Scam: be careful with google hangouts

yu-seo · ‎03-22-2018

Hi, I am new to Upwork and was almost scammed. I checked through a few topics here and it looks like very typical; invite to an interview, bring you to Google Hangouts, say you will need a PC and other software so please make the purchase we will send you a check, and use gmail to communicate. OMG.

I am embarrased that I could not find him a scammer and spent a few hours to communicate with him. I hope there should be some kind of penalty set as Upwork policy for this type of action, otherwise this is a resk-free easy money job for them. This is wrong. For example, Upwork will collect money from a scammer to cover the hours a freelancer spent for him or something. I hope Upwork will consider seriously about scam problems to protect us.

New fleerancers, I just wanted to warn you to be careful.

petra_r · ‎03-22-2018

@yu S wrote:
Hi, I am new to Upwork and was almost scammed. I checked through a few topics here and it looks like very typical; invite to an interview, bring you to Google Hangouts, say you will need a PC and other software so please make the purchase we will send you a check, and use gmail to communicate. OMG.
For example, Upwork will collect money from a scammer to cover the hours a freelancer spent for him or something. I hope Upwork will consider seriously about scam problems to protect us.
New fleerancers, I just wanted to warn you to be careful.

How would Upwork "collect money" from someone on the other end of the globe who doesn't even have a payment method on file? That check nonsense is one of the oldest scams on the Internet and it is everywhere, thousands are doing it.

I first came across it more than 12 years ago.