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Exp's avatar
Exp U Community Member

Job warning signs

When reading a job description, what causes you to go "Ut-oh!"? What red flags do you see in applications that at least puts you on your guard, if not actually skip to the next one? Here's some of mine (and others):

 

First and foremost The work is yours until you are paid in full. You own the copyright until you have been paid the agreed sum. If you choose to work for 15 cents per hour then that's your problem. If it takes longer than you thought..again, down to you. BUT. If you have done your bit according to the contract that you agreed, then the work is yours until it's paid for.

 

Asking for payment or to use your own accounts (Thanks Dave!) Money comes from the client to you; anything else and you're doing it wrong. Do not ever (unless you know the client really well, and give it second thoughts even then) pay for something for the client unless you have received the money from them first. Deposit for something; webhosting accounts; domain name; subscription for site X that is "essential for the job" etc etc. No money. Ever. Similarly, do not use your own eBay, Craigslist etc. accounts to list things for sale...chances are high that it will end badly and wreck any good karma you have built up there. And it'll be you in the frame if it turns out that it was illegal.

 

"Bait and Switch" (Thanks Selcalmel!) Clients advertise one job and then offer a different job at interview. Now there can be valid reasons for this; but a big difference between the job description and the work you're being offered should be viewed with extreme suspicion. Mostly on oDesk it's either jobs that you wouldn't have applied for if the job was described honestly or changing the rules to try and get the price down.

 

Too many people being interviewed This can be a sign that the buyer is dividing the job up and giving the various parts as a 'test' to applicants...with the intention of getting the job for free. It could just be that the buyer is looking for a very specific set of skills, or other innocent motive, but maybe not.

NOTE: (Thanks Brandon!) This also applies to the client's history...check the total number of jobs posted versus people hired. If there are a load of jobs posted but few contracts awarded, then proceed with caution.

 

Only low bidders being interviewed If you're not one of the low bidders on that job then it's probably not worth applying.

 

Long list of demands, silly budget We've all seen them; the jobs for an all-singing, all-dancing website for $100, followed by either a HUGE feature list and/or a long list of qualities required by the contractor. Luckily for you, the buyer is advertising the fact that they are a wanker (behaviour which is unlikely to change if you were unfortunate enough to land the contract). This buyer knows the market well enough to know exactly what they want; and must therefore know that the budget is exploitative...move on. And as a corollary to the above (Thanks Louis!):

 

People who bellow orders, often in capitals "SUCH SUCH WILL NOT BE READ I IF [insert term].... OTHERWISE I WILL DELETE YOUR APPLICATION IMMEDIATELY". Or "MUST ATTACH SUCH AND SUCH OTHERWISE YOU ARE WASTING MY TIME". Some people -presumably after watching Alan Sugar or that twat Trump- think that this is how bosses should behave. I see it mostly as a sign of either someone being new to being in a position to call the shots and is a bit insecure about it, or someone who is a natural git. In either case your job will be more difficult because of it. Also, these types of application are frequently paired with a ridiculous budget. Any buyers who are reading this should note that this isn't the way to go about things...also all capitals make it harder to read and you're increasing the chances of applicants missing an important detail. Annoying people before they've even applied for your job cannot possibly help. Am I the only one, by the way, who feels the impulse to reply in kind?: "Listen up bitch. I reckon I can do it in 10 hours which'll cost you $450 and if that isn't good enough then you can just **Edited for Community Guidelines** would be a fairly short application, probably.

 

Mention of half-finished job/previous contractor/s There are two factors here...sorting out what someone else has done often takes longer than just doing whatever it is from scratch. You will very probably be inheriting a hairy-arsed nightmare. The other factor -and a question you should be asking yourself (and the buyer, come to that)- is exactly why the previous contractor didn't finish. It does happen that buyers get a run of bad luck with contractors (often after playing in the lower budget ranges), so it isn't necessarily the buyer's fault. On the other hand, it could be. Rescuing a client from a wall-to-wall catastrophe at the 11th hour is one of the best smug feelings you can get as a freelancer; but these jobs are high-risk...you need to ascertain for yourself that the buyer is genuine before getting in too deep. A note to any buyers reading this: If you've already been through two or more contractors and you still don't have a result, you need to seriously consider throwing a match in and starting with fresh code. I've had jobs where it took significantly longer to find out what the hell the previous guys had done than it would have taken to just bin everything and do the job. And with other people's code, you can never be 100% sure that you haven't missed something important/broken/nasty.

