SCAM : STOP buying PUBG, CRYPTO, NFT, etc… on behalf of others (for clients)

[#1]

It is a violation of the Terms of Service to :

• Requesting or providing services that primarily concern making purchases on behalf of another, including the purchase of cryptocurrency or NFTs;

You can find the Terms of Service below. Section 3 Describes the Prohibited Site Uses.

Upwork Legal Center

Get familiar with possible scams below.

List of red flags for scams - Upwork Community

You will lose the real money you spent making the purchase, and you will not receive the fixed price, hourly price or bonus you were promised. This is a scam.

People are losing thousands of dollars thinking they can make a quick profit with buying thing the client can buy himself. Some freelancers thing they can work at $999/hour, make $500 in a few minutes. Even if the job title is leading in another direction and you think you won’t get caught, you will.

You are here to work and earn money for work, real work. Not to pay for clients and lose money. Act accordingly.

[#2]

Agreed. This wouldn't keep happening if people were willing to do an honest day's work at their usual rate of pay, instead of trying to get rich quick. It's very dishonest to try and charge a client $900/hour if your usual rate is $9/hour, even if these jobs were real.

[#3]

The post was prompted after I saw someone having "worked" 5 hours at $999/hour. I can only imagine the hit that will be taken.

[#4]

---

Sophie A wrote:

The post was prompted after I saw someone having "worked" 5 hours at $999/hour. I can only imagine the hit that will be taken.

---

Some people learn by learning, others by doing the wrong thing thinking there is such a thing as free money on the internet and if not, Upwork will protect them.

[#5]

Sometimes, when you see these spectacular rates, you have to wonder if the freelancer is complicit in the scam and expects to be compensated at the inflated rate when the payment doesn't come through from the client.

[#6]

They think they are smarter than the system. This is where I draw the line between "victim" and "participant".

[#7]

I am very fond of using the word "participant."

I am not going to complain if I see other Forum participants use the word "victim."

But I am ALWAYS comfortable using the word "participant" when a freelancer has been scammed.

A freelancer who has lost money to a scam has been a "participant" in a scam. That is a factually correct use of the word. Even if hte freelancer is a nice person.

[#8]

What about "unwitting" participant? That at least suggests that they were unaware it was scam and weren't duplicitous in any way. But "poor sap" might also be appropriate, I suppose.

[#9]

---

Peter G wrote:

What about "unwitting" participant? That at least suggests that they were unaware it was scam and weren't duplicitous in any way. But "poor sap" might also be appropriate, I suppose.

---

Well how unwitting can you be when you agree to an hourly rate of $999? A hundred times higher than you profile rate? I'm not saying that people are willingly handing money over to scammers, knowing they will lose it, nobody is saying that. But a scam can't happen if nobody participates. It takes at least two people. So we have to ask ourselves - what is the currency? In romance scams, it is the hope of a relationship. It is NOT the willingness to help some guy who is stuck in a foreign country and needs a plane ticket or money for a bribe so he can get out. 

So what's the currency here? In lower-level scams, like the one asking for a smaller upfront payment, it might just be greed. There's more to it with the crypto scams. I would LOVE to get a detailed account want went on in the minds of people that go along with in. I'm not joking, it would be really interesting to know. Maybe somebody will generously share their thinking process. It could help upwork to address this better. Not better than Wes did, though. 

A final thought: It's almost comical when people come to the forum AFTER they have been scammed. I want to say to them: now that you found the forum, look left. Look right. What do you see? 90% of posts are about scams. You can't miss them. But they still do. Ah well.

[#10]

Whether it's $999 hr or $10, a scam is still a scam. Yeah, that should raise a huge red flag but still, they weren't asking for it.

[#11]

---

Peter G wrote:

Whether it's $999 hr or $10, a scam is still a scam. Yeah, that should raise a huge red flag but still, they weren't asking for it.

---

Nobody is denying it's a scam. 

So, let me ask you this. Think back when you first signed up on upwork. Your first day. You get an invitation. The client tells you he really likes your profile and can see that you have immense potential. You feel flattered and think, wow, this freelancing thing is going really well.

Then the client asks you to set your hourly rate to $999 and buy some crypto for him. 

Would you have done it? (For the sake of this exercise, we assume crypto already existed then and you feel like a semi-expert on it.)

[#12]

Of course not. I mean, I'm an idiot but that big of one. And all I know about crypto is how to buy it and then watch it tank. Didn't mean to snipe at you. You're my only friend here, except for Preston, whom I think of more as a wise uncle, even though I'm probably older than he is.

[#13]

---

Peter G wrote:

Whether it's $999 hr or $10, a scam is still a scam. Yeah, that should raise a huge red flag but still, they weren't asking for it.

---

No, but the freelancer was trying to take advantage of the client, or take advantage of Upwork, or both. I'd say that fits the definition of a participant rather than a victim.

[#14]

An unwitting participant is still a participant.

If a freelancer loses money because she is a participant in a scam, that is a matter of fact. It is not a judgment. It does not mean that the freelancer is dumb or dishonest or a bad person. The freelancer may be a wonderful person, or not so great.

All it means is that the freelancer actively participated in a scam.

The freelancer was not walking down the street minding his own business when the scammer grabbed him and stole his wallet.

[#15]

This is all true, of course. But I think you'll have to agree that frequently when people talk about being scammed, judgement does take place. Being naive and trusting is hard.

[#16]

re: "when people talk about being scammed, judgement does take place"

I agree.

Judgement is always taking place.

There's nothing wrong with that.

We can read about a freelancer participating in a scam and make a judgement about that freelancer's actions.

We should be polilte and respect a person's human dignity no matter what the person does.

But we can still judge those actions as having been irresponsible or uninformed or unwise, etc.

[#17]

Agreed. Every person and situation is at least somewhat unique and judgement should be tailored based upon the particulars.

[#18]

---

Robert Y wrote:

Sometimes, when you see these spectacular rates, you have to wonder if the freelancer is complicit in the scam and expects to be compensated at the inflated rate when the payment doesn't come through from the client.

---

No need to wonder - some of them have said exactly that. I think that an increasingly large proportion of the "victims" are scammers themselves.

[#19]

Of course they are complicit.

The client tells the freelancer that payment will be split into a part hourly, and a part bonus. They tell them, I have to assume, to use a high hourly rate because upwork will pay them no matter what. Don't know what they say about bonus, maybe that it's fast or something. 

Now the freelancer could say this: I can't have a fantasy rate on my profile, This will ruin my profile, nobody will ever take me seriously, and everybody will think I'm a scammer, I will never get hired again. 

But they don't. 

They are probably thinking, neat, now everybody will pay that rate, because they can see how special I am. 

These are people who don't understand the very basics of marketing, and truly don't possess the skills needed to freelance. 

- 

[#20]

Yes. And also, BLOCK posts that ask freelancers to buy PUBG, CRYPTO, NFT, etc… on behalf of others (for clients)

[#21]

What happens is that, by the time someone reads this thread, they will already have been "scammed".

[#22]

Not if they were informed upon sign up what to look out for.

[#23]

---

Peter G wrote:

Not if they were informed upon sign up what to look out for.

---

We all sign that we have read the TOS when we register, right?

And there is the basic information to avoid being scammed. Later you can find out more.

[#24]

I really don't remember, but I'm sure we all did. But still, that's a lot to read through, and at least highlighting the no comm off of UW parts, and a suggestion to read the tips on avoiding scams might help. I know whenever I get an email or a letter from some someone telling me that the user agreement, or ToS, or something similar has been upated, I rarely do more than quickly scan it, if that.

[#25]

Still a bunch of those scams up on 03/24/2022