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modernwriter2000
Community Member

Are These Fake Jobs Being Posted!?!?

I've seen dozens like this today. Is Upwork having these listed since they've slowed down? Smiley Mad There is no way these are all legit. They are too similar. I hope people don't waste their connects! 

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kochubei_valeria
Community Member

Hey everyone,

 

We apologize for the delay. We did review the jobs discussed on this thread and found that they were actually created as part of an outside course by a client teaching other clients how to use Upwork. They were posted as a "test job" and we have contacted the course hosts and notified them that this behavior constitutes spam and is a violation of our Terms of Service. The jobs have been taken down, however, we ran into issues with Connects being refunded for them. We have been working on a solution and will make sure the Connects are refunded by end of this week.

I'd also like to reiterate that Upwork team doesn't post jobs on the marketplace without an intention to hire.

~ Valeria
Upwork

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82 REPLIES 82
modernwriter2000
Community Member

 
eatdrinkwrite
Community Member

I was just coming here to ask about the same thing. I applied to one of these before I saw two more that were almost identical with different names. What would the purpose be of posting the same ad multiple times with different names? 

If Upwork is paying somebody to post these I am going to be livid. That is definitely unethical.  

If Upwork is paying somebody to post these I am going to be livid. That is definitely unethical. 

Upwork does not create fake jobs. But I understand why your intuition is tilted towards it. In my 7 years of experience on multiple platforms – I have seen my share of fake jobs (too many to count) – and they are posted by scammers. In these times, when people are losing jobs, a large pool of people are shifting from traditional 9-5 jobs to freelancing. A new market for scammers to feed on. That is why we see an upward increase of these so-called fake jobs. And this will be linear. How will upwork stop this? For a freelancer, that question will only bring harm. Rather, ask, “what can you do?”.

 

There is another group of individuals who post jobs to see proposals in hopes of reusing them to get a job – a lugubrious methodology that lacks ethics and values – needed to become good at a certain set of skills.  

 

When you see a job that you feel is not real – flag it. Many times these people (scammers or whatever), will use the same words, format, phrases and useless jargon.

 

 

kochubei_valeria
Community Member

Hi Heather,

 

I was able to locate the jobs you are referring to and I've forwarded all the information to the team for investigation. We'll take action if we find the jobs are against the TOS. 

 

Thanks for bringing this up to our attention. 

~ Valeria
Upwork

If they are against the TOS, will I get my connects back?

 

Thanks!

Hi Kathryn,

 

Yes, if a job is cancelled without a hire by the client or by Upwork team because it was in violation of TOS, connects freelancers used to send a proposal to it are returned. 

~ Valeria
Upwork

Hi, Valeria.

 

Did I understand you correctly - if any job is cancelled without a hire by the client the connects freelancers used to send a proposal to that job are returned to the freelancer?

 

Has this been Upwork's policy since all connects have had to be paid for?


Will L wrote:

Hi, Valeria.

 

Did I understand you correctly - if any job is cancelled without a hire by the client the connects freelancers used to send a proposal to that job are returned to the freelancer?

 

Has this been Upwork's policy since all connects have had to be paid for?


No, you didn't understand correctly. The full sentence was, "...if a job is cancelled without a hire by the client or by Upwork team because it was in violation of TOS". This has always been the case - I'm surprised that you didn't know this?

I know what the full sentence was, Christine, and quoted the part I had a question about.

 

Sorry for any confusion and thank you for being helpful. I never run out of connects and pay no further attention to jobs I apply to unless the client replies back, so I haven't paid attention to job cancellations or the resulting returned connects.

I maybe wrong but I believe these posts are from spammers/scammers:

 

**edited for Community Guidelines**

 

I could be wrong, I didn't verify to the Nth degree, but the similar language and offer are the "tells".

 

At the minimum, they're falsifying their identity.

I've seen these, too....and I can't figure out what their end game is.  

I saw it on my feed this morning and decided to propose. They closed the job hours later. Then I went back to look and discovered a whole bunch of similar ones. Weird.

 

I don't really care, but I figured somebody would want to know inside Upwork.

AveryO
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi Rick, 


Thanks for flagging this here. I have reported this to the team so that it can be investigated further.


~ Avery
Upwork

Hi Valeria, these projects are still being posted. Over 90 projects like this have appeared today. Each is posted by a different client across a range of countries, and all have the exact same phrase “looking for a copywriter who has experience writing for” - each individual project doesn’t appear to violate the ToS, but together, they look highly suspicious.

robertf72
Community Member

I am beginning to think the same thing, is just a **bleep** money racket...since I have joined up and paid my 14.95 a month, I have submitted close to 20 propsols, I have not even gotten one response even with the ones that have less than five freelancers bidding.  I wish there was a way that we could see if the client looked at our bids.

