I suspect**Edited** are scammers. Didn't pay. What can I do?

[28fd10e7]

Hello. A PM from this agency "**Edited for Community Guidelines** contacted me via Upwork and told me to write to them via Telegram. She offered me some transcriptions to do in 24 h. The pay was significative. I delivered them well and on time. Payment was supposed to be due in 12 h (I had signed a contract and chosen bank transfer as my payment method), but then they sent a very long email (which I suspect was already written before I even chose my preferred payment method) explaining that their bank account had been blocked and I should open an account on a website to be paid. I surely do no want to do that. That is how scams start. Is there anything I can do?

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

[spectralua]

Yes. You can start read rules you ignored before. Or you will be scammed again and again.

Never contact telegram without contract.

[28fd10e7]

There was a contract...

[spectralua]

I see no active contracts in your profile. Are you sure?

Promice via telegram "you are hired" is not a contract.

[sofia2008]

For a contract to show in progress, at least $1 has to be paid. She was not paid, so this criteria does not tell you if there is a contract or not.

[spectralua]

From start topic i see that it is common scam with no contract. She say "signed a contract" and selected "bank transfer" so all agreements was via telegram. New day, new newbies scammed by old scam. Nothing changing.

PS It is funny that Upwork will ignore own ToS again and will take no action for that.

[sofia2008 · Accepted solution]

The contract needs to be through Upwork, you need to accept an offer and see the job you applied for in your jobs listing on your profile.

Payments also have to go through Upwork, you have to set a payment method in your Upwork profile. Anything else will get your account suspended.

You should look at the Academy at the top of this page and learn how thing work to avoid suspension.

[28fd10e7]

Thank you so much Sophie! It was a bit dumb of me to accept the job via Telegram. I am an experienced translator, but new to these platforms, and as you both said I will have to reread the rules. Thank you very much! Lesson learned!