I had a freelancer.com account a while ago. Recently I just tried to login and see if I could still have access. Turned out to be, right after I logged in, I see a few direct-hire “offers” without me even sending any proposals.

Fantastic! I thought that’s great I could start working on it right away.

One of the scammers with user name “dakosa98798sam” 2 days agosent me a chat:

Hello

Creativity Household is in need of a virtual assistant  to represent and work virtually for the gallery in handling customers services,invoice,data entry and also data processing .Biding freelancers should have an excellent customer service and must be outcome-oriented. The gallery needs an assistant that will help manage its data entry,customer,Ed services,reply to emails,handle data processing and also handle all that deals with invoicing and recordings,creating and design website…JI went through your profile and I think you are qualified for this job. I am looking forward to working with you.i want you to know that you will be paid 300$ per week. You are required to work for three hours a day and you let me know when it’s okay for you to work each day of the week so i can work around such time with you. however, you are not required to make any form of financial investment into  This project as the gallery will bear the full cost of running the gallery. Likewise,your major duty will be to attend to customers’ requests via mail. I also want you to know that the gallery specializes in the online sales of artwork via freelancers who are interested in representing the gallery at their various location please send me a mail at creativityhousehold@gmail.com so i can provide you more details regarding this project and also on how to proceed. Thank you

Immediately after, I received another “direct-hire” offer:

I am currently on a business trip so i need a customer assistant to represent my gallery. I want you to know that you will be paid $400 per week. You are to work for just three hours a day and you are to let me know the convenient … chat me on email bennyroyaltygalleryinc101@gmail.com so i can provide you more information about the project.

This made me a bit suspicious but I responded to each of them anyway. However, they did not respond in freelancer platform. They may expect me to respond to their email they provided in the chat instead.

I did some research on Google. What they actually do is like this:

They may use someone else’s credit cards to purchase lots of merchandise. But they cannot change the shipping address because if they do that credit card company may reject the payment if the shipping address does not match billing address. They will then call the credit card holders and disguise them as a courier service saying they delivered a package to their home “by mistake” and their “employees” will go pick them up from their house soon. So they will “hire” you as their virtual/personal assistant in freelancer.com to pick up those packages for them and mail to the addresses they provide you. Later, they may send you a check, but that’s fake, you’ll end up “working” for them for free, potentially being charged by your bank as the check will eventually be bounced back.

More seriously, you may be on the hook for those criminal activities. Police may track you down and get you arrested as you seem to be involved in this fraudulent activities.

I reported to freelancer.com. I am surprised that their platform is full of those fake jobs and they did not take any actions upon them. Who will join this site infested with scammers?

This is not over.

The most bizzar thing is, on the same night, I got a scammer saying that they are very interested in my profile and may offer me the opportunity. Here are our conversation in Freelancer chat:

Hello good day
User Avatar
How are you doing?
Hi
Thanks
I am good.
I am very interested in the project you posted.
I have done the imports many times with WP
When can I get started?
User Avatar
Are you available for the job?
Yes
User Avatar
Can i see your previous portfolio?
I am new to Freelancer.com , but I have been in software industry for many years
I have a few of my own WP web sites
such as blog.dengsoft.com
I am very confident that I can get yours done with professional grade
User Avatar
Hold let me check
Sure
Okay nice work
User Avatar
I love your design
Thanks
User Avatar
Can i forward the project details so you can have a clearer picture of what i want?
Yes, please
Is it via email?
Kindly download the document via wettransfer https://fil.email/nn2WEBSP
User Avatar
I await your feedback
Sure
Sorry somehow Chrome blocked it. Any other way to access it?
Try another way to download it
That is a zip file
Download and extract
I'm on mobile now
User Avatar
The doc is inside
I am trying with another browser
You may have to re-zip
my 7-zip said it's not a valid archive/zip file
What are you trying to say
User Avatar
Did you click on it?
I downloaded, but cannot open that zip file somehow
Extracting that file failed
User Avatar
Can you make a screenshot of it
image.png
image.png
I used MS Edge browser
now I can see, it's an .exe file?
Is this the one you sent me?
If this .exe is the only file you sent me, can you send me the actual files - text files etc as long as it provided info what to be done. My PC / anti-virus does not allow me to open this .exe file, sorry
You have do al you can to download it
User Avatar
That's the file for the Company
Seen by superjasper41
I downloaded it, but in that zip file, it has only one .exe file
Can you let me know why it's an .exe file? My PC would not open an .exe file from third-party, sorry
Can you screen capture all the necessary info as imgaes and send them to me?
Can you kindly confirm/clarify and get back to me?
??
13 SEP 2020 · 12:10 PM
If you do not respond, I am going to report to freelancer and police as you are trying to scam me and lure me to download an exe file that may have virus and damage my PC.
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This freelancer.com user, superjasper41, posted the following job:

Need help finishing a WordPress import feature Open Details

Project Details

$250.00 – 750.00 USD BIDDING ENDS IN 4 DAYS, 9 HOURS

I need help understanding how an import feature was configured by a prior developer. We would then need to determine the next steps to complete the importer (possibly other solutions if they are more user friendly). Ideally the candidate would have experience in custom WordPress builds and large data sets (over 100k entries).

https://www.freelancer.com/projects/wordpress/Need-help-finishing-Wordpress-import-27319772/details

Actually, superjasper41 tried to scam me and lure me to download an .exe file that may have virus and damage my PC. I am going to report to freelancer.com and police as this user has the intent to steal my data and damage my PC after I download and click that .exe file he/she sent me. – Why he/she sent an .exe for project details anyway? Is there any other explanation a company/job poster sent you an .exe to provide job description?? I later sent superjasper41 a chat message via freelancer platform to ask for clarification – as you expected it, this user blocked me from sending messages as I may be scammed and victimized. This user superjasper41 should be banned and reported to police from freelancer.com and get prosecuted so innocent people there will get protected!