Providing My Email?

[clrose1]

I'm new to Upwork and have been requested by a prospective client to provide my email. They are new to Upwork and have not verified their payment. We haven't interviewed yet. How should I respond? Thanks!

[prestonhunter · Accepted solution]

Cecelia:

There isn't much that somebody can do to you with just your email address. So it is not a big risk to provide it.

Upwork rules has no rule against providing your email address to clients.

So if you think this client is legitimate, you could go ahead and provide the email address.

But most of us who are experienced Upwork freelancers don't provide email addresses to clients until a contract has been established.

Personally, if a PROSPECTIVE client asked for my email address, I would tell them:

"Darrin: Don't worry. You can message me any time you want right here in the Upwork messaging tool. If you want to start the contract officially, I'll be sure to send you my email address so you will be sure you can can contact me just in case Upwork's messaging tool is offline."

[clrose1]

Thank you for the advice!

[h3hdv7rlssvtxxzp]

My recommendation would be create a project-specific email box and share that with them. With no guarantee whatsoever, if they require an email address, give them one, but do not be that careless and give them yours for free.

Give them what they want, but be sure to keep your back secured. Never give any personal information for any unknown parties, never. But, you can give an email addres, for sure, if that is what they want.

[clrose1]

Got it. Thanks, Kristo!