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gringomike
Community Member

Two con artists in one day

Yesterday, I received two invitations to participate in Google Hangouts interviews with scammers. One of the con artists used a real company and the identity of one of its board member to lure me into some sort of scheme. One of the job postings is still active:

**Edited for community guidelines**



I contacted the company to inform them that someone was using the identity of one of their board members and the office manager told me this has been an ongoing problem, which has been reported to the police.

For a few years, I made a pretty good living using Elance. But with Upwork, I've only attracted scammers. 

31 REPLIES 31
prestonhunter
Community Member

William Michael:

This is normal.

 

You are describing the most common scam on Upwork.

The scammers focus their efforts on:

- new freelancers

- entry-level freelancers

- U.S.-based freelancers

 

You fall into all 3 categories.

 

Experienced Upwork freelancers know that all invitations received from out of the blue which invite interviews using Google Hangouts are scams.

 

Very simple thing to do: If you see an invite mentioniong Google Hangouts, just ignore or block. There's no money there.

 

re: "I contacted the company to inform them that someone was using the identity of one of their board members and the office manager told me this has been an ongoing problem, which has been reported to the police."

 

You were only trying to be helpful.

 

But in the future, please do not contact the companies. They typically already know about this, so you're only using your time and their time unnecessarily. Even if they don't know, then contacting them about this serves no purpose for you, Upwork, or them. The scammers's standard procedure means that they will use ANY company information they can find on the Internet.

 

So just ignore those people and focus on jobs that you carefully select and apply to. When you gain experience on Upwork, you may well begin receiving legitimate invites. Many of us are able to work purely through invites, and never need to apply to jobs. But it takes some time to get to that point.

I am NOT a new freelancer. I was a seasoned freelancer, with impeccable reviews, on Elance. I left Elance to work a long-term contract with a magazine. When I returned to Elance, the company had merged with Odesk, so I had to start from scratch. Elance freelancers should not have lost their work history because of the merger. 


To say con artists is normal is absurd. I have never had this problem with other freelancing websites.

re: "I am NOT a new freelancer. I was a seasoned freelancer, with impeccable reviews, on Elance. I left Elance to work a long-term contract with a magazine. When I returned to Elance, the company had merged with Odesk, so I had to start from scratch. Elance freelancers should not have lost their work history because of the merger. "

 

William Michael:

The scammers don't know ANY of this stuff.

 

All they see is that you have zero jobs on your profile. So they consider you a newbie. That's why they are targetting you.

 

They don't bother with me, because they see that I'm experienced on Upwork and they know that they have no chance at tricking me into sending them money.


Preston H wrote:

 

 

They don't bother with me, because they see that I'm experienced on Upwork and they know that they have no chance at tricking me into sending them money.


You've said this before, but there must be more to their analysis. I've made about $160k on Upwork, my profile says I'm a former attorney and my largest ongoing client is a consumer protection law firm, but I still get them.

re: "You've said this before, but there must be more to their analysis. I've made about $160k on Upwork, my profile says I'm a former attorney and my largest ongoing client is a consumer protection law firm, but I still get them."

 

The majority of the time, I keep my profile blocked from receiving invitations by setting my status to "Not Availalble."

 

That could be the difference.

 

Also, Tiffany:

Your profile identifies you as a writer. Mine does not. Maybe scammers search for writers.

 

I receive invitations when I unblock my profile. Those invitations are not from scammers.


Preston H wrote:

 

But in the future, please do not contact the companies. They typically already know about this, so you're only using your time and their time unnecessarily. Even if they don't know, then contacting them about this serves no purpose for you, Upwork, or them. The scammers's standard procedure means that they will use ANY company information they can find on the Internet.

 


When I first signed up with Upwork, I was solicited by a scammer pretending to be a company that, by coincidence, I had done business with in the past. I contacted them to let them know, and they were both unaware and very interested in gathering further information and taking action.

dhymansjr
Community Member

The same happened to me yesterday for a **Edited for community guidelines** ad and submitted proposal which was accepted. Invitation to interview on google hangouts. I called **Edited for community guidelines** and they said it was a scam that they do not interview on google or had any record of names of interviewers. Their councel and customer service also confirmed.

The **Edited for community guidelines**  job was one of the two that tried to scam me, too. It is ridiculous that freelancers have to investigate these scams. Upwork needs to tighten the bolts on its process.

BojanS
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi William Michael and Don,

 

I'm sorry to hear about your experience. Thanks for flagging these cases to us. I was able to locate the Job Posts you're referring to and I'll file a report for our team's review.

 

Please, check this help article for more information on how to use the flag option found on each job post or message to report any suspicious or inappropriate content. Also, check out this post for more tips on how to avoid questionable jobs.

 

Thank you!

 

 

~ Bojan
Upwork

Yeah, they almost got me today, too.

Was asked by '**' to interview on Goggle Hangouts for the job listing **Edited for community guidelines**.

Started the interview this morning (6am, ugh!) and it immediiately seemed hinky. 

