🐈
» Forums » New to Upwork » Re: People are asking me to use my account
Page options
merigliano_v
Community Member

People are asking me to use my account

Hello,

 

it has happened to me on more than one occasion that people from other freelancing websites ask me to give them my UpWork account. I have never agreed to it as I do realise it could, and probably is, a scam.

 

I would like to understand why they do this. I'm curious.

ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Hi Dioneda,
 
Thank you for reporting this to us. As it is against Upwork TOS to share or "rent" an account, we will forward this to the appropriate team to review and take action. Thank you for helping us keep Upwork a safe and trusted marketplace. For more information about our efforts, please see this Community post.
~ Nikola
Upwork

View solution in original post

322 REPLIES 322
prestonhunter
Community Member

re: "I would like to understand why they do this. I'm curious."

 

Those people from Freelancer.com are scammers.


They want to use your account in order to scam people... They want to get jobs with clients and bill clients, get some money, without doing any real work.

 

Then when the clients report the freelancer... It is YOUR account that is shut down. The scammer gets away with money and you get punished.

I never used upwork, someone approached me on freelancer.com to register an account and let him use it THROUGH MY COMPUTER ON TEAMVIEW as allegedly he could only log in for european IP address. Being afraid of giving out personal details I turned him down but I'm still curious. Could he access any data while I can track his movement on my screen when using teamview? 

leansev
Community Member

same thing just happened to me. What's this all about?

Hi Leandro,

 

Could you please send me a PM with more information so I can look into this for you? Please click on my name to send me a PM. Thank you. 

~ Joanne
Upwork

Hi, had the same issue yesterday. A guy contacted me and several my colleagues. 

Hi Vladimir,

 

I'm sorry to hear about what happened. Could you please send me a private message with more information along with the screenshots so that I can send a report to the team for investigation?

 

Thank you.

~ Aleksandar
Upwork

I know someone who asked for my profile link for job referral 3 times and I never heard back. Should I be worried?

e82438de
Community Member

I just got this request today too, but from China 

Hi Bradley,

 

I'm sorry to hear about what happened. Could you please send me a private message with more information on your report along with the screenshots so that I can check and assist you further?

Thank you.

~ Aleksandar
Upwork

And I got one too through LinkedIn! Today and also from China! He wanted me to rent my account for him to work and he would give me 15% of his 3000$-4000$ sallary... His name is **Edited for Community Guidelines**, careful with him and don't fall for it! 

Hi Tiago,

 

Could you please reach out to me with more details via PM (click on my name)? Thank you.

~ Goran
Upwork

Same here, approached me on Skype, quite inquisitive, even started up a conversation to make himself (themselves) credible. I haven't been so active on Upwork so he started his argumentation with that, and how my profile can benefit and all that ... I blocked him/her/them.

Hi Adrian,

 

Thank you for reporting this. Could you please click on my picture next to this post and send me a private message with more info so we could investigate this further? You should be able to send private messages as soon as you become an Active Member.

 

Thanks!

~Andrea
Upwork

Same here. 

Happened to me too. But my man "earns" 1800-2000 USD monthly and would share 10% of it to me.

Hi Viktor,

 

I'd like to look into this for you. Please send me a PM with more information, including screenshots so I can check. Kindly click on my name to send me a PM.

~ Joanne
Upwork

These people are operating all over.  For instance they are advertising for web developers and when you respond they ask you if you have an upwork account and then offer you something in return for its use.  Two recent examples I encountered; an individual on an IBM slack channel offering to share 15% of his earnings in return for use of my account and an individual on airtasker offering £30 per week for 'web development' revealed in a public message that the offer was for use of an upwork account.

Hi Steve,

 

I'm sorry to hear about that. Could you please send me a private message with more information about this so that I can send a report to our team for investigation?

Thank you.

