Alot of scam lately

hassanwaqar71 · ‎04-05-2022

Hi, I've been expereincing a lot of scam lately. My job feed is filled with post offering work in various categories and adding their whatsapp or telegram information at the end. It's been going on for the past few weeks I guess.

This may also affect new clients, since many freelancers filter unverified payments.

Upwork did not have such posts an year ago, and if it did, it was extremely negligble.

Will this stop?

Regards,
Hassan

pgiambalvo · ‎04-05-2022

Many of us have been experiencing this and reporting it, but so far, it has not decreased.

"This may also affect new clients, since many freelancers filter unverified payments." Yes, it will.

"Upwork did not have such posts an year ago, and if it did, it was extremely negligble." You are correct.

"Will it stop?" They say they are working on it.

renata101 · ‎04-05-2022

Hi Hassan,

In one form or another, scam posts have probably been around for a long time. What's changed lately is the volume. There have been a lot more of them in the past few months. Another thing is that they are using WhatsApp and Telegram to talk to people outside of Upwork. So if you posts that gives contact information for WhatsApp or Telegram, it's usually a good idea to avoid applying for them (a few years ago, the scams were all on Google Hangouts).

I'm not sure when it will stop. Upwork says they are working on the problem, but there are still tons of scam posts.

I'm attaching a few links that might be helpful.

One of the freelancers wrote a post about spotting scams. This has lots of good information to help you spot scams.
https://community.upwork.com/t5/Community-Blog/Top-Red-Flags-for-Scams-From-Community-Member-Wes-C/b...

If you need to search through posts, I posted some instructions on how to use the Advanced Search feature to filter for scams. You can exclude some of the terms for WhatsApp and Telegram contacts, and that should make finding work a little easier. This is a bandaid solution, but for now, it's a bit easier than having to sort through a lot of scam posts with contact information.

https://community.upwork.com/t5/New-to-Upwork/Filtering-Scam-Posts-How-to-use-the-Upwork-Advanced-Se...