I didn’t check the ToC in a while but last time I did if you got a client through Upwork you cannot work with them outside of their platform for two years otherwise you and the client risk a fine.

Not even contract to hire? What kind of fine are we talking about?

“ The Conversion Fee is 13.5% of estimated earnings over a 12-month period in each specific client-freelancer relationship. Learn more”.

It seems they changed it quite a bit since the last time I looked at it. You can find more information about it here: https://support.upwork.com/hc/en-us/articles/360043210654-Co...

An empty threat. There’s no way they would know.

The worst that can happen is that they can deplatform you as far as I can tell from the ToCs so I bet some people will do just that if their fees go up at the end of the year.