Mar 18, 2021 09:40:24 AM by Julius S
Up to this point, my experience with Upwork has been pretty good. But today I was hit with an email about irregular activity. A few days ago, my Comcast internet was down and I did what anyone else would have done: connected to the internet using my wireless hotspot. Now, this did give me an “unknown device log in”, and I ignored it because while to Upwork this might be unknown, it was know to me. Today I get this email that I need to “ensure your security and increase the integrity of the Upwork community”. Now, if Upwork really did their due diligence, they would see that the unknown device location was, well, exactly where I was before. And this is a mobile connection: something which allows even more Geolocation data than a simple ethernet connection. I am about to verify my Identity again, which is fine to me, but I wonder what they are really trying to accomplish. A family member has had their Identity stolen: a terrible experience. I had problems adding my bank account before also, and reached out to Upwork support with limited success, and now after making an entirely new checking account it finally got working. I am fine to give my information to Upwork: perhaps a passport, my SSN, an ID card. But I wonder how secure and how effective this policy is to "ensure your security and increase the integrity of the Upwork community”. Perhaps they will have biometric verification soon, does Upwork need a blood sample, a spit test, a finger print to “ensure your security and increase the integrity of the Upwork community”?
Mar 18, 2021 10:59:42 AM by Andrea G
Hi Julius,
Apologies for the inconvenience it may cause. This is part of our ongoing effort to keep the Upwork marketplace a secure place for freelancers and clients. Please refer to your support ticket with our team and follow their instructions in order to lift the hold on your account.
Thanks!
Mar 18, 2021 12:26:28 PM by Julius S
Hi Andrea,
Thank a ton for the quick reply. I'm always happy to resubmit a picture of my Driver's license if that will release the account hold. But I really wanted to understand the all activities that I did, which would cause this to raise these flags.. I trust Upwork and it's a great platform for freelancers, and it has really helped me during this pandemic. I already submitted my license at the first time, I'll do it now again, but perhaps you would prefer a passport. And just for curiosities sake, do you have an independent audit of your verification and security infrastructure? If you want, I can to do a video call with you and we can go through everything. I have an obligation at 3:30 pm central, but am free after 5:00pm.
Mar 18, 2021 01:44:31 PM by Andrea G
Hi Julius,
Please review your support ticket with our team for information about the specific documents you need to upload. If you have any further questions, feel free to reply directly to the team as they are the ones who can best assist you.
Thanks!
Mar 18, 2021 03:28:44 PM by Julius S
Sounds good, I appreciate the timely response. I will proceed with the support ticket tomorrow at a more appropriate time. Thanks!
Mar 18, 2021 11:07:25 AM Edited Mar 18, 2021 11:49:38 AM by Valeria K
You can thank the account sellers, fraudsters trying to defraud the payment protection system, and the **Edited for Community Guidelines** can't create an account and "loans" their account to someone who scams clients. You can thank those people for this.