Z-lib.is Legit
Mica Withington
You know that I have been doing anti-piracy on the Internet, on a regular basis (click here). And that is why I believe that the US administration may have seized some Z-Lib domains, but not (all) websites that are linked with these domains. I rather believe that the US administration has seized some Z-Lib domains and linked them with new websites. The old Z-Lib websites are still there but they are not (all) accessible.
And there is no excuse for these bureaucrats for trying to install a virus on my computer because I am one of the legitimate users of Z-Lib: I am providing my own books there, for free download by interested readers. I have to check every now and then whether they are still available there. I know many authors who deliberately put their own works on Z-Lib, for several reasons:
My thesis is this: the administration should not be allowed to punish innocent users of a public database if there is a way to remove those works that are not wanted to be published there. That should go without saying.
Distributed databases and improved storage and data transfer rates make it possible to provide infringing works to end consumers even if national parts of public worldwide Internet databases are shut down.
People who deliberately download copyright-infringing works know what they are doing. Copyright laws and regulations are in many countries of this world not designed to make pure downloads by end-users illegal: downloading a file from someone else who breached copyright and using that file for personal use is not seen as a breach of law in these countries.
Copyright, specially in literary works, is thus not an inevitable, divine, or natural right that confers on authors the absolute ownership of their creations. It is designed rather to stimulate activity and progress in the arts for the intellectual enrichment of the public.
Hello Upwork, My name is Wehibeselassie Gidey, i am a member of upwork, i had a chance to meet clients twice on your platform but they both tell me to meet them on telegram and they asked me some questions like my name, my country... Anyhow the end of story is they asked me money for company ID, deposit and things like that. They are scammers right? Did you allow scammers to post on your platform like they were employers? they messed with my feeling i was hoping to work and get paid, not to be hustled by scammers
Oh my, I hope you didn't give them your money. I just received a message similar to that earlier asking me to message them on Telegram. I also got a similar message from another freelance platform and posted as connected to Halifax, his Telegram avatar showing a fake Profit Factory logo, sent me a pdf file bearing the Kairox Services stationery and asked me to create 20 logo designs in 2 days for $3600 but I already raised my suspicions from the start. I googled Profit Factory website and saw that their logo is different from the one in his avatar pic then googled his name and saw only one with a blank profile picture on his Facebook. I also googled Halifax Public Library website and while they have job openings but its very different from the job openings that person told me. Finally I googled Kairox Services and immediately saw a forum about the Kairox services scam with freelancers telling their stories similar to yours and some of them have similar ones that was offered to me.
I say beware of those who ask you to message them outside of Upwork chat box nor those who claim offering you a $1000 or so amount in exchange for doing small work such as creating logo designs or translating pages to another language. Although Upwork has a team who closely monitors scam activities but sometimes scammers can still get away posing as legit clients which is why its important that we help them by clicking the "Flagged" button below the about client part. Before accepting their job offer, make sure to research the client or the organization's name first. Check their social media accounts such as Facebook and especially Linked In. Scammers use fake websites, fake logos but almost always they're not on social media. Real businesses no matter how small they are obviously have very active social media presence so a business that has no social media presence is a fake. And finally, never give away your personal information especially your bank account, Paypal and other sensitive details that these morons could use against you.
I think what's problematic is that Upwork didn't deal with this as a serious issue back in December or January when the number of scam jobs started exploding. Some of the scammers are becoming more sophisticated and they've moved on from publishing obvious scam jobs to contacting freelancers directly.
Why are the scammers here? Follow the money. They find enough naive people who don't know how the platform works to scam them. Why do people not educate themselves before using upwork? I don't know, so I'm asking you: what could upwork have done to make you aware that you have to be careful when applying to jobs?
I've sent two proposals that turned out to be scams. When someone's reply to my proposal is to immediately direct me to another site, I know it's garbage and report them. They get nothing from me, but it's still a frustrating waste of time. I'm getting better at spotting scams upfront, though. There are so many easy typing/data-entry/watch-paint-dry posts offering suspiciously high pay, and not surprisingly, they turned out to be fake. In general, be wary of scammer grammar, plus make note when you notice multiple job listings that use nearly identical wording and nearly identical pay, all for jobs that seem too good. I wish job ads here were vetted.
Same thing happened to me but they never asked me for money after I finished my task, they just asked me for my bank account so that they can send me my salary. Payment is verified too. What do I do? Should I give my bank account?
No. You should definitely not give them your bank account number.
You need to read the Upwork Terms of Service (go to the black area at the bottom of this page and click the link to the Terms of Service). Agreeing to be paid outside of Upwork can result in your account being closed.
Not true. I flagged a job days ago that responded to my proposal with an offsite scam, and nothing happened. I still don't have my points back. The scams I've seen thus far all respond with some vague language like "Your application has been receieved. Please click here." This one reads:
Yes, there are lots of scammers and it is dissapointing, especially because they target people who are new to the platform. But scammers are inevitable on the internet. Upwork does its best to get rid of them but it can't stop them trying.
However, don't let this put you off. Upwork is not a scam itself, there are real clients and lots of people earn a good living through Upwork. But it can be an uphill battle to begin with. The first thing is knowing that there are scammers and learning to avoid them, no matter how much you'd like them to be real clients.
Hi Wehibe,
Yes, those are scams. You should never pay any client to work for them. They're supposed to pay us.
I think this is a good article for anyone starting out on Upwork to read. It explains a bit about how Upwork works in terms of job posting. Everyone should understand that the jobs posted on Upwork aren't vetted and Upwork doesn't evaluate any of the clients who post here. It's a freelancer's responsability to check out their clients.
-Blog/Top-Red-Flags-for-Scams-From-Community-Member-Wes-C/b...
Unfortunately, scammers do post on the platform, and their numbers seem to have increased exponentially this year. You can report the clients who ask you to pay fees. And you can report any jobs you see that provide Telegram and WhatsApp contact information. I wish Upwork would find a way to filter them before they are posted publically.