Upwork getting flooded with fake freelancer profiles

[Jennifer M]

I know I've said it a million times, but if Upwork actually checked school credentials and made sure people have the degrees that they claim to have, they'd lose half their workforce. 

[Pandora H]

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@John S wrote:

What's up with Upwork getting flooded with fake freelancer profiles?! There used to be some in the past, but now it's getting flooded with profiles stating they're based in North America, stating ludicrous credentials (such as Harvard education, which of course they can't prove) when their writing reveals it's obviously not true. Not to mention the fake profile pictures stolen from stock photography sites. It's becoming a serious waste of time sifting through these profiles. I wish Upwork would come up with a more efficient method of reporting these - right now I have to open a support ticket and describe why I believe it's a fake profile. And on top of that Upwork doesn't seem to impose any sanctions on these profiles as they continue being live.

Bottom line is - fake freelancer profiles are at the very minimum a waste of the client's time.

When I state I want to work with someone from North America with English being their native language I have a reason for that - I don't need to waste my time wondering whether the freelancers Upwork shows me are truly meeting these criteria or not.

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Upwork announce just this last week that they are beefing up their Identity Verfication process, which they plan to probably roll out to al new freelancers soon. Hopefully the exact kind of freelancers your talking about will be weeded out by this process.

[John K]

I've neglected the community forum for a few months but I'm amazed there's apparently a prevalence of fake profiles. I'd assumed the filters that reject applicants on the grounds of lack of opportunities in the marketplace for the applicants' skills and experience would have weeded out most fake profiles, unless the profiles in question were created prior to the implementation of the filters.

[CK P]

How can you tell they are fake?

[John K]

CK, I posted that almost a year ago but here are some ways you can tell:

1. Top 10% scores on programming tests with very fast times, like 5 minutes 
2. Fake photos -- if freelancer looks very handsome, search for the profile photo at images.google.com
3. Copied overview -- do a freelancer search using first sentence of the profile and see how many freelancers have the same or similar overview. To do this, in the search box type in all or part of the sentence enclosed in double quotes 
4. Stolen portfolio -- do a freelancer search for apps in the portfolio to see if other freelancers have the same app in theirs

[Scott B]

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@John K wrote:

CK, I posted that almost a year ago but here are some ways you can tell:

1. Fake photos -- if freelancer looks very handsome, search for the profile photo at images.google.com

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I remember writing some time ago that a particular country was simply amazing because every one of their female freelancers could be featured in some modeling magazine or the other. Either they are churning out an unprecedented level of beauty and brains or there was something hinky going on. I'll let others judge which is most likely....

What we can say absolutely though is that all the beautiful people post to this forum. So folks here are legit. And you thought all those kudos were just for insightful answers. Ha! 

[Gabriel B]

Thanks for these Eastern European guys which always go and clean the aftermath of outsourcing.

I keep mentioning on Romanian forums that the world needs good developers even as freelancers and that local developers shouldn't be afraid to work on a per hour basis, but no one listens. They all prefer working for $10/hour or less for outsourcing companies (companies that aren't afraid asking from $30/hour) rather than finding those same people and charging them $20.

And when I say $20/hour is cheap to begin with, they come back saying it's impossible anyone would pay that high amount of money for any type of work.

So, good people stay away from freelancing while others have no issue making fake accounts and winning jobs.

[#8]

I really do not want to read or see these fake profiles and profile reviews anymore. False names, stolen photos, stolen portfolio, false locations, irregularities in the CV, native English and a profile overview full of mistakes. Then they get good advice from the community how they can "improve" their profiles. Thus potential clients will be cheated, the freelancers behind the profiles are not what their profiles suggest. 

[Nichola L]

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@Margarete M wrote:

I really do not want to read or see these fake profiles and profile reviews anymore. False names, stolen photos, stolen portfolio, false locations, irregularities in the CV, native English and a profile overview full of mistakes. Then they get good advice from the community how they can "improve" their profiles. Thus potential clients will be cheated, the freelancers behind the profiles are not what their profiles suggest. 

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Added to which, there are people with false (not necessarily stolen) profiles, who are top rated. That is the most galling - people who claim to have doctorates that are not even offered by the Universities they claim to have been to and so forth.