You've only been on UpWork for a few days, give it some time. I think it took me a few weeks to get my first job, and that wasn't during a global crisis. Competition is particularly high right now, especially if you don't have any client feedback yet. Stick with it for a while.

I am wondering if I am doing something wrong on my profile maybe I need to go back through it maybe add a video.

I found a ton of great information on this website:

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

This guy has lots of advice about UpWork proposals and profiles. I'm not affiliated with his site in any way, just found it really helpful, especially when I was trying to get my first client.

That is a very interesting article, what is surprising in the freelancer article he pointed just a few jobs, like transcripting, and blog stuff.  I have experience in transcripting and writing scripts so my question would be should i take these little jobs?


Robert F wrote:

That is a very interesting article, what is surprising in the freelancer article he pointed just a few jobs, like transcripting, and blog stuff.  I have experience in transcripting and writing scripts so my question would be should i take these little jobs?


Absolutely, in my opinion, you should take the little jobs! If you get those, you have visible Upwork experience on your profile. You'll meet the minimum qualifications for more clients and have proof that you have experience in those fields (not just "I have experience...") and maybe even get some material for your portfolio. One of the jobs I have right now doesn't pay too well, but I'm thankful for it, because it was my first Upwork job, and I believe it made me more credible.

 

As a freelancer during a pandemic, when everyone's working from home, I don't think you can be too picky these days.


Robert F wrote:

That is a very interesting article, what is surprising in the freelancer article he pointed just a few jobs, like transcripting, and blog stuff.  I have experience in transcripting and writing scripts so my question would be should i take these little jobs?


Taking on small jobs to get started may be a good idea, but I would definitely not take on transcription jobs if you're pursuing video editing and graphic design. Why would a client take you seriously as a design professional if they see you're doing miscellaneous low-paying jobs? 


Robert F wrote:

I am beginning to think the same thing, is just a **bleep** money racket...since I have joined up and paid my 14.95 a month, I have submitted close to 20 propsols, I have not even gotten one response even with the ones that have less than five freelancers bidding.  I wish there was a way that we could see if the client looked at our bids.


Unfortunately, the majority of freelancers have always needed to submit more than 20 proposals before landing their first job, and many people never earn any money here at all because their category is already over-subscribed, or they don't have the right skills and experience to appeal to clients. There are simply too many freelancers and not enough work for everyone - that doesn't mean that Upwork is a "money racket". I've already been hired by two very real clients this week, so I know for a fact that they do exist.

 

But I wouldn't be surprised if there are more scams going on right now, so everyone needs to be extra-careful; even criminals are "working from home" these days.

 

It is not a "money racket" - I was able to get two ongoing jobs writing SEO articles with my 20 free credits. My third job was with paid credits, contract, and paid heavily. Either I'm just lucky, or the ghostwriting market is huge right now and between my degree and my portfolio I'm able to jump to the top.

 

I suspect a combination of both, because I see a lot of complaints from freelancers in tech and art/design fields unable to get gigs.

 

As far as writing gigs, the transcription and editing markets also seem pretty saturated. I'm trying to get my foot in the door there but it's taking some patience. In the meantime I'm stuck with ghostwriting!

Does it  help that you are experienced in writing?


Robert F wrote:

Does it  help that you are experienced in writing?


As I said, I think it's both a combination of my experience and education in writing and the high demand for ghostwriting.


Robert F wrote:

Does it  help that you are experienced in writing?


Generally speaking, clients, like employers, are looking for experienced contractors. Clients who don't care about proven and demonstrable skills are not clients I care about.

Hi Robert,

Just one person's POV: You don't have much in your portfolio.

k_rocca
Community Member

This is my entire feed today! Very frustrating and blatantly obvious that something fishy is going on. 

yitwail
Community Member


Kristin R wrote:

This is my entire feed today! Very frustrating and blatantly obvious that something fishy is going on. 


Kristin, there have always been fake clients and fake jobs, and I assume there always will be. That didn't suddenly happen because Upwork started charging for connects. Upwork doesn't make any money worth to speak of from connects, it makes money when freelancers get paid and they collect their 20%, 10%, or 5%. You also have to distinguish between a fake job, like the ones in the OP's screenshot, and jobs where the client doesn't hire anyone. If it's a fake, flag it, and Upwork will probably cancel it and return any connects you spent on it; now why would they do that if Upwork was complicit in posting fake jobs?

