your help and sorry for the trouble.


Ryan K wrote:

I just checked and thankfully my profile is already set to private.  Thank you guys for your help and sorry for the trouble.


How does your profile being set to private solve this mess?

I have reached out to these people who were trying to hire me and told them about my concerns.  They did not respond for a while but they finally did and they both are agreeing to let me drop out of this.  They may already have plans to use my information to scam me and already have what they want anyway.  I figured since I have cancelled the job so I wouldn't be working for someone through here without going through the proper channels that I have resolved the mess on your end and it would only be selfish and rude of me to ask  you guys to help me any further as the rest of the issue seems to be only my problem.  I have taken precautionary steps to try to resolve my remaining problem and if you are willing to offer any helpful advice I'll be happy to take it.  I just wouldn't expect it from you guys, I have already troubled you enough as it is.


Ryan K wrote:

I have reached out to these people who were trying to hire me and told them about my concerns.  They did not respond for a while but they finally did and they both are agreeing to let me drop out of this.  They may already have plans to use my information to scam me and already have what they want anyway.  I figured since I have cancelled the job so I wouldn't be working for someone through here without going through the proper channels that I have resolved the mess on your end and it would only be selfish and rude of me to ask  you guys to help me any further as the rest of the issue seems to be only my problem.  I have taken precautionary steps to try to resolve my remaining problem and if you are willing to offer any helpful advice I'll be happy to take it.  I just wouldn't expect it from you guys, I have already troubled you enough as it is.


I understand. Just making sure you understand that making your profile private will not do anything in regard with the issue you described, the only effect it has is you will not show up in search results when clients look for freelancers.

Be sure to read all the available information on how to stay safe on the platform. 

Latest Articles
Featured Topics
Learning Paths