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carlysteele
Community Member

Skeptical Job Post and Conduct

 

So I'm very new to Upwork. I just started submitting proposals this weekend. I came across an ad for a job that is in line with my experience. I sent a proposal and the person messaged me asking for my resume. I sent them my resume, to what I thought was their Upwork email address, and they proceeded to text me. 

 

The text was about how they need a marketing/personal assistant for a night club that has an "adult house" and to reply to the text with my phone number, address, etc. This obviously set off a red flag and I blocked their number immediately and reported the job posting on Upwork. However, I'm still left feeling very uneasy about all of this, as they now have my resume which does include personal information. Any suggestions on what to do from here? Looks like I can't get in contact with anyone directly on Upwork. 

7 REPLIES 7
carlysteele
Community Member

Furthermore, the area code on the phone number was NY, the business location was "in Michigan" and the Upwork profile says United States but in Central European Time. All that being said - what am I dealing with here? Attempt at fraud?

In the future, you can tell potential clients that your resume is available on your Upwork profile.  On the few occasions that I have sent a resume (I work for lawyers - they want a piece of paper in their hands), I remove all personal information except my name.

 

There are certainly red flags with the job you described.  As you are new, be sure to keep all communication with potential client on Upwork.  Flag the job post as fraud and then forget about it.  Not much else you can do at this point.

 

Please be sure that you read and understand the TOS as well as all the information geared towards new freelancers so you don't get caught up in something odd.

I have completed 156 jobs on Upwork.

 

No client has ever asked for my resumé.

 

I think if a client asks for your resumé on Upwork it is because:

- she is so new that she does not understand how Upwork actually works; she doesn't understand that your profile page IS your resumé.

[or]

- she is a scammer or identity thief

 

I think Mary has offered excellent advice.

 

I guess if a client did ask for my resumé, I would tell her that she can refer to my profile page, whic his even better than a resumé, because it has my Upwork-verified work history. But I would tell her, if she wants me to, I can send a separate resumé as a PDF file or something. I would do as Mary suggests, which is to make sure it doesn't have personal contact information.

BojanS
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi Carly,

 

I'm sorry to hear about your experience. As you have already done, you have the flag option found on each job post to report any suspicious or inappropriate content. Here's the help article for more information. If you have more details about this client or screenshots of messages please send me the private message and our team will review it and take action on any violations of the ToS. Please check these safety tips and report if you receive any of the offers mentioned in the thread, which are in violation of Upwork ToS. Thank you!

~ Bojan
Upwork


@Bojan S wrote:

Hi Carly,

 

I'm sorry to hear about your experience. As you have already done, you have the flag option found on each job post to report any suspicious or inappropriate content. Here's the help article for more information. If you have more details about this client or screenshots of messages please send me the private message and our team will review it and take action on any violations of the ToS. Please check these safety tips and report if you receive any of the offers mentioned in the thread, which are in violation of Upwork ToS. Thank you!


 _____________________

 

Given that the OP has flagged the job, surely "action" against this client should already have been taken and this account removed. 

 

I find Upwork's laissez-faire attitude towards people who are clearly trying to recruit young attractive women to their "adult house", odd to say the least. 

 

However much Upwork cannot "share" details about these valuable clients,I think at least the person who was targeted has the right to be informed that this person's account has been closed. 

Thank you, Nichola. My thoughts exactly. Not really giving me peace of mind here. 

sam-sly
Community Member

I know this doesn't help with your current security concerns... I occasionally have had legitimate clients that want to see a resume. I made a different version for online freelancing that leaves out personal information and even names of specific employers. You could replace the contact information with your Upwork profile link for an "Upwork version." 

 

About this "client." I think you have done what you can. If you haven't, block the number from texting you.  Most likely they won't do anything. You didn't give them any financial details, right? If they start spamming or harassing you, that is a different story. I am not sure what their end game was. If they really wanted an assistant, they will move on. 

 

If they want to spam you to sell their services, just block them. I think that industry resorts to poorly-targeted spam as I sometimes get 'cam girls" approaching me on Instagram and spamming with personal messages that read like they think I am a man. I always just block them since it isn't personal. Apparently, my manly appearance caught their attention, I bet they say that to all the Instagrammers. If it is something like that -- report, block, move on. 

 

In the future, make a sanitized version of your resume in case a legit client wants to see the information presented in that format.

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