Community Spam

[#1]

Attention Upwork Community!

We're experiencing an increase in spam messages recently, and we want to ensure you stay safe and informed. To tackle this, we’ll be temporarily blocking certain keywords and combinations of numbers and taking some other temporary steps to prevent confusion and protect you from these pesky intrusions.

Here are a few important reminders to keep you secure:

Phone Numbers and Email Addresses: Posting contact information, be it your own, another person’s, or company's for any purpose is against our Communiy Guidelines. Be cautious of any unsolicited contact information posted in topics.

Stay Vigilant: If you see any external links shared, double-check them on the company's official website before trusting it.

Your safety is our top priority, and we're here to help you navigate through these challenges. If you have any concerns or spot something suspicious, don’t hesitate to reach out to our moderation team. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.

Let's keep our community safe and thriving!

[#2]

Thanks

[#3]

Hey can you help me and  see my query? It's important

[#4]

Stan thanks for this. I too have experienced not only spam direct messages with links but also invitations to interview with either malware in an attachment or a link which is unsafe. I'm not sure what else to do aside from reporting the spam or malicious direct messages.

[#5]

Hey team,

Have a nice day.

Now I am available.

[#6]

i have been scammed, and i don't know how to report this. i checked twice... looks like they are super protected.

[#7]

Hi Salim,

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. I checked, and it looks like you are referring to a job invite you received. I was able to locate it and have shared your report with our team to investigate and take action based on our internal processes. 

As a reminder, a real client will never ask you to give them money to start working, cash a check for them, work for free, buy something for them, or provide your personal information. Whenever you encounter these situations, please report them using the available flagging options so the team can investigate further. 

I would recommend as well to check this help article and available learning paths in the Academy section to help you stay safe on Upwork. 

[#8]

Hello,
As you know, Upwork gives free connection rights and I want to use it and I applied for some offers that I thought were suitable for me, but unfortunately most of the people who accepted this offer turned out to be scammers and sent me a message or image in their first message telling me to come to Telgram and they took my free connection right. Can you help me complain about these people and get my connection right back?

[#9]

Hello Gozde,

Thank you for reaching out. I’m sorry to hear about your experience with these clients. I'd like to assure you that Connects will be automatically returned to your account if the job is removed by Upwork for a TOS violation or the client closes the job without hiring. 

As a friendly reminder, it's against our TOS to share your contact information or to ask others to share theirs before a contract starts. We provide secure tools for you to communicate directly from the Upwork platform, as described above. Once a contract is in place, you can choose to share your contact information and use other tools to manage your project, too. You can learn more about keeping your information safe in this helpful article. You may also want to check this page to learn more about sharing information on Upwork.

Furthermore, if your client is asking you to perform a task before you can get hired or without payment or secured funding, it is against our Terms of Service, and we encourage you to flag it to our team.

[#10]

How can one report a client who is spreading malware disguised as a job requirement? Can someone look into this.  

[#11]

Hi Niyo,

You can use the 'Flag as Inappropriate' option available on the job post or the 'Report Message' option on the 3 dots on each conversation on Upwork messages. 

- Pradeep

[#12]

Hi Stan,
For the 3rd time in a row, I've sent a proposal for a children's book illustrator job and received basically the same answer from the supposed "client" saying that my proposal was approved for the job (right on the spot, without any pre-project talks) and orienting me to continue the process contacting someone through an external email address that is almost certainly a bogus one by the recipient address pattern.
Their response text sent through Upwork is basically the same on all the cases.

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

[#13]

Hello Elisabete,

Thank you for reaching out. I am sorry to hear about your experience with this client. I’d like to assure you that action has already been taken. The Connects  used for this proposal has been refunded as well. 

I highly recommend checking this page andTop Red Flags for Scams article for tips on how to identify scam jobs and available learning paths in the  Academy section to help you stay safe on Upwork.