One keyboard / Mouse movement but no input from the freelancer

[23ec34bb]

Hi everyone,

I have suspicions that a freelancer is using an activity bot to generate fake keyboard strokes/mouse movements. 

I have reviewed their activity and the active window has not changed or will just switch from a few of same windows. 

The pic I have attached has muliple hours like this.

What do I do?

[deardipu]

Stephen,

You may close the contract as there is no productive activity for multiple hours. 

[jr-translation]

There is fake activity. Closing the contract does not remove the invoice that is created based on that fake data.

[prestonhunter]

re: "What do I do?"

If you do not love the work that a freelancer is doing for you, then close the contract and assign the work to other members of your team.

[23ec34bb]

Should I be asking for a refund?  Is there a moderatoer that looks at this? 

[jr-translation]

Pause the contract immediately and ask the freelancer to deliver everything that has been done so far.

You are looking for the information in this section of the ToS.

You do not have to pay if the freelancer is not actually working on the project. Multiple screenshots showing the same screen without changes, while mouse and keyboard have been used sound more than suspicious.

If the freelancer can deliver the work, you might be dealing with subcontracting. Again, not allowed on an hourly contract.

If the freelancer can provide the work you are invoiced for, you can warn him/her to track properly or you will reject any segments not reflecting actual work on the project.

I hired a freelancer on an hourly contract last week and while I got the work I wanted, the tracking was not ok. It was over 25 segments with a total of 250 keyboard strokes and 210 mouse movements. The excuse was she forgot to track the time so she just did it later. That contract is now paused and when I send the next task I will add a reminder that I only pay for segments that actually reflect her working on the task.

[prestonhunter]

re: "I hired a freelancer on an hourly contract last week and while I got the work I wanted, the tracking was not ok. It was over 25 segments with a total of 250 keyboard strokes and 210 mouse movements. The excuse was she forgot to track the time so she just did it later."

It is nice of Jennifer to be willing to pay this freelancer based on the work she submitted and offer one-time forgiveness... but for any freelancer reading this:

Jennifer COULD dispute this work and not pay for it. And Jennifer CLULD justifiably fire this freelancer.

It is never okay for a freelancer to run the time-tracker app in order to log hours that count for previously worked time. That is not how Upwork the app to be used. If a freelancer works without logging time, then she may choose between (a) not getting paid for that time [and] (b) logging time manually.