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bethduddy
Community Member

Is my first invite spam?

I just got a "cold" invite (I didn't reach out first) to apply for a job but I'm skeptical that it's real. Are these red flags?

 

- payment not verified

- very skimpy job description

- last viewed 17 days ago

- invites sent 0

- unanswered invites 0

 

If they sent me an invite, shouldn't it be listed here?

 

Sorry if these questions have already been answered on this forum. 

 

 

3 REPLIES 3
prestonhunter
Community Member

Beth:
If you are:

- a new Upwork freelancer

- an entry-level freelancer

- American

- and you recieve an invite out of the blue

 

Then 99+% of the time, that is just a scammer trying to steal money from you.


Replying to an invite will NOT cost you any connects.
So if you want to learn a little bit more about the Upwork user interface while also learning more about the scams that target newbies, you can go ahead and reply.

Just keep in mind that the person who sent you the invite is PROBABLY a scammer.
Come here and discuss with us what happens.

Beth, I’ll just add to Preston’s excellent advice that the vast majority of invites are “cold” because Upwork provides no method for freelancers to request invitations from clients they haven’t worked with previously. The only exception would be to somehow find the client’s contact information and solicit an invitation, which violates Upwork site terms.
__________________________________________________
"No good deed goes unpunished." -- Clare Boothe Luce
wescowley
Community Member

As Preston said, because you do not have an established reputation here yet, the chances are very good this is a scammer. They look for newbies under the assumption you won't know any better. That will slow down once you've built a review history. There's a lot of information on detecting scams in the "Getting Started on Upwork" thread at the top of this forum. Read that, and use your common sense.

 

But to address your questions about red flags:

- payment not verified

This is generally not a problem. You just need to make sure the client verifies their payment method BEFORE you accept an offer from them. I usually leave it till the end of the interview discussion and bring it up when they've sent an offer, saying the verification needs to be done before I can accept it.

 

- very skimpy job description

Not necessarily an indication of a scam, but it does mean you have to get more details from the client before you can price the project. 

 

- last viewed 17 days ago

It seems odd that you got an invite with this stat, but it may be lagging.

 

- invites sent 0

- unanswered invites 0

These two almost always lag, so don't worry about them showing zero.

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