Scammed by Prospective Employer under Edited after responding to Bookkeeper Job on Upwork

[607fd3f4]

please be aware there is a scam using Upwork. After I received an offer letter, as shown in the attached documents.

I lost $800 yesterday as the Scammer demanded $800 for deliveries of equipment and software licenses fee via Zelle. 

I stopped after $800, for the Scammer persisted for another $1200 as it claimed via 'Vibir' Message App that it was legit. Though the offer letter indicated immediate reimbursable, the Scammer refused

my request.   'Agent' supposed name is**Edited for Community Guidelines** 

I will be reporting this to the authorities as well

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

[martina_plaschka]

What authorities? They are probably not even in your country. 

Payroll assistance? That seems to have absolutely nothing to do with the skills in your profile, why would you accept a job you have no experience with? Finally, looks like you agreed to be paid outside of upwork?   

One huge red flag is the use of "hiring manager", it seems to be a term only scammers use. Not a common term in HR of US companies. 

[PradeepH]

Hi Charlie,

I am sorry to hear about your experience with a client. I checked the job post you were referring to and it seems that it's already been taken down because it was in violation of Upwork ToS and action has been taken on the client account.

Please check out this post for more tips on how to avoid questionable jobs and please use the flag option found on each job post or message anytime you’d like to report a violation.

Thank you.

Pradeep

[prestonhunter]

re: "I will be reporting this to the authorities as well"

I don't doubt that you are disappointed by what has happened.

But nothing will be gained by reporting this to anybody other than Upwork.

This happened on Upwork.

You would report this to Upwork.

But you don't need to report it now.

Because Upwork has ALREADY investigated this and taken down this scam job.

[3e110882]

I'm new to the Upwork platform, and I made the mistake of communicating with a potential client even after the client removed their post from the Upwork website. The Skype Interview was professional, yet the financial part brought some doubts. When I would search for "Hylas Publishing," I found no trace. After two of my banks recently refused to deposit their checks totalling $2300.00 each, I had to believe that I had been dealing with a scam.

Through this experience, I'm glad that common sense kicked in before the opportunity went too far. Requiring me to deposit a check in order to purchase a MacBook Pro and HP laptop to complete a job for a client turned out to be a SHAM. If Hylas Publishing is legit, they need to know about the joker who's scamming on their behalf.

[prestonhunter]

re: "If Hylas Publishing is legit, they need to know about the joker who's scamming on their behalf."

That is thoughtful of you... But no, they don't need to know that.

ALL COMPANIES can have their names used by these scammers.

So it is pointless to inform a company that a scammer is using the company's name in this scam.

I strongly advise freelancers to never contact real companies and tell people at those companies that the company's name is being used in ths scam. It wastes the freelander's time to do this. It wastes the company's time. It benefits nobody.

[AveryO]

Hi William, 

I can see that you also have an open ticket regarding the same concern. The team would appreciate more information on this report so that they can investigate it further. When you get the time, please don't hesitate to update your support ticket with more details. 

As a gentle reminder, please know that users are not allowed to communicate outside of Upwork before a contract has started, and users should not offer and accept to be paid outside of Upwork. As you are new here, I believe reading up on these tips will help you work safely on Upwork. You may also want to check out the curated articles on this page for more information on Upwork's trust and safety. 

[martina_plaschka]

---

William E wrote:

I'm new to the Upwork platform, and I made the mistake of communicating with a potential client even after the client removed their post from the Upwork website. The Skype Interview was professional, yet the financial part brought some doubts. When I would search for "Hylas Publishing," I found no trace. After two of my banks recently refused to deposit their checks totalling $2300.00 each, I had to believe that I had been dealing with a scam.

Through this experience, I'm glad that common sense kicked in before the opportunity went too far. Requiring me to deposit a check in order to purchase a MacBook Pro and HP laptop to complete a job for a client turned out to be a SHAM. If Hylas Publishing is legit, they need to know about the joker who's scamming on their behalf.

---

It wasn't. The only purpose of this "interview" is to gain your confidence, hence con-men. You know you are not allowed to communicate outside of upwork before hire? You know that you can't accept payment outside of upwork? You need to educate yourself, these are violations that can cost you your profile. 

[3e110882]

Thank you Martina. I will continue to educate myself by reading the terms of service for Upwork, and more engaging discussion here in the online community. As much as possible, I don't want to mess up my account unnecessarily. Looking forward a great experience here on the Upwork platform.

[feed_my_eyes]

No real client would "demand" that you purchase office equipment (and how was the person in a position to force you do to anything?). It sounds like you should do some reading about how to use Upwork properly, including familiarising yourself with the terms of service. Mainly, you cannot exchange contact information with a client prior to being hired, and you cannot accept payments other than through Upwork - violating either of these can get your account suspended if not permanently banned. Also, "hiring letters" are meaningless and not enforceable in any way, especially since scammers haven't given you their real name and don't work for the companies that they're pretending to work for. If you don't receive a notification from Upwork that you've been hired, then you haven't been hired. 

[3e110882]

I learned my lesson about the "purchase equipment" sham. While I'm new to Upwork, I don't want to be foolish. I should be able to complete assignments with the equipment I already possess.

[wescowley]

---

Charlie L wrote:

please be aware there is a scam using Upwork. After I received an offer letter, as shown in the attached documents.

I lost $800 yesterday as the Scammer demanded $800 for deliveries of equipment and software licenses fee via Zelle. 

I stopped after $800, for the Scammer persisted for another $1200 as it claimed via 'Vibir' Message App that it was legit. Though the offer letter indicated immediate reimbursable, the Scammer refused

my request.   'Agent' supposed name is**Edited for Community Guidelines** 

I will be reporting this to the authorities as well

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

---

Since you mentioned this happened over Zelle, I assume the scammer's bank is in the US (it doesn't mean they are, but their bank is) as is yours. So it may be worth reporting the theft to your local police. You may also want to contact your bank's fraud group, as I read the other day that BoA has recouped money for some Zelle scam victims, though it's apparently rare (https://abc7news.com/bank-of-america-zelle-scam-refunds-edd-wire-transfer/11118058/).

[prestonhunter]

Wes: That's interesting...

I would be very happy to see the original poster get his $800 back, if working through his bank and/or Zelle can accomplish that.

As Wes noted, such recovery of funds is relatively rare. I wouldn't want anybody reading this thread to think that the original poster will get his money back, so maybe sending money to a client like that isn't risky.

The good thing is that the original poster will never make that mistake again.

He now is completely aware of the rule that freelancers do not exchange funds with clients off-platform. And following that Upwork rule will keep him safe from being scammed out of cash again.

[pgiambalvo]

Sorry to hear this. I've been flagging these same scammers' posts like 30 times a day for 2 months and posting about them to raise awareness but still see them getting tons of applicants. So sadly, I'm sure you're not alone. Besides being more aware of them, never communiacte with anyone off of Upowrk until you've been hired. Thank you for sharing your experience. Hopefully, it will help other freelancers to avoid being scammed themselves and to be more diligent in flagging what are obvously scam posts. They're pretty easy to spot.