Why does Upwork make it so hard to report fraudulent freelancers?

[pentae]

I was interviewing a freelancer the other day who appeared to be quite competent, claiming to be from the UK and the photo showed a clearly caucasian looking man with red hair.

However I could tell quite clearly from the way he or she wrote that english was not his first language. After asking him to show me examples of his work, he told me that he made this site.. **Edited for Community Guidelines**

I don't know how many of you are aware, but **Edited for Community Guidelines** is a billion dollar ecommerce platform and it would be the equivelent of someone telling you they made this site: amazon.com

After asking for a linkedin profile I was told that they didn't have one. That's quite surprising, surely someone that has worked for such a prestigious ecommerce company in the US would have a Linkedin proudly showing this?

So I pushed for a cam interview. Sorry, no webcam. 

Regardless, It was almost impossible to report this person. I left Upwork feedback stating that this has happened over a week ago and didn't receive a response. 

So this fake, this fraud, this scumbag is still out there bidding on client projects and intentionally defrauding clients on not only who they are, but their experience levels and charging $45 per hour when it's highly likely they are an offshore worker from a tech **Edited for Community Guidelines**

Why isn't Upwork making it easier for us to report these people? This is the second fraudulent freelancer i've had and it sours all further interactions with prospective workers due to cynicism and mistrust.

I am of the opinion that when a platform is taking such a massive fee for this service, they should do a far better job of screening candidates - ID Photos can easily be photoshopped, and they should be giving clients such as myself who are good at sniffing out fakes access to an effective reporting tool with same day follow up from an upwork rep. This is ridiculous.

[petra_r]

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@Heath A wrote:

Regardless, It was almost impossible to report this person.

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 Flag the profile as inappropriate. Every profile has a button for this at the top right.

[pentae]

The problem with all of these is I can't prove any of them. I suspect him being fake. "Fake Resume" Is probably the only one, which i've just sent in, however he doesn't have a fake resume on upwork, he told me this when i was doing the Skype interview. Why isn't there just a "Fraudulent behaviour" option? 

[VladimirG]

 Hi Heath,

Please submit a request or provide the information I mentioned in my comment above in a pm, so we can review the evidence, the user's profile and take action if necessary. Please do include screenshots of your communication on Skype.

[m_terrazas]

Hi Heath,

As Rene said, this has been discussed for a long time.
https://community.upwork.com/t5/Announcements/Input-Request-Flag-options/m-p/377638#M21185
They put the honey on our lips (this makes sense in Spanish, I do not know if it has it in English) but everything has come to nothing.

Mods, any update?

[versailles]

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@Maria T wrote:

They put the honey on our lips

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I hereby promote "Putting honey on our lips" to the status of an official adage in English!

🙂

[m_terrazas]

[atlinguist]

I think we have a similar phrase in German: "Jemandem Honig ums Maul schmieren" 

[VladimirG]

Hi Heath,

I'm sorry about your experience with this freelancer. We do have initiatives, systems and a dedicated team in place in order to identify and address fraudulent profiles. I've checked and it doesn't appear you submitted a support request, could you please clarify how you reported the profile? I've also tried looking through your recent conversations but wasn't able to identify the user in Messages. 

Could you please pm me the user's details, the link to their profile and screenshots of your conversation so I can check if their profile has been reviewed yet? Thank you.

[pentae]

Thanks Vladimir,

I used the feedback function the first time around. And I've just flagged him with a "Fake Resume".

Having to spend 15 minutes exploring the labrynth that is sending a support request for this was just not worth my time, honestly.

[VladimirG]

Thanks Heath. Regarding contacting our Customer Support team, you should be able to follow the same steps you used previously with the other requests you submitted. If it's easier, please click on my name in this post > select Message and you will be able to send me a private message, so I can make make sure the user's profile is reviewed.

[versailles]

We, Upwork users both freelancers and clients, have asked repeatedly for a text field associated to the checkbook when reporting a profile, so we can add further details for the team, but with no avail.

[jmlaidlaw]

^ x millions.

[firescue17]

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@Rene K wrote:

We, Upwork users both freelancers and clients, have asked repeatedly for a text field associated to the checkbook when reporting a profile, so we can add further details for the team, but with no avail.

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+1

[sam-sly]

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@Rene K wrote:

We, Upwork users both freelancers and clients, have asked repeatedly for a text field associated to the checkbook when reporting a profile, so we can add further details for the team, but with no avail.

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 Yes, this would be helpful to both clients and freelancers since the reason we are reporting might not be apparent to a CS rep.

[m_terrazas]

I sent a post and it has disappeared, why?

[g_vasilevski]

Hi Maria,

Our system has moved your post automatically, now its back.

[m_terrazas]

Thanks Goran.

[atlinguist]

Given that most of my clients moan about my fee being too high, I may not be the right person to comment on charging for services, but I do think that your statement about UW taking "massive" fees for their services is a little exaggerated. Have you compared the fees charged on the platform to the pricing of services if you hire through companies or self-employed freelancers? I don't know about the providers you normally hire, but speaking for my own (offline) business, I can tell you that I have to budget for everything (IT, marketing, financial services...) myself, hence I will add the cost to your bill. Apart from that, and with reference to the reporting aspect, let me mention that a long-term client of mine experienced somthing similar offline: apparently he went looking for a translator (outside of cyberspace, the good old-fashioned way), found none cheap enough for ages, then found a couple (!) that all screwed him thoroughly, and ... had nowhere to complain. (Should have come to UW straight away.)