Upwork Scam 2024-02-10

Last updated Dec 23, 2024

I have been scammed on 2024-02-10 (Lunar New Year) at Upwork. Direct lost nearly 5000 USD, indirect lost much more. Here are the details.

The client sent me a private job offer “Virtual Assistant Project Sourcing Agent”, to help pay their developers in China and maintain their finance sheet. They pay me via Upwork, and then I pay their developer with my own money.

The client was shown verified on Upwork. We did all our conversation and project payment within Upwork. The payments the client sent to me are shown as “expense reimbursement” on Upwork.

We agreed this project will be 3200 USD every week, the client continues to add more work that day after I finished the first phase. This continues until I have to stop, they then switched to hourly and the contract soon got suspended. I end up have 2:20 hours work rate 950 USD in my account, and all the payment previous have gone.

Some payment I sent has been used to buy cryptocurrency. The payment receiving end maybe have no any association with the scammer. Another sin on the cryptocurrency.

Upwork suspended and blocked my account right away, the chat history has gone, I can’t continue my other ongoing projects. No response from their own ticket system, I only got response many days later after I post on their CEO’s Twitter and LinkedIn posts day after day. They only restored my account, no any compensation.

How do I perceive:

This incident is devastating, I lost most of my savings, and a lot of time. Much more long-term psychology damage.
I was along in a foreign country, the message from Upwork are not just work opportunities but also communications with others. You can imagine how I fell when I say the email after I wake up on the Lunar New Year, which suppose to be the most important and happy day in my culture.
I was thinking as long as we do the communication and payment on Upwork and let Upwork keep their 10%, it should be OK. Little do I know, Upwork is a shithole in terms of security.
I’ll keep pursuing my legal rights and justice.

Upwork responsibilities:

The loophole has been in Upwork for years. They keep letting freelancer getting scammed, return the money to the scammer, suspend the case, and say it’s not their responsibility. No, Upwork are the only one has the information and power to stop and reverse these bad things, hence their responsibility to mitigate the scammers and compensate the victims. Especially since they are a public company and have maybe the largest market share in the world.
The same exact scam still on going in Upwork months after my incident. They should be shamed about themselves.

Below are some of the screenshots.

Work history: