Telegram use required by client plus asking personal info

[danielmoore60]

Hello there everyone,

I'm coming across clients asking to be contacted by Telegram and others asking for my name, country, phone number, or to contact through WhatsApp instead of using Upwork messaging. Is this common practice? Coincidentally, none of them are payment verified or their Upwork accounts are brand new, with no history whatsoever. Am I getting paranoid or these are just pure scams?

Please share your view on this. Thank you. Dan.

[prestonhunter]

re: "I'm coming across clients asking to be contacted by Telegram and others asking for my name, country, phone number, or to contact through WhatsApp instead of using Upwork messaging. Is this common practice?"

It is common practice among scammers.

Real clients do not do this.

re: "Coincidentally, none of them are payment verified or their Upwork accounts are brand new, with no history whatsoever. Am I getting paranoid or these are just pure scams?"

You are not being paranoid.

These are just pure scams.

[renata101]

It's also a violation of Upwork's Terms of Service to contact clients using outside channels before you have a contract in place. Once you have a contract, you can communicate with your clients any way you choose, but the initial discussions about the contract need to be done on the Upwork platform.



I forget where this is in the ToS, but you can find more information here:
https://support.upwork.com/hc/en-us/articles/360049608113-Sharing-Information-on-Upwork

[9f648ae3]

Hi I am new to Upwork, and I just got my first reply asking me to contact him through Telegram. I guess this is against the Terms of Service...

[danielmoore60]

Thanks, I'm not paranoid after all.
Perhaps Upwork itself could tighten the rules for new "clients" by
verifying a payment method when placing a project.
As a freelancer, seeing a project by a new client that opened the Upwork
account only yesterday and is not payment-verified, I feel completely
unprotected. Equally, why does Upwork accepts a client post asking to be
contacted by telegram or WhatsApp?

[martina_plaschka]

Many scammers have payment verified. 

[danielmoore60]

So coming across to a decent client becomes a matter of pure luck. In other
words, how a freelancer can deal with the unknown?
What to look for?

[martina_plaschka]

---

Daniel M wrote:
So coming across to a decent client becomes a matter of pure luck. In other
words, how a freelancer can deal with the unknown?
What to look for?

---

Maybe a little luck, but spotting a scam is very easy. Read Wes's post. 

[danielmoore60]

Haven't found Wes's yet but I'd imagine explains how to detect spam or some clues about how to identify it.

Ideally: a spam detector like the airport's x-rays.

Trying to identify the "ideal" client so far, came across some common points:

- He/she is payment verified.

- They have already invested in some previous (completed) projects.

- Have several stars rating. I'd imagine red stars are a good thing to have.

...and about fifty bids already placed for their current project.

Please complete the list in the light of your own experience because this is what I've seen so far. It's learning time for me.  Thank you.

[pgiambalvo]

Here's Wes' post: https://community.upwork.com/t5/Community-Blog/Top-Red-Flags-for-Scams-From-Community-Member-Wes-C/b...

[martina_plaschka]

Before you send proposals, you work on your profile. You need to make it attractive to a potential client. 

[danielmoore60]

Thank you.

[pgiambalvo]

You are not paranoid. They are scams.

[danielmoore60]

Thank you. In my humble view, Upwork should filter out these "job
offerings" from the get-go and avoid further damage down the line.
Probably, this may not be in the best Upwork commercial interest in order
to attract new clients, but having no rules, or very loose ones, is an open
invitation to scammers.

[r2streu]

So flag them and help Upwork out. This is a MASSIVE platform and even if they do have employees whose sole job is to walk through job postings looking for TOS violations, there's just no way they're going to get to them all right away and/or not miss any. And that's assuming Upwork has the money to hire people to DO that. 

Upwork works best as a community, IMO, which is why when I come across scams, I flag them so the staff can find/kick them. 

[rockcy]

ignore them, they are all scam.