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09bfdab8
Community Member

Scam?

Am I being scammed, received job offer from **Edited for community guidelines**, $140 to proofread 1200 word article, want to send me money to buy laptop for use, and want me to complete first chapter outside of upwork, because of corona virus. Contact has been through skype. I am new to Upwork and this seems fishy though the offer seems legit. Please advise. Thank you for your time.

11 REPLIES 11
iliana-jaimes
Community Member

Hi, I think someone was trying to make a SCAM through UpWork recently: I received a message from a "recruiter" that was asking me to go to Skype for an interview. I went there and it was a written questionnaire. After filling it and sending it, they told me I was selected to work with them as a proofreader, but that for it I needed to work with them OUT of UpWork, that they were going to send me a check to my address for me to buy some equipment to work from it. I am pretty sure that it is a SCAM. So the person that contacted me was Randy Johnson and who interviewed me through skype was Nurlem Michael (nurlemmc@gmail.com)


Iliana J wrote:

Hi, I think someone was trying to make a SCAM through UpWork recently: I received a message from a "recruiter" that was asking me to go to Skype for an interview. I went there and it was a written questionnaire. After filling it and sending it, they told me I was selected to work with them as a proofreader, but that for it I needed to work with them OUT of UpWork, that they were going to send me a check to my address for me to buy some equipment to work from it. I am pretty sure that it is a SCAM. **Edited for community guidelines**


Why would anybody buy a stranger on the internet work equipment? Short answer, nobody does that. It's a scam and they are after your money. 

kempol181
Community Member

There are so many shady clients recently. Be careful.

martina_plaschka
Community Member


Anton M wrote:

Am I being scammed, received job offer from **Edited for community guidelines**, $140 to proofread 1200 word article, want to send me money to buy laptop for use, and want me to complete first chapter outside of upwork, because of corona virus. Contact has been through skype. I am new to Upwork and this seems fishy though the offer seems legit. Please advise. Thank you for your time.


Nothing legit about it. Anytime somebody offers to pay you outside of upwork, you should run immediately. Be assured they still want to collect their fee in times of pandemic.

BojanS
Community Manager
Community Manager

I'm sorry to hear about your experience, Anton.

 

I'll be sure to share this with our team for further investigation and appropriate actions will be taken according to our internal processes.

 

Please, check this help article for more information on how to use the flag option found on each job post or message to report any suspicious or inappropriate content. Also, check out this post for more tips on how to avoid questionable jobs.

 

Thank you!

~ Bojan
Upwork

Excuse me for bumping an old thread but I just got a job offer from someone who did the questionnaire over Skype just like was described by the others here. They are asking me for my HOME ADDRESS and other personal information so that they can send me a letter outside Upwork (via email). Payment not verified on the original posting. That's another red flag right there. I flagged as inappropriate for violating TOS.

It's an ebook proofreading project. The other red flag is I was interviewed earlier for a similar but different job, by a different Skype user, claiming to represent the same company name. The questionnaire documents look exactly the same with both jobs. Their messages look exactly the same, as is their poor English skills. The first guy that interviewed me has been offline for "days" according to Skype software.

This might very well be a scam!

What should I do???? Should I ignore the second Skype person? I smell something very fishy!

Block them all and report the job posting on Upwork. 

Hi Michael,

 

Thanks for reporting this to us. I checked and it seems that our team already followed up for your report on this support ticket. Feel free to check out this post for more tips on how to avoid questionable jobs.

 

Thank you.

~ Aleksandar
Upwork

Thank you! I also have them blocked on Skype because they kept messaging me and wanting my personal info for a long term commitment. Major red flag because none of the legit Upwork jobs I've accepted so far required that specific information from me.

Sorry if I sounded desperate, I was a little on edge from the whole deal.

Upwork has all your information.  Clients do not need it generally (unless you use email or telephone to communicate (which I do).)  They never need your home address, social security number, birthdate.


Michael P wrote:

Excuse me for bumping an old thread but I just got a job offer from someone who did the questionnaire over Skype just like was described by the others here. They are asking me for my HOME ADDRESS and other personal information so that they can send me a letter outside Upwork (via email). Payment not verified on the original posting. That's another red flag right there. I flagged as inappropriate for violating TOS.

It's an ebook proofreading project. The other red flag is I was interviewed earlier for a similar but different job, by a different Skype user, claiming to represent the same company name. The questionnaire documents look exactly the same with both jobs. Their messages look exactly the same, as is their poor English skills. The first guy that interviewed me has been offline for "days" according to Skype software.

This might very well be a scam!

What should I do???? Should I ignore the second Skype person? I smell something very fishy!


The post you described is indeed a scam but you need to understand more about this platform. It is not a ToS violation for a client to post a job before verifying their payment method. Nor is it a red flag that they might not be honest. When you walk into a store, do you go to the checkout counter and get your credit or debit card verified before you look around and decide whether or not you are making a purchase? Payment verification does not matter until you are ready to accept a contract. Then you want to be sure the client takes care of it before you start.

 

I strongly encourage you to do some homework to become more familiar with how the platform works and how to stay safe as a newcomer (because newbies are targeted by scammers). When you are better informed, you will be more confident about recognizing scams (and good opportunities) and the whole endeavor will be less nerve-racking.

 

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