People are asking me to use my account

[Yuriy H]

Eve L,

I can share two linkedin profiles with you who are time to time spamming me with exactly the same proposal "gimme your account and I'll pay you"

[Lael A]

I got approached today on Freelancer.com 
BY 6 DIFFERENT PEOPLE to register an account on Upwork for them. 
I investigated further each offer. It starts with account request, then they want to remote access your computer and then you'll learn you only get paid if they get work xD. 
They offer 200+ usd for the service HOWEVER they only will pay after at least 2 weeks, because they want to video-verify the account and get the orders to pay you. 
So basically you need to do all the work and risk for over two weeks blindly hoping that:
1. They're really after the work 
2. They will manage to get orders
3. They will pay you in the end. 
But they don't say that right away. 
I offered them to set-up a dedicated remote computer connected to a separate network in my location.
I asked (as an experiment) for a very reasonable payment upfront for the connection fee and then weekly fee until they get the verification at which point they can start paying monthly. 
None agreed. 

They say the reason they contact you specifically is because you're based in Western Europe. 
One of them told me that his account was blocked because he's from Russia and because my location is more trustworthy for buyers (I'm flattered). 
I told him about VPN and google computing instance services - which enable to achieve the same results as using my computer remotely, but he was not interested, so clearly this isn't what's he was after. 

Banks, paypal and other highly secure financial aplications use IP and MAC identification for verificaiton. If someone has access to your computer they can hack your accounts by just having email and passowrds (which de facto are very easy to extract once you're on the same machine). 
For example - if I log in to my Paypal from a computer I haven't used before I get text message with specail two-step authentication code. If I try to log in to PayPal from the same computer and the same network but different browser or different windows account, it doesn't require two-factor verification. 

Moreover by having access to your account they will know your name, surname, address, phone number and preffered payment method. So if you're going to agree to this offer you might as well give them your moms maiden, your first school, school friend name and pet name too xD.

These scammers are most likely after YOU and not really about scamming people on Upowrk. It just seems more belivable this way. 

Don't get tempted.

And finally - me having account here (and few other people as I see in this thread) is actually result of these scammers contacting me about Upworks.
So I have also a conspiracy theory that the scammers are actually upwork forum moderators trying to do some unconventional brand awareness. 

[Valeria K]

Hi Lael,

I'm sorry to hear you were contacted by somebody asking you to share your Upwork account. Sharing or accessing somebody else's account is a violation of Upwork ToS and we, Upwork Community Moderators, would never encourage anybody to do that.

Could you please click on my name next to this post and send me a private message with more information about the request you got? Did they share any names or contact information? We do have internal system to identify such violation as well as our ID Verification Badge program but would also like to investigate the request you received. 

Thank you!

[Ashton S]

So I was approached about the same offer that everyone else has been getting. I added this individual on discord and for (experimental purposes), I let him set up an account while I watched him through AnyDesk(a website that allows someone to work on your computer through theirs) he created the account and as he had previously told me. I would be paid $50 for giving him some info to create the account.

Fast forward a few hours later, he starts sounding a little sketchy, so I unfriend him on discord and he proceeds to message me on Fiverr(the app where he originally contacted me) and told me to add him back. So I did and we talked and I told him I would not let him back on anydesk to work on upwork until he payed me the $50 he promised.

**edited for Community Guidelines**

The computer that he was using was an old laptop that I haven’t used in years and in fact only has windows 7. This laptop has no personal information on it. The only thing I am worried about is if he could access other files from other computers connected to the same WiFi.

**edited for Community Guidelines** What are your thoughts?

[Avery O]

Hi Ahston, 

As a gentle reminder, please know that users are not allowed to share their accounts with another user, or have another person use their Upwork account, or create an account for another user as this is a violation of the Upwork User Agreement. The team will reach out to you with more information. 

[Pete T]

This thread explains a lot! I've had this situation: Old clients' accounts from years back that were dormant and long-forgotten suddenly re-activate and invite me to proposals again - but it's nothing like the work I was doing for them and now it's spammy marketing tasks. The personality switch is jolting.

[Amar A]

Be aware of this kind of scams! Just received today. 

**Edited for community guidelines**

[Bojan S]

Hi Amar,

Could you please click on my name and send me a PM with more information about your report. I'll escalate this to the correct team for further investigation and will take action as per our internal processes. 

Thank you.

[JD V]

Thanks so much for this. I Just got a message in my Fiverr account from a scammer asking the same thing! I am really enjoying messing with them before i report them.

[Percival F]

Hello Everyone,

I have been approached, via LinkedIn by this character named "Jin" who states that he works for Upwork and lives in China! He asked me to use my profile and he said that he would give me 20% of his income for using my profile. I knew something was off and I researched and came to this blog! Beware everyone of these scammers!