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boris268
Community Member

New Paying system is getting Abused by Scam Clients

I noticed since a month or so since the new System is active where we Freelancers have to pay to get work. There is more and more jobs that actually appear for 1-2 days make freelancers spend their points and the job gets closed with our loss as freelancers.

Not only is that abussive and wrong Upwork seams to not give a sh...

There is no security measure for clients to post a job for example and add some small sum lets say 10$-50$ in pre pay to actually post a job. Because they can freely post a job they can do this a lot.
They don't even need to verfiy their account or paying method to post a job. Real clients would do that.
I feel at a loss because 50% of jobs I apply in this niche I work in dissapear without any hires even when there is 20 people applying to the job.

Someone is trying to make the competition spend their hard earned money to apply for jobs so they can apply themself on real jobs when they come. Will Upwork ever give a shi... and fix this problem or is it really time to let go of Upwork as a Freelancer?

8 REPLIES 8
petra_r
Community Member


Boris R wrote:

There is more and more jobs that actually appear for 1-2 days make freelancers spend their points and the job gets closed with our loss as freelancers.

I feel at a loss because 50% of jobs I apply in this niche I work in dissapear without any hires even when there is 20 people applying to the job.


If a job is closed without anyone being hired you get your connects back.

 

 

boris268
Community Member

Thanks for the reply but I did not get my connects back. I got a email that job I applied was closed but my connects balance was lower then day before.

petra_r
Community Member


Boris R wrote:

Thanks for the reply but I did not get my connects back. I got a email that job I applied was closed but my connects balance was lower then day before.


Then somebody was hired.

martina_plaschka
Community Member


Boris R wrote:

I noticed since a month or so since the new System is active where we Freelancers have to pay to get work. There is more and more jobs that actually appear for 1-2 days make freelancers spend their points and the job gets closed with our loss as freelancers.

Not only is that abussive and wrong Upwork seams to not give a sh...

There is no security measure for clients to post a job for example and add some small sum lets say 10$-50$ in pre pay to actually post a job. Because they can freely post a job they can do this a lot.
They don't even need to verfiy their account or paying method to post a job. Real clients would do that.
I feel at a loss because 50% of jobs I apply in this niche I work in dissapear without any hires even when there is 20 people applying to the job.

Someone is trying to make the competition spend their hard earned money to apply for jobs so they can apply themself on real jobs when they come. Will Upwork ever give a shi... and fix this problem or is it really time to let go of Upwork as a Freelancer?


These scammers would have a hiring rate of 0% and no serious freelancer would ever apply.

And they do, just registered users post jobs. The reason why I'm saying I work in a very specific niche which pays very well above average of what is paid on Upwork. These guys usually are not regular costumers to Upwork or go only as last resort to Upwork to find freelancers for my kind of freelancers.
I must trust Upwork that this system is not abused and right now it is abused.

All I got for a reply is Moderators protecting Upwork as the holy grail and making me in the end look bad because I apply for a job? Are we freelancers now a joke to you? Zero protection for freelancers.
I'm not long on this platform that's true but now I understand why are people leaving.
Thanks for your replys.


Boris R wrote:


I must trust Upwork that this system is not abused and right now it is abused.


Wait, clients post jobs and don't hire? I believe you, this happens, but how would that be more frequent now than it was before? How do they abuse the new connect system? Whether you pay for connects or not is transparent for the clients. It's not they who are the beneficiaries of the money that you use to buy connects. I don't see how paying connects would result in more or fewer jobs that don't hire.

 

 

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"Where darkness shines like dazzling light"   —William Ashbless

Well earlier you would get 60 points per month for free. And most of them would probably spam any client. Which I agree was terrible. So nobody cared spending points and applying for every job was a normal thing.

But now when points cost money everyone wages where to apply so now strange jobs appear.

Like " $1000 for something I need 4 freelancers bla bla the price tag for the job shows 5$ but it's temporary please give me your estimate"

Job description is apsolute vague like I need a House.
His account is unverified and has never spent any money on the platform.
But because my niche is a very rare job type and Industry you would think he is a real client who is looking for geniuine talented freelancers. 

Someone would create a job which is exactly what you would want from a job( perfect bait). That someone waits for freelancers to bid and spend their points probably limited amount of points per month. When you spend 60 points you paid for you probably won't buy more until you land at least 1 job from these.

He can create several fake jobs per week and let people spend points and then he knows when a real job comes. He saves his points and bids for real jobs while others who spent their points probably think twice before they apply to new jobs because they spend more of their own money on something that doesn't turn profitable anymore.

The problem is I saw this happen maybe 1-2 times per month but now after a month or more I can notice at least 5 fake jobs per week. I cannot belive this is a coincidence. In 3 months the job board will be infested.
Someone or a group is doing this on purpose. I don't know if this happens in other niches but in mine it does. 

In a way the system can be easy abused. Anyone can create a job and just leave there stranded for weeks or just few days it doesn't matter. Create another account and create another job.

Upwork allows everyone without any kind of verification to actually post a job probably because they try to attract more clients who would not apply a job if they had to do all that "hard work" to actually verify who they are.

Sure, whatever you say.

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"Where darkness shines like dazzling light"   —William Ashbless
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