I might have been scammed?

[#1]

To the upwork team, Please see into the matter

I got a message on upwork for a project, A guy messaged me (now deleted his messages) to contact **Edited for Community Guidelines** for the project details and shared her telegram link. I contacted her on telegram, we have a conversation she send me a 100 images file and said to write, rewrite and type the document in Word and PDF. She gave me 2-3 days deadline and said she will pay me $20 each page and total $2200  as this is a very important project and needs full dedication.

I send her the completed task after 1 and a half day, and she said its perfect and shared **Edited for Community Guidelines** telegram link to contact for payment. **Edited for Community Guidelines**  said that there is an issue you have to pay $100 for CCIC code to some random vendor account, to make the transfer to your account. i paid $100 to some random vendor account he asked me to. Then he said call the vendor directly to release assets (which i have no idea what it is all about), so i called and an messaged and try to contact this guy......but no response, then **Edited for Community Guidelines** said i have report this guy, send me a detailed video of your bank account login including the payment you did to that person. I did that and send it. He said ok now contact **Edited for Community Guidelines** for your payment. Icontacted her, there she asked me to make an account on **Edited for Community Guidelines**. I did, and then they asked for TAC code, and said I have to purchase this code for $300. Im a new to this platform and does not have that much money to pay as i already paid $100 before.

Now **Edited for Community Guidelines** are texting me and asking to pay the TAC code and get your payment from the project.......

Please see to this matter as i have no knowledge to what should be done.

[#2]

You have got scammed, had the very same offer myself a while back. It was pictures of the pages in "png" format. There is many people like this on freelancing platforms.

[#3]

you need to stop sending them any information and money. Any client who gives you a link of telegram is a scammer for sure. Please avoid such theives and only deal with people who are willing to use the upwork platfrom for business. Also, reset your bank account password just to be safe.

[#4]

Yes, that is a scam. Never accept work from clients who don't have verified payment, who want to discuss anything outside of Upwork message, be it telegram or whatsapp, and NEVER pay anything to anyone in order to recieve your payment. Almost every job offer of converting pdf to word is a scam. 

[#5]

woo! good thing i saw this because of being curious of that CCIC code whatever,

i had the same scenario.

work is done

sent me an invoice of my actual pay(supposedly)

but i have to "purchase" a certain amount.

so thank you for this,

ps. i haven't spent anything yet aside from my time and effort.

never trusting anyone from te1egr@m again.

[#6]

i am 99% sure the culprit is the same because it literally happened to me today, everything you just mentioned has happened to me too. the guy insisted so much that I pay for the CCIC code right away to get my payment. it was as if he was the one getting paid instead of me.i didn't even know what the code was about or why did I have to buy it. thank god I saw your forums and comments before I made any transactions. i have never heard of someone paying money to recieve his salary. it even sounds counter-intuitive if you think about it ...lmao. stay aware and be careful !!!

[#7]

Yes, that is a scam. I am also receiving messages from **Edited for Community Guidelines** and **Edited for Community Guidelines** that I need to pay for ccic code amounting $60 to get the $2200. 

I

[#8]

Most scams start when they ask you to violate the Terms of Service by communicating outside Upwork. You can get your account suspended.