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brian-conner
Community Member

Invitation to Email Prospective Client Directly

I recently applied for a job and the client immediately responsed by asking me to email him directly for the details. How should I handle this?

ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Brian, you may be overlooking a detail. Note that the regulation you cited specifies "before they invite you to interview". But once you apply for a job, and the client messages you, then you're in the interview stage in Upwork parlance, so emails are permitted.

__________________________________________________
"No good deed goes unpunished." -- Clare Boothe Luce

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15 REPLIES 15
brian-conner
Community Member

Here is what he wrote, minus the email address:

Hey,

Thank you for wanting to do this with me..I feel Elated and Happy

Kindly shoot me a private mail on email address deleted for details

Thanks

Brian, there isn't anything necessarily suspicious about wanting to use email, but if you don't have a disposable email account to use, then it's up to you to decide if you're willing to share your email. Does the client have any sort of hiring history on Upwork? If he does, then that decreases the chance that he's just collecting email addresses for his own use.

__________________________________________________
"No good deed goes unpunished." -- Clare Boothe Luce

Thank you, John.

I posted this because on this page: https://support.upwork.com/hc/en-us/articles/211063118-Report-Suspicious-User-Activity#client is says, "It is time to contact Customer Support when a client . . . . 

  • Requests you contact them directly via email, chat, or other means before they invite you to interview or hire you on a contract.

Then the Customer Support Q&A said I should post a question here.

I am not too suspicious yet, but since this type of request was mentioned by Upwork as suspicious, I wanted to be careful.

Brian, you may be overlooking a detail. Note that the regulation you cited specifies "before they invite you to interview". But once you apply for a job, and the client messages you, then you're in the interview stage in Upwork parlance, so emails are permitted.

__________________________________________________
"No good deed goes unpunished." -- Clare Boothe Luce

Thank you, John. I did not know the defintion of Invite. Now I do. Moving forward. I have emailed him.

Thank you again.

mtngigi
Community Member


Brian C wrote:

I recently applied for a job and the client immediately responsed by asking me to email him directly for the details. How should I handle this?





Everything John told you is correct. That said, if a client responds to your bid, a message room on Upwork opens up for both you and the client to communicate. It's a good idea to keep communications on Upwork initially, especially with a new client. If you don't use the message room, you should copy all email messages to your message room so there is a record.
Honestly, this comment "I feel Elated and Happy" strikes me as odd. Proceed with caution.

Thank you, Virginia.

 

I had added a reply in Messages saying I had emailed him. Trying to cover all bases.

 

I am cautious but giving him the benefit of the doubt for now. I am assuming English might not be his primary language, so that odd phrase might result from that. Or not. LOL.

 

Thank you again.


Brian C wrote:

Thank you, Virginia.

 

I had added a reply in Messages saying I had emailed him. Trying to cover all bases.

 

I am cautious but giving him the benefit of the doubt for now. I am assuming English might not be his primary language, so that odd phrase might result from that. Or not. LOL.

 

Thank you again.


Yes, that turn of phrase would indicate that English not the client's primary language. That's not a bad thing, as long as they can state clearly whatever it is they need. If they're new as well, it could be a challenge. If they're not new, look at their history and feedback (something best done before bids are presented).

Well, it turns out I won't be doing any jobs for this client.

 

He emailed me back, asked for all my contact info, said he wanted our contacts to be direct, and as if that were not the killer:

 

He said he would be mailing me a check.

 

I will be reporting him, of course.

 

Brian **Edited for Community Guidelines**

OK, I flagged it.

Is there anything else I need to do other than Flagging the job?


Brian C wrote:

OK, I flagged it. But just to let you see what I saw, here is his email reply to me:

 

 

______________________________

 

Is there anything else I need to do other than Flagging the job?

 

 

Yes, you need to edit/delete the message info in your post immediately (or a forum mod will), because that is not allowed. I'm not surprised it was a scam. It might help to read this:

 

https://community.upwork.com/t5/New-to-Upwork/Tips-to-Avoid-Questionable-Jobs/td-p/240833


 

OK, I edited my message here. Is that what you were suggesting?

In case it wasn’t clear, I have done nothing to violate the TOS in my communications with the client.

Looks like the client is no longer with Upwork. Should I cancel the Proposal or keep it as a reminder of who it was in case he comes back?


Brian C wrote:
Looks like the client is no longer with Upwork. Should I cancel the Proposal or keep it as a reminder of who it was in case he comes back?

doesn't matter. The proposal will be archived by upwork after 30 days of inactivity and move into your "archived proposals" list. 

So, just forget about it. 

OK, thank you.

 

I will keep chugging along. I'm not discouraged that of the 5 jobs I've applied for, 2 have been busts and the other 3 clients never replied to my app. That's actually a better percentage than I'd gotten from making job applications for full time and part time jobs before finding Upwork.

 

With those, I am 0 for a gazillion.

 

That's either an approximation or an exaggeration.

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