Scammer clients trying to steal funds- a call to mods

[murat-can-y]

Hello everyone. I've just encountered a couple of scammer clients that are trying to steal web3 funds from developers, and I'd like to report them. I don't know where, so I'll post it here. The scam goes as follows:

They target web3/blockchain developers and send them job invites. When accepted, they send a github repo or a code project from google docs or whatever, and ask you to run the app, and send a screenshot of you, running the app. Once done, they don't respond anymore. 

I have to admit that I've fallen for this game 3 times already, without any loss though. I don't have any real funds in the wallets I'm using everyday for development. Now, the last one had some weirdly obfuscated code in an utils folder.  I've analyzed it as much as I can using GPT4 and it is clear that they're somehow trying to steal funds from chrome extension web3 wallets. 

I have the names and accounts of all 3 clients that tries to scam people. If requested by official mods, I can give them. The reason I'm not giving the names here is that I don't know if name & shame is allowed and I don't want to get banned. 

So, blockchain developers, beware as usual, web3 is a wild west. 

And any mod who's reading this post, please let me know so that I can share the so called clients with you and you could do whatever that you'll do. 

Cheers!

[spectralua]

It is correct, you cannot share names here.

You can report jobs from jobpost or via single message with "report message"

[e6a74315]

I think she should be able to name and shame them here. They are using this platform and others need to know so asbto avoid falling for them. The integrity of the platform is at stake. Moderators say something about this 

[PradeepH]

Hi Murat,

I am sorry to hear about your experience and I appreciate you taking the time to share the scam trend. I will share this with the relevant team. I suggest you take this course for more tips on staying safe on Upwork and please use the flag option found on each job post or message anytime you’d like to report a violation.

Thank you,

Pradeep

[8aea7a2a]

Honestly I don't understand how someone cam post a job without having payment verification one would think of all things that should be a must in order to be able to post a job. Surely that should be requirement of clients setting up an account on upwork. I'm not saying it'll prevent it but it would surely lesson it to some extent. I am aware they can use stolen ones or ways around this but even still less is better.

[murat-can-y]

Hi Pradeep, thank you. can't you just ban the clients if I gave their names with the proof of conversations? I've just been contacted by another one with the same intentions today, they all use a similar obfuscated script hidden in their react projects. I can even share the github repos that contain the malicious code

[PradeepH]

Hi Murat,

Thank you for your message. Sharing names or other information of users is not allowed in the Community. You can click on my name above this post and send me a private message with more information for your report. 

You can also use the "Flag as Inappropriate" option throughout the site to report any suspicious activity. This will send a notification to the relevant team directly to review your report and action will be taken as defined in our internal guidelines. 

Thank you,

Pradeep

[a49d3dca]

you are right if you want to check this client is real check their payment method and total spend

[8aea7a2a]

Absolutely ridiculous amount of scams coming across last few days is really making a bad impression of this site along with clients expecting expert or top educated and experienced offering very little pay. My impression of the sight and being only new is low. Surely upwork would be working on ways to make it difficult for scammers only its the opposite its appears extremely easy. Theirs alot of disgruntled people spending great amounts of time and effort on proposals, connects, wasting time away from finding legitimate jobs. For a site looking for professionals and encouraging freelancers to improve their profiles and proposals for what to waste money and time. It will turn people away from this site that are looking for legitimate jobs and trying to work their hardest securing one.