Hello, everybody and welcome back to my channel Jennifer
Marie, where I teach you how to become a work from home
freelancer. If you are one of my subscribers, you know that
I have dozens of different videos on how to become a
freelancer or Upwork. Now I receive so many different
questions on how to avoid scams on Upwork. A lot of
people get messages from clients with links or asking
them to work outside of Upwork. And people want to
know how can you protect yourself and protect your
Upwork account by avoiding scams or working with
unverified clients. And in today's video, I'm going to
teach you how to avoid scams on Upwork and how to identify
them as well. So first of all, if you're not familiar with
Upwork, it's a platform where you can sell your freelancing
skills services and apply to jobs for free. I have a
playlist that I will link you to in the description below
this video with over 20 different videos on getting
started on Upwork. So tip number one to avoid scams
never pay a client. So freelancers should never pay
clients. Clients pay freelancers, not the other way
around. There is no circumstance where a
freelancer should have to pay a client any sort of signup,
joining or interview fee. So if a client reaches out to
you, after you have submitted a job proposal, and they say
they want to hire you, but first you have to pay for some
setup costs. Or if you have to pay to submit a proposal they
are a scammer. Do not work with this client and stop
communicating with them. If a client asks you for money or
payment before they hire you do not trust this client and
do not work for them. I'm going to show you later on how
you can report clients. But one of the ways you can do
this is click on the flag as inappropriate Link button on
the job posting page to report this client or their job
posting, I will show you how to do that later. And in the
event that you have wasted some connects on a scammy
client Upwork will return connects when they find a job
post has violated their terms of service. So tip number two
is never ever work for free. Clients should never ask you
to complete unpaid work. So if you see a job posting for a
YouTube thumbnail designer do not complete the entire
YouTube thumbnail before they hire you for the job. So never
start producing work for a client before a contract has
started. Here's an important note. Some clients may ask
freelancers to edition or do a sample before selecting the
Freelancer they want to hire. This is okay. Just make sure
you are auditioning for the project with a sample and not
completing the work for free. So for example, I'm a
voiceover artist and a lot of my jobs I do voiceovers for
different clients on Upwork. So sometimes there's a job
posting and they want me to do an addition of three or four
lines before they decide they want to hire me. That is okay,
that is just a sample so they can select the person they
want to go with. So depending on your niche, you might be
asked to do an addition and it's up to you whether or not
you want to do that. But that is okay. Just do not complete
the entire project for free. So tip number three is avoid
messages with suspicious links. I received this comment
a few weeks ago. They say what does it mean if they send you
this kind of message, if interested, kindly inbox our
company secretary through this link via telegram. So before
starting the job, some clients may send you links to project
details so you can get an idea of what they want before they
hire you. For example, if someone wants me to do a
voiceover for a script, they might send me a link to a
Google Docs document. However, pay attention to the type of
link you click on. Make sure when you hover over the link,
that the URL that pops up is one from a trusted and secure
website such as Google Docs or Dropbox, etc. If they want you
to go through Telegram, avoid it. You're not supposed to be
sending out contact information, or receiving
contact information outside of Upwork before you are hired.
So avoid any links like that. And if you do click on a link,
make sure it's one that is from a trusted website. And
don't fill in any of your personal details.
