Warning with a **Edited for Community Guidelines** user

[1c31c884]

Hi!

I'm new here and a bit desperate for work (financial issues), so when I got a message from an user by the name of **Edited for Community Guidelines**, I jumped upon it, thinking it was because he liked my illustrations.

He wanted a vector portrait, and told me to get in touch with **Edited for Community Guidelines** on Telegram. I gave him the number (my mistake) and when I finally talked to this "**Edited for Community Guidelines**" and saw what the scam was about and that there was no work at all, I blocked Smith here, unblocked him to warn him that I KNOW he's a scammer and blocked him again. Turns out, they tell you there's a freelance job on a company that doesn't even exist and ask for your full name, country and e-mail, which of course I didn't give them. 

Here's the job he posted:

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

And the user:

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

How do we report users like this here? And how can this kind of thing be prevented? 
There's a lot of rules for us freelancers to stay in here, but I see no rules for fake customers to be identified. 

For now, sorry to bother.

[martina_plaschka]

This kind of thing can be prevented once clients clearly identify their job post as a scam. Then it would be found immediately and be removed. 

Until this happens, the freelancer is usually the first one to realize it's a scam. Then the job posting should be flagged for violation. 

You are not aware of all the rules it seems. The most important one: never communicate outside of upwork before hire. Adhere to that, and you are perfectly safe. Don't, and you risk losing your profile. 

[1c31c884]

Thanks, Martina!

I was surprised that someone wanted to invite me to an interview on the platform so quickly, so yeah. Won't happen again, now that I know. 

[NikolaS · Accepted solution]

Hi Bruna,

Thank you for reaching out to us and bringing this to our attention. I shared your report with our team for further investigation and appropriate actions will be taken according to our internal processes.

Please know that sharing contact information before a contract has started is against Upwork’s Upwork's Terms of Service and that all communications prior to the contract starting must take place on Upwork. I also encourage you to let us know if a TOS violation has happened by using the Flag as Inappropriate option throughout the platform. You can learn more about user reporting here.

I would like to let you know that you shouldn't provide any work until your client sends you an offer and a contract is created under your My Jobs tab. Please check this post for the freelancer resources and tips for avoiding questionable jobs that we put together to help freelancers make decisions whether to work with a client or not. 

You can also check this page to find great tips to help you stay safe on Upwork. 

[1c31c884]

Thank you, Nikola. I'm afraid I might get in trouble for this, but that happens to me for not reading the rules carefully. 🤣

Already flagged the job as innapropriate. No work was done - I actually believe there is no work at all. They're just trying to get personal information from people. 

Again, thanks for the tips. I'll be reading them.