Question about scam

wayve · ‎09-10-2018

A client want that I send a file as a test to him and he said if the file is good I will be accepted for the job. Can I trust? Has anyone ever been in this situation?

martina_plaschka · ‎09-10-2018

@Wayne S wrote:
A client want that I send a file as a test to him and he said if the file is good I will be accepted for the job. Can I trust? Has anyone ever been in this situation?

Many people, which you will see once you start reading community posts. What he is asking you to do, does that qualify for free work? Or is it just a sample of your work?

jr-translation · ‎09-10-2018

@Martina P wrote:
@Wayne S wrote:
A client want that I send a file as a test to him and he said if the file is good I will be accepted for the job. Can I trust? Has anyone ever been in this situation?
Many people, which you will see once you start reading community posts. What he is asking you to do, does that qualify for free work? Or is it just a sample of your work?

Requesting free work is a violation of the ToS. If you can send this client some previous work, that is ok. If you have to spent hours preparing it, it is a big no. Ask the client to create a milestone and to hire you. You can always refer to the ToS. If he refuses, flag the job and you might get your connects back.

Never trust a new client just because he promisses future work. That does not buy you any food. There are client that do it all the time and espacially new freelancers fall for it and end up working for free.

prestonhunter · ‎09-10-2018

Re: "A client want that I send a file as a test to him and he said if the file is good I will be accepted for the job. Can I trust? Has anyone ever been in this situation?"

It is POSSIBLE that this is a neophyte client who doesn't know that what he is asking for is inappropriate.

But I doubt that is the case.

What this REALLY sounds like is one of those scammer clients who prides himself on tricking freelancers into working for free, and never, never hires or pays a freelancer.

My advice is to always say "yes" to these clients, to give them the benefit of the doubt, to give them an opportunity to do the right thing, in the right way:

"Chandler:

Yes, I would be happy to create the test file you describe. If send me a hire offer with an hourly contract, I will get to work on this right away. I think it will only take 10 to 20 minutes, so the cost to you will be very minimal. Alternatively, you can send me an offer for a fixed-price contract for a single milestone, funded for $X.00. Either way will work, and because you are using an official Upwork contract, the resulting work will belong to you and you will also be in compliance with Upwork policies."