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Provider Safety
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We treat the safety of our users very seriously. Most users are legitimate but it is important to be cautious. We recommend the following:
- Communicate through the oDesk Message Center.
- Do not give out your passwords, bank info, etc.
- Work hourly jobs, logging your time with the oDesk Team application and checking your work diary daily.
In addition, the following safety precautions are not only recommended, but required.
- Do not include your contact info in your cover letters (email, telephone number, etc.). This is a violation of oDesk policy. Report buyers who share contact info in their job posts. You should not to have direct contact until the interview stage.
- Only accept payment for work through oDesk; report anyone trying to take you outside the system.
oDesk is one of the safest places to find work from home. But we count on our community to report inappropriate jobs and buyers. This is why we have a flag as inappropriate link at the top of every job post. For your own safety during the application process and while on assignment:
- Never pay anything to work for a buyer. oDesk charges the buyer a few on top of your earnings. You should not pay any fees to the buyer or to any website the buyer sends you to - even if they claim it is reimbursable. Immediately report anyone who asks you to pay anything as part of the application or interview process.
- Never agree to cash checks or money orders and send the money somewhere. There is no legitimate reason anyone would ever want to give you a check or money order and then ask you to send any of the money anywhere in return. The same goes for processing PayPal or other online payments for someone else.
- Never accept direct payment from a buyer (via PayPal, Western Union or any other method); report anyone trying to take you outside the system.
- Do not start working on any job before you've been hired on oDesk. You can confirm you've been hired (and the start date) in My Jobs > Assignments.
Trust your instincts. If a job, buyer or another provider seems suspicious, contact Customer Support. Your identity will not be shared with the user you have flagged. Our support team will review the claim and take action as appropriate.
Your oDesk account is protected by a password and security question. To maintain the integrity of your account:
- Add a security email address to receive vital security notifications.
- Never share your password or security question with others.
- Do not allow others to log in as you. A user ID belongs to an individual; each person must register for a unique user ID.
- Change your password or security question regularly and if you ever suspect they have been compromised.
- Watch out for phishing schemes.
oDesk offers guaranteed payment on hourly assignments. But it is your responsibility to do the work and log the time. Take full advantage of the oDesk Team application and work diary to ensure that every hour worked is an hour paid.
- oDesk Team application
- This time tracking tool is used on hourly assignments to enable automated billing. You should use this application to log all your time on hourly assignments. The time is automatically uploaded to the work diary and used to create weekly timelog reports. The buyer is automatically billed based on these timelogs.
- Work Diary
- This window into your virtual office allows you and your workteam to see exactly what you are working on with screenshots and activity levels uploaded six times per hour. You even have the option to include webcam pictures! Each day you should check over your memos, task codes and screenshots. Remove any time you were not working. Do a final review at the end of every work week. If there's a problem after the work diary locks, you can refund the time.
