Upwork does NOT vet freelancers.
Upwork does NOT guarantee that any of the details on the freelancer's page are accurate.
Upwork does more than most any other competing platform to verify freelancer information such as name, location, photo. But those things are not foolproof. Nobody at Upwork is going to guarantee the information on a freelancer profile page,
Does it matter? If it matters to you, then that is fine. I have no problem with that. But if you need to verify something, you will need to do it yourself.
For most work done on Upwork, it doesn't matter.
I hire a lot on Upwork. A couple of weeks ago I hired an artist to create an illustration of a duck wearing a business suit. I provided specific instructions. The artist did a great job. I was able to observe the steps in detail in the work diary. I NEVER verified the name of the artist. I never verified that he actually lives in the city he said he lives in. What if some of that information was false? I am quite certain it was accurate. But what if it wasn't? Oh well. I still have my picture of a duck.
You need to decide for yourself what amount of verification you require.
re: "is it a high risk for foul play?"
Probably not.
Why would there be risk?
You aren't hiring him to be executor of your estate. What do you want him to do?
Is there actually any risk involved in hiring a stranger?
You can monitor the work and fire the freelancer whenever you wanted to.
When I hired an artist to illustrate a duck, and I didn't vet him, how much have risk was there?
What if he turned out to be not a very good artist? I could simply end the contract at any time.
Whatever you are hiring this freelancer to do, you should be taking steps to minimize risk, regardless of if you met him face to face, or if he is your brother, or a stranger. If he is creating a website for you, you should have a backup of data and a repository of source code EVEN IF HE IS the world's most trustworthy person. What if he died suddenly? You need to mitigate risk no matter what.
