Avoid there are so many complaints about it.
So many scams on Upwork...This is a warning to my fellow freelance webdevs.
Here is my story. I recently entered into the web dev game, I am trying to find my first freelance job (with no success so far).
Yesterday, I saw a post about someone needing a website and I applied. The client messaged me on Upwork, we talked a bit then wanted to move the convo to Telegram (first red flag). I was desperate so I said okay.
We talk, he wants me to create a website for a local restaurant (a real place). I said to myself, okay good this seems to be legit.
I say that I want to be paid through Upwork, I'll even lower the price if they want to avoid paying Upwork's cut, so they'd essentially be paying the same amount although I'd be getting less. Reviews are more important than money I said to myself.
He says he wants to pay with crypto (second red flag). I asked how would he guarantee that I'd be paid, and he said he'd be paying me up front once he sees that I actually work on his project. So I write the html, do some minor styling and send him a screenshot as proof. He says it looks great (wtf it is just html?) and that he'll be sending me my BTC. I give him my wallet address but no, he wants me sign up to a particular platform because there is a limit on sending btc to outside the platform on this particular exchange and he had already reached it this month (third red flag).
FINE. I sign up to the website and send him my email so that he can wire me the BTC. He sends me fucking 0.15 BTC (3500 dollars) for a one page static website. Being the good, honest boy my mom raised me I say that that is too much and I'll do it for 500 (even that is high I know, I got a little greedy). He won't respond to my texts at this point. Anyways, I try to withdraw BTC from the exchange (just 500 dollars) to confirm that this is not a scam. And this is the point where I realized it was, indeed, a scam.
Whenever I try to withdraw, the exchange displays a pop up says that withdraw failed because blah blah blah. I try a couple more times to be sure, and it won't work. So I dig in to the source code of the webpage. And there it is:
success: function(response) {
var user_balance = parseFloat(response);
if(address == "" || address.length < 10) {
noti("Please enter a valid wallet address", "error"); } else if(amount == "") {
noti("Please enter the amount to withdraw", "error"); } else if(amount > user_balance) {
noti("You don't have enough balance to withdraw", "error"); } else {
$.ajax({
url: "../ajax/ajax", type: "POST", data: {
action: "WITHDRAW", amount: amount, crypto: crypto, address: address
success: function(response) {
var json = JSON.parse(response); $("#withdraw_error").css("display", "flex"); $("#withdraw_error_text").html(json['withdraw_error']);This goddamn exchange has a set function that displays an error whenever you try to withdraw from it. I have been texting this 'client' for the last hour, no response (obviously).
I asked him to walk me through the scam but he won't reply. What was even the point of doing this? Is he a web dev that got a job from this local business and is he trying to get the work done by someone else for free?
Anyways ladies and gentlemen, this is how I lost hours of my time to an Upwork scam. Still haven't gotten my first freelance job.
Be careful out there.
Cheers
