Security Breach? Proposal I did not submit shows me as the author

[gabracadabra]

I have been applying to many jobs just getting started on the platform. Applied to one from a client in the Ukraine who had me complete an offsite survey. They responded and said I am a good fit and they would contact me when they had projects.

Weeks later, I recieve a copy of a proposal that was written on my behalf by them and shows up as if I were the one to write it, which I most certainly was not. They messaged straight away after sending the copy of the proposal and said the position is no longer available.

How can this happen that it shows I wrote a proposal that I did not write and what can I do about the apparent security breach??

[BojanS]

Hi Gabrielle,

Could you please send me a PM with more information about this report? I’ll check that for you and assist you accordingly.

Thank you.

[gabracadabra]

I sent a PM, I'll look forward to speaking further about this issue.

[gabracadabra]

I am trying to PM you, but I keep getting the message that I have "reached my limit for personal messages, try again later" this was happening yesterday as well. I am trying to get you the client information.

[martina_plaschka]

How did they send it? Email? 

[gabracadabra]

They send an upwork message saying that the job would no longer work out, with my phone number listed in the proposal I didn't write.

[feed_my_eyes]

How did they get your phone number?

[roberty1y]

That's really weird, and it has to be a scam. Maybe the "survey" contained some kind of keylogger virus and they got access to your account. But then it's hard to see why the same client would get back to you showing they'd sent a proposal in your name - that's exactly what they'd want to hide. Let us know how it works out.

[gabracadabra]

Looking at it again I see that it was actually a different client, one I'd never seen before. From the name I had at first thought it was the same client I took the 'survey' from. If you have any advice on what to do if it is a keylogger virus, I'd appreciate it. But in discussion with the community manager now.

[roberty1y]

First of all, if you gave a client any contact info without being hired, that's against the terms of service and could get you banned from the site. If they put a keylogger on your computer, you'd have to take it to someone who repairs computers and get it removed.