While they were never outward about the end goal it was a mix of money laundering and identity laundering. No joke I stopped using Upwork after the novelty wore off and it was a regular occurrence. Also of note, they almost always said something about how they were Chinese and wanted to do this because they could not get legit work with their identity or some other BS. This was not one time but at least half a dozen. Would love to hear from someone who took them up on these offers.

edit: will add that I speak some Chinese, I had Zoom calls with them on one occasion. I was able to glean that maybe they were not being aboveboard about their nationality and also that there were a bunch of people in the background running the same script. All so bizarre. Best guess? They use compromised PayPals to pay people out without a care what happens, launder some of the money because why not? And then they get access to a Stateside identity with an endpoint they can do god only knows what with.