 

One-line descriptions Buyers quite often don't know the information that a contractor needs in order to produce a final product the client will be happy with; that's not a problem and it's the contractor's job to ask the right questions. But when you see a job like "I need a website. Plz replie", just move on. If they can't be bothered, then neither can I.

 

Payment method not verified Sign either of a first-time user or a scammer. If the unverified user is overly familiar with the way oDesk works...warning! If it's a first time user, you may well have to do some unofficial oDesk support and talk them through it. And you might still get scammed at the end.

 

Anything where you have to create a user account on another site (that isn't the site you're working on) before you start. No. Just no.

 

Business plan with failure built in As a webdesigner, I hear 10 plans for world domination before breakfast. Some job descriptions have fail built into the very fabric of the scheme. The worst ones are the ones where you have to mess around with NDAs and soothe the buyer that you're not going to be over the horizon with his masterplan (which often as not turns out to be another bloody facebook or youtube clone). *sigh*

 

Jobs where 'clients' are mentioned I don't really like sub-sub contracting. Firstly there's there's the thought of the buyer sitting on his arse collecting cash for my work; which rankles a bit. Secondly -and more important- is the 'Chinese Whisper Effect'; where the original client's specs is filtered through the middleman's idea of what the end-client wants. These specs may well not be accurate. You *will* be doing extra work because of this. The same applies to large companies where an underling has been given the task and is now offloading it onto you; but in this case the specs are more often written down. The worse case in this latter scenario can be where it's a committee and everyone present has to get a design change in there -no matter how pointless- just to get their name in the minutes of the meeting.

 

"It will only take 5 minutes" No it won't. No job in the history of contracting has ever taken only 5 minutes. It takes longer than that to liase with the potential client, for a start.

 

Jobs that aren't worth it ((Your hourly rate) * (Number of hours you think it will take)) + (Say 10% safety margin for extra missions/unexplained bits) = (Your price for the job). If there's not enough money or not enough time, then it's usually best to move on.

 

Anything that mentions CAPTCHA or removing watermarks It's naughty. Don't.

 

Web scraping Nah. Probably illegal (copyright) and definitely immoral. You're stealing someone else's work. Worse...you're automating stealing someone else's work.

 

Jobs where it looks like a reasonable budget for the job until you read the description and it turns out that the budget is a monthly wage for full-time work of the same type This is annoying and wastes time.

 

Non-profit organisation (Thanks Mahesh!) A non-profit organisation is not the same thing as a charity. Some are, of course, but some are tax dodges, some are for groups of people, with the aim of the organisation being something you don't necessarily approve of..."Mothers in support of the ruthless oppression of Brits in Spain"; "White supremacy"; "Black supremacy"; whatever. Or -as Mahesh points out- it could just be weasel-wording for the fact that they haven't made any money.

 

Buyers asking for free work samples/tests (Thanks Anna!) It is the buyer's right to ask, just as it is your right to refuse. It's also discouraged by oDesk. All the veteran contractors (including me) will advise against free samples and in any case that's what your portfolio is for...to show previous examples of work and the standard that you're capable of. For contractors it just is not worth it...if there's 30 applicants to the job, you're spending time doing work for a 1 in 30 chance of getting a job. You can spend your entire life doing this and not make a penny. Now that I've said all that, a free sample is what landed me my first job on oDesk...someone wanted a graphic vector conversion and -having some free time- I just did it and sent an (unusable) sample graphic in. The buyer didn't demand a sample (I would not have applied if that were the case), but I proved I could do the job by doing it. Traditionally in design work, it used to be the case that the designer offered several alternate designs; but those were for *much* larger-budget jobs. It isn't worth even considering for the sort of jobs that are at oDesk. If you do choose to give free samples, always watermark them (Thanks Ernesto!). In the case of writing samples, send them as a graphic or locked PDF so that the text can't be used without paying you.

 

Free work samples - Part II If the buyer is asking for free samples and if it's the sort of job that can be broken up into smaller tasks then pay extra attention; and also look closely at the number of people being interviewed.

 

"Great opportunity for newbies" (Thanks Judith!) This means that a buyer is offering a risably small budget for work in exchange for giving you feedback. This is either feedback blackmail or investing time in order to get in the game, depending upon your point of view. You are definitely being taken advantage of; but really it's your decision...as long as you go into it with your eyes open and as long as it's all agreed at the start. Buyers trying to use feedback to change the terms after the job has started, however, should be reported.

