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1f2854ad
Community Member

**Edited** scammers

Why does Upwork continue to allow these scammers to use the site, even when they know they are a fraud?  

Numerous times now I have hired an "american" or "canadian" that claims to have excellent writting skills, etc and its obvious when they submit their work they are NOT from this continent!  Then upwork will suspend their account and I think great - they have found out that is person has a fake profile, fake identity, is lying, etc and they have shut them down.  

 

I hired from **Edited for community guidelines**!  The name changes.  The picture changes.  And now I have a contract with a guy **Edited for community guidelines**

And Upwork allows them to do this!?!  Even after lying and scamming people??

 

Now these scammers are holding my money hostage for a week because they are disputing my refund requests.

 

Can someone explain this to me?  Upwork is faciliting a haven for these scammers.  This has happened to my SEVERAL times.  What can I do to prevent this other than leave Upwork, which I am now on the verge of doing.

 

Any assistance or advice would be appreciated.

 

 

15 REPLIES 15
mwiggenhorn
Community Member

Have you tried a video or telephone interview prior to hiring?  My understanding is that it's a good way to weed out the scammers.  If they won't do an interview, forget them.

petra_r
Community Member


Mary S wrote:

What can I do to prevent this other than leave Upwork, which I am now on the verge of doing.

Any assistance or advice would be appreciated.


If you want native US and / or Canadian writers, hire those who charge genuine US / Canadian rates and TALK to them before hiring. Even a 2 minute call will do. You'll hear if they are lying about their location and most of the location liars won't agree to the call in the first place.

1f2854ad
Community Member

Thanks for the ideas to talk to them. Great idea! Does seem rather
pathetic on the part of the upwork that they would continue to allow a
person to change their identity in an attempt to mislead clients.

re: "Does seem rather pathetic on the part of the upwork that they would continue to allow a person to change their identity in an attempt to mislead clients."

 

Mary:

I am sorry that you were frustrated by this.

But Upwork's rules do not actually allow this.

 

Upwork is stricter about this than just about any website you will find.

Upwork has separate identify verification protocols that freelancers undergo, including requiring freelancers to do a video verification interview in which they appear live on camera to confirm that they are in real life who they claim to be on their profile page.

 

But there are millions of Upwork freelancers. There are people who have not yet been confirmed, and some slip through the cracks.

 

It is a matter Upwork takes seriously and you are welcome to flag any freelancer profile as fake if you encounter such a thing, using the "Flag as inappropriate" link button in the top right hand corner of the freelancer profile page.


Preston H wrote:

But Upwork's rules do not actually allow this.

 

 


This is not true. Upwork rules may not allow this, but Upwork does very little to actually enforce them. They have backdoors in their auto approval system that a whole continent knows about. Everybody here and on Reddit is discussing about these, and they are still sitting on their hands.

 

Fake profiles are legion harming everybody. It's been that way for months or years, but still no reaction from Upwork.

 

 

 

-----------
"Where darkness shines like dazzling light"   —William Ashbless

 

 


Rene K wrote:

Preston H wrote:

But Upwork's rules do not actually allow this.

 

 


This is not true. Upwork rules may not allow this, but Upwork does very little to actually enforce them. They have backdoors in their auto approval system that a whole continent knows about. Everybody here and on Reddit is discussing about these, and they are still sitting on their hands.

 

Fake profiles are legion harming everybody. It's been that way for months or years, but still no reaction from Upwork.

 

 

 


_____________________________________
+1000


Preston H wrote:

Upwork is stricter about this than just about any website you will find.

Upwork has separate identify verification protocols that freelancers undergo, including requiring freelancers to do a video verification interview in which they appear live on camera to confirm that they are in real life who they claim to be on their profile page.

 

But there are millions of Upwork freelancers. There are people who have not yet been confirmed, and some slip through the cracks.


I think you are missing the point Mary was making.

Her point was that people who have clearly been proved to have faked their entire identity are allowed to continue on the site after changing their profile to the correct (more or less) details.

 

Clients have reported to how startled they were when they hired some blonde girl called Shannon from Toronto in Canada on Monday, and a week later blonde Shannon had morphed into a very unblonde dude residing in an african country....

1f2854ad
Community Member

Thank you. You are correct. When this happens repeatedly there is clearly
a disturbing problem. Here in the US a contract actually means something
and when the person you have a contract with changes identities (with the
knowledge and support of upwork) there is a serious problem with their
vetting system.

Clients have reported to how startled they were when they hired some blonde
girl called Shannon from Toronto in Canada on Monday, and a week later
blonde Shannon had morphed into a very unblonde dude residing in an african
country....

Yes!

Thank you for letting me know about the "Flag as Inappropropriate" on the site.  I have gone in and flagged 5 people that have morphed from women in the US or Canada and are now men in Nigeria.  

BojanS
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi Mary,

 

I'm sorry to hear about your experience with this freelancer. We have escalated your issue to our team and they have already reached out to you via this support ticket. Please consider following up on that ticket and our team will be more than happy to assist you accordingly.

 

Thanks so much for your patience.

~ Bojan
Upwork
1f2854ad
Community Member

Bojan S.

The guy just admitted to me that he set up a fake account under a womens name, etc and now has changed his identity.  

Please tell me this is against Upworks terms and Upwork will up a stop to this.  

have flagged these accounts.  

I have responded to support tickets.  

I have repsonded to disputes.  

These acocunts are still active, my money is still being held in escrow and I no response from Upwork on any of it.

I've spent over 60k dollars on Upwork in the last 4 months. I'd at least like to hear someone say that fake accounts aren't allowed.

Hi Mary, 

 

Thanks for replying to the tickets. I understand this is frustrating so I also checked on the status and see that the team is actively working on this and has been in touch with you. Bojan and I will also follow up with them and make sure you'll receive an update today.

~ Valeria
Upwork

re: "I'd at least like to hear someone say that fake accounts aren't allowed."

 

Fake accounts are not allowed.

 

That is to say: Upwork's ToS does not allow freelancers to post fake information. Freelancers are required to use their real names, real location, real photo of themselves. These are the rules, and Upwork is unequivocal about these rules. You will not find any Upwork representative saying that fake accounts are allowed.

 

However, Upwork has millions of freelancers. It is a significant task to enforce this policy. There ARE freelancers who violate the rules on this platform, as there are probably users who violate the rules on every major website, and there are probably residents who violate laws in every country.

 

You have every right to be disappointed by your experiences with fake freelancers. You are correct if you have come to believe that Upwork's execution of its identity verification programs and policies is incomplete and imperfect. But the answer to your question is very simple, even if that answer in and of itself may not bring sufficient solace to anyone who has experienced the reality versus the idea.

Thank you, Preston.  I just wanted to be sure that it was in fact against the Terms. I wasn't able to find it in the terms, but the terms are long!  

The terms you are looking for are here:

 

"The following are examples of uses that are prohibited on the Site...
...misrepresenting your experience, skills, or information, including by representing another person’s profile... using a profile photo that misrepresents your identity or represents you as someone else... impersonating any person or entity..."

 

https://www.upwork.com/legal#terms-of-use

 

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