~ Aleksandar
Upwork

Same! The person reached to me on Linkedin, I had a zoom meeting with him and he did not turn on his camera and asked me to provide my Upwork account credentials so he can use my account because his was suspended..... I told him no thank you. It was odd and had every scam sign imaginable. I believe he was in Serbia

Hi Amber,

 

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. Could you please click on my picture next to this post and send me a private message with more info so I could forward a report to the team?

 

Thanks!

~Andrea
Upwork

Many scammers are from there.

 

 

the same has just happened to me, they contacted me as a user of another platform and making me rich offers for translations, but later suggested I let him use my upwork account with a 10% profit. When I refused he got angry. 

Hi Sunita,

 

Our team will reach out to you via ticket and email where you can share more details with us. Our team will investigate this further and will take proper actions. Thank you.

~ Goran
Upwork

A Tip,
ask them to send the proposal to you. then you submit the proposal yourself. if you win the job ask them to do it. become the middleman and keep your cut :).

yeah I got the request from china he said he can access my account through the vmware virtual machine for contacting clients and all said he even can give me 300k for months

 

what is this all about should I agree to him

Hi Raj,

 

Please know that this is not allowed. I'd like to look into this for you. Please send me a PM by clicking on my name and kindly share more information so I can check. 

~ Joanne
Upwork
ea1cd4f5
Community Member

Just happended to me as well this was so strange. 

 

Two people have approached me on Fiverr.com so far today to register an Upwork account and let them use it THROUGH MY COMPUTER ON TEAMVIEW since, allegedly, they could only log in for european IP addresses.

"Those people from**Edited for community guidelines**are scammers."

According your opinion, The honestly man who are going to work with some skill for surviving are ALL SCAMMER? You are very bad mind. Woman FrustratedCat FrustratedMan FrustratedSmiley Frustrated

Well, in my opinion it's never a fair business to get a percentage off somebody's work just for getting him/her in touch with employers/clients. The bigger that percentage gets, the more unethical your business is. Yeah, they run their websites and that means expenses, but that's not worth 10% or 15% of every freelancer's fees. They're not managers and we're not footballers. We manage ourselves. 🙂

 

 

re: "in my opinion it's never a fair business to get a percentage off somebody's work just for getting him/her in touch with employers/clients. The bigger that percentage gets, the more unethical your business is. Yeah, they run their websites and that means expenses, but that's not worth 10% or 15% of every freelancer's fees. They're not managers and we're not footballers. We manage ourselves."

 

Enrique:
Why do you maintain a freelancer profile on a website which uses unfair business practices and is unethical?

Because if a client wants to hire me we'll negotiate "in private". Having
said that, I have had that account for more than 10 years and I barely use
it or contact any client through it.


Enrique C wrote:
Because if a client wants to hire me we'll negotiate "in private". Having
said that, I have had that account for more than 10 years and I barely use
it or contact any client through it.

You say you have the account for more than ten years, have you never worked through Upwork?
And, regarding what you say about you having it Because if a client wants to hire me we'll negotiate" in private ". Are you saying that you use the account to contact clients and work outside of Upwork?

I was talking about Freelancer. I'm quite new in Upwork.


Enrique C wrote:
I was talking about Freelancer. I'm quite new in Upwork.

Oh, ok. I have not seen "Freelancer" in any of the conversations. That's why I thought you were talking about Upwork.

Yep, those requests for «renting» your Upwork account usually come from
Freelancer scammers. They have kind of a fixation with Upwork, since they
never ask for any other site's account. I don't know why Upwork is so
appealing to them.


Enrique C wrote:
I was talking about Freelancer. I'm quite new in Upwork.

___________________

Whatever you do on Freelancer, I wouldn't try the same underhand trick on Upwork.Your account will be zapped sooner than you can blink. 

It just almost happend to me. Can you help me please

**Edited for community guidelines**

Hi Thomas,

 

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. I am going to escalate this to our team for investigation, and actions will be taken in accordance with our internal process. If you'd like to share more information, please feel free to send me a PM by clicking on my name. Thank you!

~ Joanne
Upwork
Latest Articles
Featured Topics
Learning Paths