Scammers are on site
I spent a lot of time being scammed yesterday. They wanted me to print a check off from a pdf file and cash it at my bank to by equipment for my home. DON"T do it peeps!!! This is not how it is done and don't fall for it.
Question:What protections does this site have in place to protect us and what do you do about these fools? Is there a specific place for us to report them?
-
Official comment
Hi there,
To ensure the safety and security of the community, all communications must be kept within the workstream and are outlined in our T&Cs. Anyone who mentions telegram is a particularly strong indicator of something that isn't a real project.
We take these events very seriously and will immediately remove any user who goes against our T&Cs and is seen to be a threat to our community.
Please be aware that any communication outside the platform is strictly forbidden and is considered a breach of our T&Cs.
Best wishes,
The Community Team
Comment actions -
1. You read the terms and conditions and do not communicate via telegram or other means.
2. Click on 'send feedback for this project' at the bottom of the project brief page. I've reported 11 today, and six yesterday. They should be picked up by PPH before being posted, but there doesn't appear to be moderation. Instead, they just tell us that working outside of the platform breaches terms and conditions and yo can be deactivated.
Always read the terms and conditions of a site before doing any work.... Make sure there's payment in Escrow before you start. And use a bit of common sense. If something doesn't seem right, it generally isn't.
-
The site is becoming overrun with scammers, because they are having success. There is an abundant supply of gullible people who will fall for them in their desperation to earn some money. PPH have let it get out of control. Of the handful of jobs I've seen this week, I have my doubts about how real some of them are. I applied for one last weekend that was later deleted and PPH said the buyer had been removed from the site. There were two I saw involving Excel that were both £363, and posted close together but completely different descriptions and from different countries, although I don't trust the description of a buyer's country on PPH. I left both of them because something didn't seem right about them.
Nancy's advice is spot on. Use the platform as it is intended and get the money up front in escrow before you do any work and definitely don't spend money on the promise of having more work, when the promise is coming from an unverified complete stranger.
I have had some success on PPH over the years, but I have to accept that I will usually be working for 25% to 50% of what I consider the proper rate, and it is usually quite hard work, and projects are often more complex than the buyer originally indicated. Nobody comes along and gives me a huge pile of cash for doing something easy.
I often discuss the job with the buyer off the platform and I'm not entirely sure where this fits in the terms and conditions. I thought it was frowned upon but not actually forbidden. Buyers frequently want to talk about a project by Zoom/Teams or a phone call before they appoint a freelancer. They are worried about scams and quality as well. I always make it clear that the next step is for them to go back to PPH and accept the proposal and pay the escrow and until then, it is not a project and I can't work on it.
Please sign in to leave a comment.
Comments
5 comments