How to Avoid Being Duped by Clients On Upwork

I’ve freelanced on Upwork for over ten years but got more serious about it last year when I started freelancing full-time. I’ve gotten some good-paying freelance jobs and some that didn’t pay as well. One thing was always the same, though. I ensured the job conversations stayed on Upwork, at least until there was a contract in place and I’d been working for the client for a while.

Then, a few days ago, I got a message from a potential client who was supposedly reaching out to me about one of my Upwork writing gigs. Because I thought he was interested in it, I responded to it. He told me before I could start, I would have to go through “training” off Upwork because I would have to set up memberships at a few websites before I could start writing for them.

That was mistake number one. I should never have gone along with that. I have written content on outside websites before and gotten paid through Upwork, but I only had to join one website, not several, as I’ll describe in the next few paragraphs.

But I went ahead with it — we were using voice and text chat and screen sharing in an app called Signal, which of course, Upwork doesn’t support — that was mistake number two. I should have insisted that we use something like Skype or Zoom, both of which Upwork does support.

The first thing he had me do was create a second Google account with a different email address for a domain that doesn’t exist (alicare.org). There is a company called Alicare, but they have a different web address. That would be the email address I would use to sign up for these websites

Then, after I set up the email account, had to start setting up other accounts with that email address. I had to set up an Upwork Agency account with the email address, as well as accounts at a few websites where I could post listings about homes for rent. An account at Sitter City, which the guy said would be used for meetings and communication with me. That made no sense to me, but I went with it.

Then the guy sent me the information I would have to post about this home that was supposedly for rent. At first, I had a hard time uploading the pictures because they were in a format my computer wouldn’t recognize. But once the guy sent them to me in the correct format, I could post them to Zillow, RentRedi, and Facebook Marketplace. The Zillow and RentRedi postings had to be approved, but the Facebook Marketplace posting was live almost immediately.

I started getting hits on the posting, and the guy had me send the same canned response to everyone that inquired about it:

The listing is still available and move in ready, contact [owner’s name deleted] the home owner for more info at [phone number deleted].

Impersonal right? But that’s what I sent to everyone. I got a lot of hits on the post over two days, but this morning I got a message from Facebook saying I’ve been banned from buying or selling there. After looking at their community standards, I can only guess it’s because of the fact that this response directs the person to someone else.

I also got a few people who commented to me that there was snow on the ground in one of the pictures. The house is located in Florida, which rarely gets snow. I expressed these to the guy training me, and his response was, “Oh, you’re going to get people like that from time to time.” Maybe, but Facebook banning me from buying and selling on their platform was the last straw for me. I would rather write $8 blog posts than take a job where I have to sign up at a whole bunch of sites before I can do the job.

I also started noticing other strange things. I logged into my bank account and saw charges I hadn’t authorized. The charges were small, but I had to call my bank and have them issue me a new debit card. I wasn’t completely sure how they had gotten my information, but I suspect it may somehow have happened while I was doing this training.

Anyway, that’s my cautionary tale about accepting jobs on Upwork. Here are a few takeaways:

• Make sure the conversation stays on Upwork, or that you use Zoom or Skype for communication outside Upwork.

• If you have to sign up for a website, ask why, ask if there’s a fee and if you’ll be reimbursed. Don’t continue if you don’t feel comfortable paying a fee.

• Find out as many details about the job as you can ahead of time. Refuse to continue if they won’t provide you with details.

For those of you considering Upwork, I hope this post hasn’t driven you away. There are a lot of honest, good-paying potential clients on Upwork. You just have to know what to look for, and what kind of behavior to avoid, and don’t let desperation cloud your judgment.