"Opt-Out Fee"

[oharepatrick]

Hello!

I am new to Upwork and a potential client just asked to send me details to see if I would be a good fit for a project, but they wanted my personal email. I asked that they just send the info through Upwork to me and they said (I quote)

"we came across some challenges, so the whole copy is been rewritten except the the first installment. so we've paid the opt out fee on upwork, so this particular project can be completed outside upwork and all the subsequent via the site."

It appears that the 'opt-out fee' is a real thing (https://support.upwork.com/hc/en-us/articles/211068168-Upwork-Opt-Out-Fee?flash_digest=e1ede43f12a3f...) but I am not looking to break my TOS with Upwork. Is there a way to confirm that this is legitimate?

Any help is appreciated!

[yitwail · Accepted solution]

Patrick, I can't tell you if they actually paid the fee, but it's a minimum of $3,500 and it seems unlikely they'd pay that just to do one project outside Upwork, while doing subsequent work via the site, since the opt out fee covers all work with this client, not just the first project.

[oharepatrick]

Update: definitely was a scam, similar to a Craigslist scam. Thanks for the help!

[mtngigi]

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Patrick O wrote:

Update: definitely was a scam, similar to a Craigslist scam. Thanks for the help!

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Patrick,

Do make sure to report this to Upwork, if you haven't already.