 

Vague specifications (Thanks Louis!) It's harder to work with vague specifications, mostly, but you see quite a lot of jobs with insufficient detail. If you're extremely lucky, it's a buyer who wants this Thing to perform this Function; is busy; has correctly assessed your level of competence; and trusts you to get 'er done. This is rare. It is, however, also difficult to write job descriptions with exactly the right amount of detail. Insufficient detail could be due to laziness; unfamiliarity with the oDesk system; lack of knowledge (which is after all why the buyer is getting a professional in)...lots of reasons. The best way of approaching this -I believe- is to use the application letter and interview to clear up any ambiguities and to focus in on the specs so that you and the client both agree on what the job actually is and where the boundaries are. If you start the job and only have a vague idea of what the client wants, you are going to have problems. Possibly big problems if the job description also states...

 

Unlimited redo A job description containing these words should be approached with caution. Particularly with website work, as you're essentially agreeing to maintain it forever as part of the deal. Add a bit of mission creep to a contract like this and you're in a world of hurt. I always specify 'reasonable amount of re-do' in the cover letter. It's a contract and you should never agree to something that can suck up an infinite amount of your time for free. I understand that buyers want their work the way they want it and the 'unlimited' is mostly just a way of ensuring that their needs will be met. You, the contractor, also needs to ensure that you're covered, so best to renegotiate this phrase.

 

"Send us ID" This is not needed to work at oDesk. Don't do it or you will be very sorry. Verify who you are through oDesk, if you must, but ***NEVER*** send ID; bank account details, PayPal, eBay or any other information that can be used by ID-theft types.

 

Write to me outside of odesk This isn't necessarily a problem...everyone has their preferred methods of communication. At the first hint of paying outside of oDesk you should run away quickly: It's against oDesk rules; will get your account terminated if you're caught; and you will probably get stiffed by the buyer anyway.

 

Phishing (Thanks Santos!) The way this works is that someone sends you a link (usually an obscured one like "http://bit.ly/whatever"). This takes you to a page that *looks like* a login page to a common internet service (Gmail, Paypal, Amazon, whatever), but isn't. What the page is, is a copy of that login screen and the idea is that you type your password in and it gets captured by naughty people. It's then standard practice to use that email/username/password on lots of other common services to see if they work. If you 1) fall for it and 2) use the same password everywhere, you're stuffed. Don't trust an obscured link; and ALWAYS check the URL on a login screen, just to make sure you're in the place you think you are. Personally, I go a little further than that and keep a link with my (encrypted) password file and I only use my local link to visit web services.

 

Good luck out there!

981 REPLIES 981
Anatoly's avatar
Anatoly S Community Member

5 USD:

2015-10-10_160143.png

I should take this job. It was so simple. All the conditions are fulfilled.

 

Aliens take our job! We need to build a wall!

Jennifer's avatar
Jennifer M Community Member

This is the beauty of the connect system weeding out the losers. I've had customers post things like "As discussed, rewrite this article" and accidentally post it in the open market. It's obviously for someone else, but there's always a few noobs who still bid.

Ken's avatar
Ken J Community Member

I see NO reason to drag insults and politics into a professional discussion. Save your opinion for the water cooler.

Syed Kashif's avatar
Syed Kashif H Community Member

So true, i really agree on the each points that are mentioned.

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This work is illegal. I have flagged this guy weeks ago, but now the baby milk powder mafia is back. The job offer just appeared and I hope it will be deleted soon.

 

About the Client
Payment Method Not Verified

4 Jobs Posted
0% Hire Rate, 1 Open Job

Member Since Oct 16, 2015

 

 

Hello,

my chinese partner and I sell Infant formula - Baby Milk Powder from Germany (only german products bought in Germany!) to China. Since the tragic 2008 Chinese milk scandal, a vast majority of chinese parents don't trust chinese milk products anymore and seek for safe products outside of China. However, since there are plenty of fake milk products on websites like Taobao or Alibaba, chinese parents are still distrustful of products offered on those websites to this date. Hence, we usually sell our products to people we know - who trust us and whom we trust.

Our goal for the future is to get new customers. Which means we want to sell our products to people we don't know.