So tip number four is don't accept offers of payment
outside of Upwork. So two months ago, this person asked
me I have an offer on Upwork but they want me to work
outside Upwork Is that safe? Never accept an offer to get
paid outside of Upwork you may open yourself up to scams and
lose upward Payment Protection. One of the
benefits of working with a platform like Upwork is that
they protect you in the event that a client decides they
don't want to pay. It is also against upwards Policy and
Terms of Service to accept offers of payment outside of
Upwork. And you risk permanent suspension of your Upwork
account. So if someone has contacted you via Upwork, make
sure that they send you a job offer on up work. And that way
you're protected. In the past, I had a client that was a good
client. And they didn't know how Upwork worked. And they
asked me if I wanted to be paid outside of Upwork. And I
said no, because that is against up works policy. And I
don't want my account to be suspended. So I just said to
them, please just send me an offer on Upwork. And they did
so some clients just don't understand the terms of
service. So just make sure to kindly say to them, I'd love
to work with you. However, I would like you to send me a
legitimate job offer here in order for me to accept and
move forward with working with you. So tip number five is
don't communicate with clients outside of Upwork prior to a
contract starting. So here's another question I had. Also I
have had a few times that people are requesting Skype
interviews is this common, I was under the impression that
it is all done with the Upwork platform. So it is against up
works Terms of Service to request and share contact info
prior to the start of a contract. For example, email
address, phone number, WhatsApp, Telegram, or Skype.
Upwork has a built in messaging system, where you
can have a voice chat on the Upwork platform. So you should
not have to use something like Skype or WhatsApp to
communicate. There's also an amazing messaging system. So
there's no need for an email, or to be exchanging emails
with a client outside of Upwork. Now once you have
accepted a legitimate offer via Upwork, you and your
client may wish to continue communications via email. And
this is okay. I have been working with an enterprise
level client for over three or four years. And we do all of
our communications through email because it's easier for
us. However, payment should only be done on Upwork. So
this client only ever pays me on Upwork. But we just
communicate via email because it's easier for both of us.
Tip number six is report suspicious messages or job
postings. So under suspicious job postings, you can choose
the flag button to submit a report and you will click flag
as inappropriate. So for example, if you're here and
you're browsing different jobs, and you see a job that
looks suspicious, or has links, or is asking people to
contact them via Skype or whatever, you can click on the
job. And you can report it by clicking here flag as
inappropriate. And then you would say whatever is
inappropriate, you can see here, client is offering
payment outside of Upwork. Asking for free work
misrepresenting their identity, attempting to buy or
use an Upwork account. Job post looks like a scammer
contains a suspicious link, contact info, or whatever it
is, you could add some more details and then click Submit.
Now let's say you apply to a job, the client has messaged
you and once they started messaging you they're asking
you to give them their contact info or to pay you outside of
Upwork. Or asking you for money, you can report
suspicious messages as well. So in the Upwork Message
Center, you can report suspicious messages by
clicking the gear icon to the left of the timestamp and
choose report message, we're going to show you how you can
do that. So here I am in my messages. And let's say this
client seems a little suspicious. This is their
message here that I want to report, I can click here on
these three icons, and then click Report message. And then
again, select why I am reporting this and then click
Send report. And finally, tip number seven only accept job
offers from clients that have verified payment method. So
when you are viewing a job posting, sometimes a client
has not yet verified their payment method. Maybe it's
because it's the first time they have ever posted a job.
So when you're looking at a client, you might see
something like this payment method not verified, you want
to make sure that this payment method is verified before you
accept a job offer from the client. And when it is
verified, it will look like this. So working with a client
that has their payment method verified with this green
checkmark means that they have put in whatever payment method
they plan on paying you with and this is a good sign. You
can also see here, the review of a client and also how many
times they have hired people and the amount of money they
have spent on hiring. So a client like this I would know
is likely a verified and genuine client that is looking
to hire someone and to pay for work whereas this client is
new to Upwork they haven't verified their payment method
and I wouldn't want to accept a job from them until they
verify this payment. You can also view if a client has
payment verified by looking down here under the job
posting this client payment verified let's see how much
money they have spent. This one again, this one for
example is payment verified however, they have not spent
any money yet, but they have put in their payment
information so it is likely that they want to hire
someone. Okay, so that is it for my video on how to
identify and avoid scams on Upwork I hope these seven tips
will help you when you are looking to work with a client
and help you choose which job postings to apply to and which
ones to avoid. If you have any other questions related to
Upwork make sure to leave a comment in the description
below. And make sure to check out my playlist in the
description below of more tutorials on how to become a
freelancer for Upwork. Thank you for watching and I will
see you in my next video.