So many fake fake profiles with verified ID. How?

[2491c877]

I recently posted a job specifying I wanted someone who could work European times.  I quickly got around 70 replies of which about 40% claimed to be Ukrainian.  I shortlisted a few stronger candidates with verified ID and arranged some calls.  Both the first calls were the same 'I have problems with camera.  There is war you know'  Of course the accent was very unusual and in my opinion not likely a Ukrainian speaking English. 

After that I started messaging people prior to the call asking for it to be camera on and most of them silently disappeared. 

It wasn't just Ukrainians I also had a very fake supposedly Sweedish guy.  It did however seem like there were lots of people claiming to be Ukrainian possibly becasuse they think given the curent situation they can make excuses and it is harder for people to verify.  I think supporting Ukrainian freelancers at this time is a great thing to do but very sad to see people cynically exploit the situation.

I am wondering if this was more of problem because I emphasised timezone overlap on this one so some people felt the need to fake?  Or is this a wider problem? 

Since I only spoke to people with verified ID how is this possible?

Happily in the end I found someone good who does happen to be Ukrainian.  Verfieid that by having him speak to a Ukrainian friend since I lost confidence in the verified ID.

[759e32fa]

Hi Jonas,

I'm sorry to hear about your experience. We routinely ask freelancers and clients to verify their identities to help protect our community and ensure that Upwork stays safe and secure. This is covered by the Upwork Terms of Service. If we find any inconsistencies on their profile such as their location vs. IP address, rest assured that proper actions will be taken based on our internal processes. We also routinely ask the users to re-verify their accounts to maintain safety in Upwork.

Nevertheless, I'll share this with our team so we can further investigate. You can also report to us any suspicious user activity that you may encounter so we can investigate.

[marafx]

there is no need to check ID and IP... look at the time zone- Canada is gmt -5, how come all african canadians connect in a gmt zone?  Guess what... they are in fact in Nigeria ... easy.... 

[marafx]

I will never understand the need of some freelancers to negate the fact that they are from Nigeria and pretend to be in Canada. Honestly... are you thinking we employers ( I am also an employer) do not look at your time zone in Upwork, at the Analytics geo, that we do not percieve your accent ( even though often you refuse to have live chat)...
There is no need to deny the truth, there is no negative thing to be african! By so doing you encourage and accept to work for people that otherwise maybe have pregiudices. Is it worth  promoting this mentality? Are you worth so little?