Job scammers are targeting freelancers on Upwork, a freelance platform for professionals to connect; and Fiverr, a similar work platform.

An X user who shared the warning on Saturday said that the scammers are targeting freelancers by sending corrupt zip documents to them under the pretense of enlisting their services for ad placements.

The post stated that the hackers are looking to hack into the freelancer’s desktop computer and then create a gateway to access their payment platform before emptying their account.

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“Some fake clients on Upwork and Fiverr are sending corrupted zip documents to freelancers to hack into their desktop computers and possibly access their payment platforms to withdraw their earnings,” he wrote.

Latest job scam. December is close. Thread carefully pic.twitter.com/116Hayho77

— Omoalhaja (@omoalhajaabiola) October 28, 2023

The post revealed that most of these hackers have a pattern which is to penetrate freelancers by claiming to want to run Facebook and Google ads, and that the gigs come with juicy offers.

“The scammers will claim to want to run Facebook and Google ads with a very high budget of about $20,000 (an equivalent of N15 million) per month and give an exciting offer of $15 – $25 ( an equivalent of N11, 000 to N19, 000) per hour for over 15 hours weekly,” the X user said.

He said that one of the easiest ways to identify the scammers is that they demand to forward the project document to an email address which is often their access point into the freelancer’s computer.

“The easy way to identify them is that in the conversation, they will ask for an email address so that they can send a document that contains the project details,” said the X user.

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“This document is usually locked as ‘.eze’, and to unzip it is usually very difficult, but they will even be willing to guide you with the unzipping process so that they can gain access. When you request to get on a Zoom call with them, they’ll refuse.”

While some X users who reacted to the post said they had received the corrupt zip files from clients they did not suspect to be hackers, an NBC News report from 2020 showed that about $40 million was lost to scammers targeting freelancers on Upwork, Fiverr and other freelancing platforms during the pandemic.