__________________________________________________
"No good deed goes unpunished." -- Clare Boothe Luce
k_rocca
Community Member

Hey John. I am in no way accusing Upwork of anything! I am simply expressing my frustration with my entire feed being clogged with fake jobs. I know there will always be scammers out there, but this is to a whole new level. There is no sense even looking for work today. 


Kristin R wrote:

Hey John. I am in no way accusing Upwork of anything! I am simply expressing my frustration with my entire feed being clogged with fake jobs. I know there will always be scammers out there, but this is to a whole new level. There is no sense even looking for work today. 


I remember being taught a reading technique called scanning. If you know what a fake job looks like, scan your feed and skip over to the next one if you think a job is not worth your while. If it's something really terrible, flag it. If it's something that's over-the-top terrible, contact someone about it or post on the forum.

As for there being no sense in even looking for work, if you are independently wealthy or living in your parents' basement, then probably not. If you are a freelancer and you haven't got enough work at the moment, then there is. 



Renata S wrote:

I remember being taught a reading technique called scanning. If you know what a fake job looks like, scan your feed and skip over to the next one if you think a job is not worth your while. If it's something really terrible, flag it. If it's something that's over-the-top terrible, contact someone about it or post on the forum.

I know what you're talking about, but I've also worked extensively with people that would be flagged into oblivion based on their typos, bad grammar and phoenetic spellings that are legitimately looking to fill their business needs. The other side of this is that the ads I sent proposals off to didn't have any of the truly scammy signatures we've all come to know and love: it was well written, the expectations were clearly defined, and professional.

 

We're paying users on this platform and I think we have the right to expect that Upwork would be able to cull most of the scams before they hit this epic nuisance level.

yitwail
Community Member


Kristin R wrote:

Hey John. I am in no way accusing Upwork of anything! I am simply expressing my frustration with my entire feed being clogged with fake jobs. I know there will always be scammers out there, but this is to a whole new level. There is no sense even looking for work today. 


Kristin, sorry to hear that. I apologize that this may sound boastful, but I haven't looked at feed lately, for the simple reason that I'm too busy working. I just ate breakfast, so do have time to post a few replies. It's also a way to procrastinate. Cat Wink But if there are more fake jobs than usual, my guess is scammers think there are a lot of freelancers who just joined because they're staying home, and so the scammers are capitalizing on their opportunity to con the naive.

__________________________________________________
"No good deed goes unpunished." -- Clare Boothe Luce

I am the accuser. 🙂 My thought-process when pushing the blame to Upwork was that they are attempting to show that they haven't had a decrease in job postings. The last few days have seen a decrease, so it was an easy jump. I can't see any other reason for fake postings but would love to be enlightened with other thoughts.


Heather L wrote:

I am the accuser. 🙂 My thought-process when pushing the blame to Upwork was that they are attempting to show that they haven't had a decrease in job postings. The last few days have seen a decrease, so it was an easy jump. I can't see any other reason for fake postings but would love to be enlightened with other thoughts.


Heather, that might be plausible if there were some way of knowing how many jobs are posted at regular intervals, like daily or weekly, and you could compare this to the jobs posted a year ago, for example, and there was a clear trend of some sort. Do you have any such evidence?

__________________________________________________
"No good deed goes unpunished." -- Clare Boothe Luce

I know that I'm on the feed multiple times a day and the number of postings has decreased until the onslaught of same-style postings today.  That was the trend I saw and evidence enough for my brain to question the postings. 


Heather L wrote:

I know that I'm on the feed multiple times a day and the number of postings has decreased until the onslaught of same-style postings today.  That was the trend I saw and evidence enough for my brain to question the postings. 


Are you talking about the "Hey, I'm Blake!" "Hey, I'm Christy!" postings? I think that's just one poster....super annoying though! LOL


Heather L wrote:

I am the accuser. 🙂 My thought-process when pushing the blame to Upwork was that they are attempting to show that they haven't had a decrease in job postings. The last few days have seen a decrease, so it was an easy jump. I can't see any other reason for fake postings but would love to be enlightened with other thoughts.


Okay, here's a more logical reason than accusing Upwork of posting fake jobs.

 

Many people have been laid off or are unable to go to work these days. Therefore, Upwork has had a huge influx of new freelancers in the past couple of weeks. Fake clients target new freelancers in their scams, so they're jumping on this opportunity to scam as many people as possible.

 

So, protect yourselves. Don't do any work for anyone unless you are actually hired ON UPWORK. If you're new here, spend some time reading as much information as possible about how this website works - don't just jump in and wing it.

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