**Edited for community guidelines**

Did a quick search, 5 minutes into the interview and found this: https://www.proz.com/forum/scams/332845-new_scam_penguin_random_house-page2.html 

I wouldn't be so mad, except I had to drag my sorry arse out of bed at 5:30 this morning to make the East Coast (or where ever) interview time! 😉 

I did get a chance to share some rather pointed opinions about Andrew, his work, and his inter-species parentage before he blocked me, tho'...

So there's that!

BojanS
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi Perry,

 

Thank you for flagging this to us. I was able to locate the Job Post you're referring to and it has already been taken down because it was in violation of Upwork ToS and action has been taken on the client account. 

 

Thank you!

~ Bojan
Upwork

I can't post fake scammer names? LOL

Several weeks ago I made a proposal to a job I thought was really interesting and a good fit for me. When I saw the job was with Penguin, I thought that was really terrific. Then when they responded to me and something like 50 others, and wanted me to go to Hangouts, I quickly figured it was a scam & reported it. It got taken down & I got my connects back - but every day I see jobs posted that I believe are by the same people but with different aspects. They all just need to be reported. Upwork does not have the staff to investigate every job that is posted. It is unfortunate, but there just are a lot of scumbags in the world.

Perhaps Upwork cannot authenticate every posting, but I am quickly coming to the conclusion that this platform is worthless, at least for me. I used Elance for many years and lost all my work history and ratings when Elance and Odesk merged. I never had problems with con artists on Elance and I do not have this problem with any other freelance platform.

Did anyone else get contacted by **Edited for community guidelines** for an entry-level virtual/customer service assistant position? I am currently on Google Hangouts chatting with the supposed HR coordinator, and it just seems a bit off to me. They took the job posting down after contacting me and told me that I would be paid directly rather than on Upwork. Has anyone else had a client offer this before? I am a bit wary... Thanks in advance. 

Scam.

That is a scam. It is not really**Edited for community guidelines**. Run, don't walk, to the nearest exit. You risk losing your Upwork account.

re: "They took the job posting down after contacting me and told me that I would be paid directly rather than on Upwork."

 

Kaila:

You could have your account suspended for talking to clients (even fake clients such as this one) about taking payment off platform.

 

For future reference:

All invites to interview using Google Hangouts are from scammers. They want to steal about $3000 from your checking account. They have succeeded in doing so MANY times, which is why they keep using the same scam.

 

They especially target:

- newbie freelancers (such as yourself)

- entry-level freelancers (such as yourself)

- U.S.-based freelancers (such as yourself)

Thank you!! Once we started talking, I felt really uncomfortable with it. 

**Edited for community guidelines** listings are scams.

BojanS
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi Kaila,

 

Thank you for flagging this to us. I was able to gather more valuable information from your report and will update our team with it to help their investigation.

 

Please check out this post for more tips on how to avoid questionable jobs and do use the flag option found on each job post anytime you suspect.

 

Thank you.

~ Bojan
Upwork

I don't see an option for flagging a posting after submitting a proposal. One of the listings is still active:

**Edited for community guidelines**

BojanS
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi William Michael,

 

I just checked the job you are referring to and it has already been taken down because it was in violation of Upwork ToS and action has been taken on the client account. 

 

Thank you.

~ Bojan
Upwork

William - Well, to each his own. Upwork has been great for me.


William Michael E wrote:

I used Elance for many years and lost all my work history and ratings when Elance and Odesk merged.


You had a very long time to migrate your entire Elance history over to Upwork. They didn't merge and then delete your history, you know?

 

That dumb check scam (which oly works with US based freelancers) is one of the oldest on the web, it is 12 ++ years since I have first seen it and it is all over the entire Internet.  Basically the scammer send you a fake check and then ask you to buy your home office stuff from their "trusted supplier" (the scammer themselves) - a few days later the check (obviously) bounces and the money is gone. On average around $ 3000 


The second someone says "Google Hangout" you know it's not real.nThe second someone wants to send you a check - it's a scam.

Real businesses do not send real checks to random strangers on the Internet.

 

 

 

 

 

Mike,

 

You keep bringing up eLance and oDesk and how they done you wrong...it kinda sounds like you have an ax to grind about them, and your frustration with Upwork is mostly sour grapes.

 

As a professional writer, you update your resume regularly with new jobs, right? Just add that to your profile!

 

I've gotten a couple of hits from scammers, it sucks, but I've also tripled my writing income since joining Upwork this last Spring.

 

In the words of the great Disney princess... "Let it go..."

 

😉 

Excuse me? I never said anything negative about Elance and I never used oDesk. I believe I said Upwork is the only freelance site where I receive invitations from con artists. That remains true.

 

Congratulations on your success with Upwork. 

astmobronsita
Community Member

Hello, 

I'm curious about the actual nature of the scam. What was the stake for the victim/scammer and also maybe you could mention something about the mode of operation. 

Thanks!

I believe it is a check fraud scheme.

I'd like to know too. Once they mentioned direct payment and said I'd be on and off Upwork, I blocked them. I guarantee they would've asked for bank info.

I read on another forum that they ask you to buy a specific software from a "trusted" vendor, then send you a bogus reimbersement check...