Basically, you're job will be to get us new customers from China. We will provide you with informations about the products we sell as well as about our customers and how we do our business.

We are willing to pay you a comission of 10% of the transaction value for EVERY TRANSACTION from a customer you brought us. The average transaction value per ORDER for only one customer is 160€ ($18.2). Hence, your share per TRANSACTION would be in average 16€ ($18.2). If the same customer buys twice or more, you would still get your 10% of every new order.

Chinese language skills are desired but not mandatory.

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact me.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Laura's avatar
Laura C Community Member

Can such people not be screened before offering jobs?

Kristina's avatar
Kristina D Community Member

Thanks a lot! 

 

Even for a professional Software Tester this article will be helpful!  

 

Kind regards,

Software Tester

Kristina Dzyuba.

Tamee's avatar
Tamee T Community Member

Thanks so much for this! I just started my first contract and the client asked me to send a free sample. I didn't know until now that it was a bad idea. 

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100% Bogus, part of the job description, 8 other jobs of the same "quality", some of them using credit card data of customers, I have flagged this one and will observe if it will be removed.

 

Seeking Japanese Swedish Norwegian Finnish German govn’t project

 

Job entitles briefing & report in English, Internet Research, local government communications, 
What you can get from doing this work: good pay + Good hotels + Good flights, + Good movies & books ,when you travel.

 


About the Client 
Payment Method Not Verified 

9 Jobs Posted 
0% Hire Rate, 8 Open Jobs

Member Since Nov 7, 2015

 

 

Yvette's avatar
Yvette D Community Member

Awesome post! I am glad someone took the care and time to compile these warning signs. Most of us have learned these from unfortunate experiences, but it really does help to share our experiences so that others won't get scammed. Also, the more we make freelancers aware of these cons, the less likely this type of client behavior will be successful, which means an eventual decrease in bogus clients. And that should be our goal: to boycott jobs that are obvious scams so these people can no longer profit off other's pain and take their predatory behavior elsewhere. Also, we have to be mindful of fraudulent freelancers. Right now, I just discovered a FIlipino freelance website that had a profile of a woman who's claiming editorial credits for published books I did. Her bio was a straight copy and paste from my old Odesk profile.... Hmmmm.... 

Cristian's avatar
Cristian S Community Member

Hello!

I sent a proposal to a job that sounds almost too good to be true and the client is not verified, posted many jobs lately.


The client answered to me and I will post here what he wrote:

"make a 3min screen capture video to show you operate your paypal ( you can cover all personal info , if you want) , to show some your "send money"and "receive money"history and to show the age of your paypal account is over 1 year old , as what you said. upload videos onto dropox and send the link to skype: ****** type "here is the link , Paypal + your name " , finish this in 36 hrs. stop bragging and start acting. words can't convince us, screen capture videos do.
Thank you for your understanding, we ‘ve got too many junks. There will be 1 more small test , which could tell us if you are capable of booking hotel , flights, buying books for our world wide executive clients with your paypal channels & clients payment means. This job is more like an event-planning, travel-agency , virtual assistant work. The difference is you will touch clients (including corporate clients) card information at work P.s. all selected candidates who passed the tests will be required to sign formal contracts with the employers and our clients, and submit picture ID & proof of billing& residence address. Pls don’t respond to this message, nobody will read. We are the 3rd party recruiter and we know nothing about this job offer."

I'm new here, but it seems
like a scam to me, what do you guys think? 
and if you too think it's scam, should I report him?

thank you! 

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@Cristian S wrote:

Hello!

I sent a proposal to a job that sounds almost too good to be true and the client is not verified, posted many jobs lately.


@The client answered to me and I will post here what he wrote:

"make a 3min screen capture video to show you operate your paypal ( you can cover all personal info , if you want) , to show some your "send money"and "receive money"history and to show the age of your paypal account is over 1 year old , as what you said. upload videos onto dropox and send the link to skype: ****** type "here is the link , Paypal + your name " , finish this in 36 hrs. stop bragging and start acting. words can't convince us, screen capture videos do.
Thank you for your understanding, we ‘ve got too many junks. There will be 1 more small test , which could tell us if you are capable of booking hotel , flights, buying books for our world wide executive clients with your paypal channels & clients payment means. This job is more like an event-planning, travel-agency , virtual assistant work. The difference is you will touch clients (including corporate clients) card information at work P.s. all selected candidates who passed the tests will be required to sign formal contracts with the employers and our clients, and submit picture ID & proof of billing& residence address. Pls don’t respond to this message, nobody will read. We are the 3rd party recruiter and we know nothing about this job offer."

