Upwork is known for its safety and security for both freelancers and clients. Most of Upwork’s policies are designed in a way that both sides can feel safe on the platform.
But as it’s never possible to keep all the things safe and secure, Upwork is also facing high scammer entries at the moment.
SECURITY IS JUST AN ILLUSION
In this chapter on scam games, I will highlight the common scamming formats, so you can identify and skip them. Also, I will share some ideas that can save your connections, money, and time from scammers.
1. Common Format
Scammers are mostly non-IT people and that is the reason, they are less aware of the technical details.
They have created some common formats, that they use on all the bidding portals and emails as well.
Here 👇👇👇 is one example of the most widely used scam structure.
It is highly advised to skip the project when you see the above-described job description format.
2. Never Take Clients Out of Upwork
Nowadays many clients ask you to make conversation and projects out of Upwork.
As it seems like a win-win deal for both clients and freelancers, they take it as fast as they come.
Here they make a big mistake, as these kinds of clients use this out-of-Upwork thing against the freelancers later on.
They try to blackmail freelancers for sending those conversation screenshots to the Upwork team and suspend the accounts.
In the end, freelancers lose their money for the hard work they did.
Conclusively it’s highly advised to not take clients out of Upwork. Especially when you don’t have a good working history with the client.
3. Be Kind, But Don’t Be Fool
A few days back, I was working on Upwork. I got a reply from one of my bids.
As usual, I started a conversation with the prospect. It went well. The client had good technical knowledge this time, so it seem legit to me.
We talked about the full flow of the project and confirmed all the details as well.
We were just on the edge to close the project and got the below message from a client.
Within the friction of seconds, I understood that he was trying to scam me using Upwork’s payment cycle loophole.
I declined this proposal, as I knew that if I will transfer the payment to some account provided by him, then the next day he will withdraw his money from Upwork, using payment protection rules.
Let me know if you have anything to add OR share.
