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samgui1
Community Member

Scam?

Applied to a job, and the employer text me and gave me a phone call. Payment is outside of Upwork. Should I be worried? The job posting is now removed.

18 REPLIES 18
wescowley
Community Member

As long as you didn't share any personal information, you shouldn't have anything to worry about.

 

Be careful to not share your contact info before accepting a contract, as that's no longer allowed per the new TOS changes, and never agree to accept payment outside of Upwork for a prospect that originated here.

Hello, I seem to have fallen victim to a scam, what should I do?


Amy C wrote:
Hello, I seem to have fallen victim to a scam, what should I do?

It depends what scam you fell for.  What happened?  If you accepted the check scam,and actually deposited the check,  then you had better discuss this with your bank as soon as possible and hope that the bank doesn't close your account and also hope that you don't lose a lot of money. 

 

Any "client" wanting to pay you off site is a scam and it is against Upwork's rules and regs. I suggest you you read everything there is to know about this site, before accepting or even applying for any jobs. 

BojanS
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi Samantha,

 

Thank you for flagging this for us. I've checked and the job has been taken down because it was in violation of Upwork TOS and action has been taken on the client account. 

 

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.

~ Bojan
Upwork

Hi,

I'm new to Upwork and wondering if a message reply I received for a proposal I sent is a scam.  I just want to be safe. They are requesting a Skype or video call.  Thanks.

 

Brandy

Without more details, I can't say if it's a scam or not. Video calls aren't unusual or a red flag by themselves, but you need to use Upwork's messenger for it, not Skype, until you have a contract in place.

Are scams common in the messages?  I would think that a large publisher reaching out, like Harper Collins would know that. What would be a good/proper way to reply (or not reply) to find out?  Thanks.

Yes, they are common, especially for new freelancers. There's a stickied post at the top of this thread with information for newcomers. Read everything in that. Also, read this thread on tips to avoid questionable jobs.

 

BojanS
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi Brandy,

 

Thanks for flagging this case for us. I've checked and it looks like the job has already been taken down because it was in violation of Upwork TOS and action has been taken on the client account. 

 

Please check the thread Wes shared with you and 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.

~ Bojan
Upwork


Brandy R wrote:

Are scams common in the messages?  I would think that a large publisher reaching out, like Harper Collins would know that. What would be a good/proper way to reply (or not reply) to find out?  Thanks.


They are pretending to be from a large publishing house to gain trust. Later they would try to scam you. (fake check scam)

Scammers are actually hilariously easy to spot, simply because in order to be profitable (from their point of view) they need to work a large number of people for somebody to bite. So they don't change their strategy too often, use the same wording, etc. Look out for words like hiring manager, requests for your email or to have a chat with said hiring manager who is waiting for you to call in, pretending to pay the opt out fee for you, etc.

Hi, I might have almost fallen for the same thing. Did your situation with harpercollins turn out to be a scam? 

I've just had the same problem. They were pretty convincing and wasted an hour of my time. 

Hi Keith,

 

I'm sorry to hear you encountered this kind of activity on the platform. I checked and can confirm the job has been removed and the client account actioned against for TOS violations.

Please check out this help article for some advice on Staying Safe on Upwork.

 

Thanks!

~Andrea
Upwork

Was yours a scam? Seems too good to be true.

Pretty sure it was, there were too many red flags; the biggest being that I
asked why the job posting was taken down and they said "to limit the amount
of people applying," and then I received an email from Upwork saying that
post was taken down because it violated TOS, so they definitely flat out
lied. It was extremely disappointing, they were awfully convincing, but I'm
just glad I was paying close attention.

I had a feeling this might be a scam. The pay was not verified and they asked to go on Skype or Google hangouts for an interview instead of calling inside the app. Thank you guys for the comments about this company!

It's not a company.

It's a scammer claiming to be one.

Can you help me? I think they are trying to scam me. Thank you!
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