Quick help needed! Can Word/Excel get hacked?

[kerlynn7]

Hi all!! Hoping for a quick response on this one. A prospective buyer messaged me about two opportunities. Long story short, he asked me to edit some articles on his website and to send over the links of which articles I’d like to edit (as a sample of my work) by listing their URLs in a Word doc…so I did that, went to sleep (he’s in Asia), and then this morning he said he hired someone else. Now he’s presenting another opportunity for me to complete a data entry project that involves me entering ad publishing data into an Excel file - I need to send over a sample first to make sure I fully understand. My “hacker/scam” radar is on high alert. Does this sound fishy and/or is it possible for hackers to somehow infiltrate your Microsoft Office Suite by gaining access to your files? Any quick responses would be appreciated because I have to get back to him. Thanks for your help!

[kerlynn7]

I should also mention this buyer has zero history on Fiverr.

[uk1000]

I don’t know about the hacker thing but if he is asking for a ‘sample’ but actually wants some of the work done that could be part of the scam - ie. he could be getting free work done, and may be asking multiple sellers to do a different part of it.

Also if you’ve not got a data entry gig you’d need one before you could send an offer/he could order. Other sellers here would say you shouldn’t do work before you have an order. If you wanted to create a data entry gig you could do that and create an example of the kind of thing you’d do for it (not free specific work).

[theratypist]

Do you save your Microsoft Office files directly to your computer or to the cloud through Microsoft OneDrive? Anyhow, the likelihood is no I don’t think he is looking to hacking your MS Office Suite. To access files (saved on your computer) related to MS Office Suite such as an Excel file would mean someone has access to your computer remotely in general. Another story is if you save it on cloud on OneDrive, but sounds unlikely based on the conversation. Unless there’s something else that happened like log in credentials or random (scammy) links you pressed that would compromise your data.

[This is just my opinion]
Anyway, what I think happened with the first job is he preferred the other person for reasons we cannot be sure of, perhaps he liked the urls he chose more, maybe he was able to continue a convo with that person (as you said you went to sleep) after sending those links in, etc.

The second gig is, is this inputted online through a general shared online file in Excel? Or just an offline file that you complete and send back to him. Anyhow, I still don’t think this is hacking related unless again there is part of the story I did not hear.

There are a lot of buyers who don’t have a history when you check into their profile. Especially those who newly made accounts just recently. Likely you are the one the first few sellers he/she has worked with or that person doesn’t bother to make reviews in general (which is also common) resulting to him not having history shown on his profile.

Go with your gut instinct if you feel uncomfortable working with him then by all means don’t. You can also try a smaller order or small order with that person and see how that works out before moving forward to heavier tasks.

[kerlynn7]

I don’t know about the hacker thing but if he is asking for a ‘sample’ but actually wants some of the work done that could be part of the scam - ie. he could be getting free work done, and may be asking multiple sellers to do a different part of it.

Also if you’ve not got a data entry gig you’d need one before you could send an offer/he could order. Other sellers here would say you shouldn’t do work before you have an order. If you wanted to create a data entry gig you could do that and create an example of the kind of thing you’d do for it (not free specific work).

Thanks for your quick reply!! This sounds like it’s against the Fiverr rules to do work wherein the scope falls outside of your Gig??

[kerlynn7]

Do you save your Microsoft Office files directly to your computer or to the cloud through Microsoft OneDrive? Anyhow, the likelihood is no I don’t think he is looking to hacking your MS Office Suite. To access files (saved on your computer) related to MS Office Suite such as an Excel file would mean someone has access to your computer remotely in general. Another story is if you save it on cloud on OneDrive, but sounds unlikely based on the conversation. Unless there’s something else that happened like log in credentials or random (scammy) links you pressed that would compromise your data.

[This is just my opinion]

Anyway, what I think happened with the first job is he preferred the other person for reasons we cannot be sure of, perhaps he liked the urls he chose more, maybe he was able to continue a convo with that person (as you said you went to sleep) after sending those links in, etc.

The second gig is, is this inputted online through a general shared online file in Excel? Or just an offline file that you complete and send back to him. Anyhow, I still don’t think this is hacking related unless again there is part of the story I did not hear.

There are a lot of buyers who don’t have a history when you check into their profile. Especially those who newly made accounts just recently. Likely you are the one the first few sellers he/she has worked with or that person doesn’t bother to make reviews in general (which is also common) resulting to him not having history shown on his profile.

Go with your gut instinct if you feel uncomfortable working with him then by all means don’t. You can also try a smaller order or small order with that person and see how that works out before moving forward to heavier tasks.

Thank you so much for this quick, thorough reply!! Truly appreciate it. 🙏

[uk1000]

Thanks for your quick reply!! This sounds like it’s against the Fiverr rules to do work wherein the scope falls outside of your Gig??

I don’t know of a specific rule, though there’s the “Gigs misleading to Buyers or others” rule.

eg. if there was a review on a particular gig with no explanation then that could be misleading to other buyers if the service delivered was completely different to what is described in the gig description.

It’s safest to create/use a gig that’s close enough to what the buyer wants (eg. if they want data entry, have a data entry or virtual assistant gig or something similar and I wouldn’t do data entry in a proofreading gig).

edit: though maybe the “editing” part of the gig could cover it, though I think it would still be safer to have a data entry type gig for it.

[kerlynn7]

I don’t know of a specific rule, though there’s the “Gigs misleading to Buyers or others” rule.

eg. if there was a review on a particular gig with no explanation then that could be misleading to other buyers if the service delivered was completely different to what is described in the gig description.

It’s safest to create/use a gig that’s close enough to what the buyer wants (eg. if they want data entry, have a data entry or virtual assistant gig or something similar and I wouldn’t do data entry in a proofreading gig).

edit: though maybe the “editing” part of the gig could cover it, though I think it would still be safer to have a data entry type gig for it.

Super insightful and a great nugget to consider coming out of this experience - thank you so much!! 🙏