Need to report a "Scam" for a fake employment offer of someone pretending to represent a company

[ec5e0ca5]

How do I report a "scam" for a job posting that looked legitimate (was for a copyright editor for a website), but after a few communications with someone, it started to become clear it was all sort of "scam".  They stated they were representing a "construction firm" and had the name and Gmail account for someone in that company, but from the text of the Emails, I could tell it wasn't an "English Speaking" person, and they also wanted me to contact them and contract with them "outside of UpWork", which I know isn't the way it is done.

I actually called the "Real company" that was supposedly being represented and they told me that they had an "ongoing issue" where their Emails were hacked and they were scamming people in UpWork by getting them to someone do some weird banking transactions.

I never got that far, but someone should figure out how to stop these people from posting bogus job offers.

Let me know who to report the info. and job posting to.

Regards,

Michael

I can provide a link to the job posting that 

[kirnazdogan]

There is a "Flag as inappropriate" text link under the "Submit Proposal" button for freelancers to use. You can use it.

[ec5e0ca5]

I don't see any option for "flagging" the job in my "proposal" screen (I already made my proposal, which is how the whole thing started).

In my proposal screen, there isn't any option to "flag" it.

And the original job posting is no longer active:

**Edited for community guidelines**

But what is concerning is that there seems to be a similar job already listed, which is probably just ANOTHER SCAM by the same place for the exact same job description:

**Edited for community guidelines**

This is definitely an exact duplicate of the same SCAM JOB I responded to.

You can tell that this account was just created a few days ago

I think that UpWork needs to do a better job "vetting" these scam job posters.

I can at least flag this one as "inappropriate" ?

Michael

[robin_hyman]

One way is to flag the job post and indicate the scam.  The other way is by posting here in the forums and a moderator might jump in asking for more information.  

[ec5e0ca5]

And can I get my "credits" back that were used for responding to a SCAM JOB ??

[a_lipsey]

You need to go back to the job post and Flag as Inappropriate. If they find it was against TOS, then connects are automatically refunded. 

[ec5e0ca5]

There is no more "original posting".. it says it is no longer available.

All I have is my "proposal screen", and there are no options in that.

Who can I contact to get back my credits?

[BojanS]

Hi Michael,

Thank you for flagging this for us. I've checked and it looks like the job has already been taken down because it was in violation of Upwork ToS and action has been taken on the client account. 

Please check out this post for more tips on how to avoid questionable jobs and please use the flag option found on each job post or message anytime you’d like to report a violation.

I checked this for you and connects that you used for submitting a proposal for this project were already refunded to you. This you can check under your Connects History. 

Thank you!

[prestonhunter]

re: "I actually called the 'real company' that was supposedly being represented..."

I know that you meant well.

But in the future, please do not call real companies whose name and/or contact information has been copied from the Internet and used by scammers. It wastes their time, and yours.

[johnlamont]

Michael,

I'm a newbie to this site and I don't have an answer for you. If my experiences are anything like the bulk of job postings, there are lots of scams. Sadly there doesn't appear to be any way to determine them until after you've submitted your proposal, in which case you've spent you connections. This happened to me just today and I'm wondering if I get my connections back.

For other newbies, here's a tip. If the client mentions HR (Human Resources), in my opinion that's a clear sign of a scam, because any company big enough to have a legitimate HR department isn't going to use the site. Also if they respond really quickly, I think that's another sign. Most small business folks are really busy.

Good luck!

[prestonhunter]

re: "This happened to me just today and I'm wondering if I get my connections back."

Yes.

Freelancers are getting their connects returned to them.

If you encounter a scam, you can use the "Flag as inappropriate" link button to identify it as such. Upwork investigates, takes the job down, and your connects are AUTOMATICALLY returned to you.

If somebody ELSE reports the job, and Upwork takes it down because it is a scam, then your connects are also returned to you automatically.