I'm new here, but it seems
like a scam to me, what do you guys think? 
and if you too think it's scam, should I report him?

thank you! 


1000% bogus. Please report this client at once and stop any communication with him.

Patricia A's avatar
Patricia A W Community Member

Thanks for all the information!  Much of what you said I figured out for myself, but it's good to know others such as yourself hold to high standards, and not just me being picky.

stamatina leto's avatar
stamatina leto k Community Member

I just got this reply after I bid on a job offer 

 

 

**edited for Community Guidelines**

 

I asked that their payment be verified before I start but they haven't responed yet!

Should I report them ?

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@stamatina leto k wrote:

I just got this reply after I bid on a job offer 

 

 

**edited for Community Guidelines**

 

I asked that their payment be verified before I start but they haven't responed yet!

Should I report them ?


Why do you ask? It is obvious that this is a bogus client. Stop any communication with him and report him to CS.

James's avatar
James T Community Member

Upwork really needs to sort this out by putting more security measures in place that protect us - the freelancers. After all it is us who make Upwork money, Money they should be spending fixing the increasingly large number of scammers and clients who want irt all for nothing. This is not fair on us.

There should be a more comprehensive vetting process for clients when they sign up. they should also HAVE to pay money into ESCROW before their account is active. 

 

Some of the job postings on this site are quite frankly laughable.

50,000-page book to edit, needs to be complte in 8 hours - $5!! Seriously!

 

Iunderstand that part of the allure for a client is getting quality work for a good price but there are more and more insulting budgets

 

We will prevail fellow freelancers.

Charlene's avatar
Charlene T Community Member

I absolutely agree. I moved over from elance, where I didn't have any problems with spam. My first two job responses here were both inappropriate asking me to communicate and get paid outside of upwork. I've put in a few proposals, but between the very low rates and being burnt with the first two responses,

 

I may be done with upwork.

Lindsey's avatar
Lindsey G Community Member

When a job is listed in the Expert catgory, but starts at $3/hr

Manish's avatar
Manish P Community Member

Thanks so much for writing on this topic. I have been hit a number of times by people sending me to a link for typing jobs, once I started out and ended up nowhere. It gives me freaks when I came to know that these guys can use my passward.. Also had a spam artist insrtucting me to create false accounts on facebook and criaglist and post advestisements for a few dollars where the real job posted was for some research work.

 

Your article should be posted on Upwork frontpage or login page.

 

Regards,

Manish

 

Mary's avatar
Mary S Community Member

This was so helpful to read.  It took me 10 eagerly-written articles to realize I was getting ridden hard and put away wet but a client who Upwork put on probation.  Admittedly, I can be a but naive and assume the best in others.  

 

At this point I told the client that I will write nothing more without what he promised--(meager) payment and feedback to bolster my portfolio.

 

Now I have ten lovely articles for my personal website.  Not too shabby.

 

 

Tayo's avatar
Tayo O Community Member

Please, I am sorry for writing something different from the topic. Are they real?

 

**edited for Community Guidelines**

 

 

His name is **edited for Community Guidelines** he asked me to pay Refundable Security before he could give me project to handle he sent me the offer via Upwork.

 

Please, I need urgent responses.

 

Thank you all.

 

Tayo

 

Valeria's avatar
Valeria K Community Member

Hi Tayo,

 

Please, report this client to Customer Support or by flagging the job posting. You shouldn't make any payments to the client and no payments between you and the client should be handled outside of Upwork. Please, check out other posts on this thread to learn about other red flags.

~ Valeria
Upwork
Tayo's avatar
Tayo O Community Member

Please, how do I get the Customer Support attention because I have tried to reach out to them but to no avail.

 

Thank you.

Tayo

Valeria's avatar
Valeria K Community Member

Tayo, I believe I found the job you are referring to and I have reported it directly to the team.

 

Thanks again.

~ Valeria
Upwork
TJ's avatar
TJ M Community Member

This appears to be true for almost 95% of the job posts I have read!  I spend more time sifitng through job ads that are a waste of time, instead of using that time earning money - moneythat Upwork would be getting 10% of!
It's time Upwork made firmer restrictions on how clients are allowed to advertise.