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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! 

ACCEPTED SOLUTION
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


Christine A wrote:

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.


Awesome point, Christine. It might be nice if Upwork issued an email for new freelancers with tips about how they can protect themselves. 


Heather L wrote:

The last few days have seen a decrease, 


No, there has not been a decrease. 

I've been plotting the numbers at the same time every day for the last 10 days. There was a dip at the weekend, as always.

 

available jobs.png

 


Petra R wrote:

Heather L wrote:

The last few days have seen a decrease, 


No, there has not been a decrease. 

I've been plotting the numbers at the same time every day for the last 10 days. There was a dip at the weekend, as always.

 

available jobs.png

 


I'm actually getting more work right now than I was at this time last year. It usually gets really quiet for me around Easter because it's a big holiday in some countries, and many of my clients take time off. But nobody's going anywhere this year.

I started flagging them when I first started seeing them. Upwork has only responded to one of my flags, 10 hours ago. There is still a steady stream of them being posted and it seems like nothing is being done?

What I have noticed is that despite the job postings being almost identical, the cost of connects range from 2-6, some with a refund feature and some without.

chocren
Community Member

Ever so grateful to the OP, Heather L . I woke up to over 10 job invites this morning and thought my lucky day had come. But upon closer inspection, they were all the same except for the industry and person inviting me. Contacted Upwork support with the list of jobs and they said they'll investigate. Let's see what happens.

lauranky
Community Member

These are still being posted, and ones from yesterday have not been removed. Upwork, can you comment on why these are being allowed? 


Laura K wrote:

These are still being posted, and ones from yesterday have not been removed. Upwork, can you comment on why these are being allowed? 


_____________________________

I'm getting them in my job feed too.   

Not all of these fake job postings are from new accounts. I've come across quite a few now posted from accounts that are years old and have job histories. A few Upwork Plus clients as well. It would be awfully strange for 20+ accounts with a huge variety of backgrounds to all at once post the exact same job.
Is Upwork having a security breach? 

These are still coming thick and fast. I'm an editor/copywriter, and I'd say that these jobs currently make up about 1/3 of my feed.

 

It looks like whoever is creating them is trying to vary them a bit too, so they don't all start with 'Hi, i'm....'. They do all still seem to be using the term 'white-label'.

 

Has anyone actually applied to one of these, even just for the sake of curiosity?

 


Rob J wrote:

These are still coming thick and fast. I'm an editor/copywriter, and I'd say that these jobs currently make up about 1/3 of my feed.

 

It looks like whoever is creating them is trying to vary them a bit too, so they don't all start with 'Hi, i'm....'. They do all still seem to be using the term 'white-label'.

 

Has anyone actually applied to one of these, even just for the sake of curiosity?

 


Someone on Reddit applied but hasn't posted back. I might apply for poops and giggles just to see what happens. I'm too lazy to search but if someone PMs me a link I'll apply to it. 

 

If I find some, I'll apply to like 5 of them to see if I can get a response but I'm guessing this is some kind of phishing attempt.

kochubei_valeria
Community Member

Hello All,

 

We understand this is frustrating. Our Trust & Safety team is currently working to investigate the situation, take action against the accounts involved and make sure we have mechanisms in place to prevent this from happening in the future. We appreciate your patience!

~ Valeria
Upwork

I just read one of these, too, while searching for graphic design clients, and flagged it. I wouldn't have applied to it anyway, even if I didn't read this post. It's clearly not written by someone with strong written communication skills. This is one of my prerquisites for choosing clients to work with. As a graphic designer, my client's written brief needs to be clear and well-communicated, in order for them to get the best results from me. But, I did notice there were a few proposals submitted. I really hope Upwork can find and block these scammers. 

The one that I had applied to has been taken down, so they're working on it.

Upwork, they are still being posted including from existing profiles with work histories that don't match the spam listings. Are you able to tell us yet what's going on? Are our accounts secure?

I noticed too. You can clearly see the same format, verbaige, phrases and jargon. Some of the profiles are new while others are verified. It is nothing new - just flag them.

wajeeha-yasin
Community Member

I recently noticed something very weird. I was about to start applying for some jobs.  I started noticing a very weird pattern in all the jobs I was about to apply to, although those were posted from different verified clients, in different cities/countries and didn't seem fake at all. I have been working on Upwork for over 3 years now and I have never noticed something like this

 

Here is the pattern that I noticed in more than 20 jobs, it was 2 days ago, and I am still seeing these type of same pattern jobs.

 

"

Hey, I’m XYZ! I’m looking for an ABC who has experience in ABC.

Timeline:
Throughout the next few months (starting as soon as this week1), I’m going to be working with a handful of clients that are looking to update the copy on their website.

Next steps:
If you’re interested, please submit a proposal (including a sample of your writing for this industry) if you meet the following requirements:
- You’re a freelancer I can outsource to or white label your services to complete some of these projects
- Dependable
- On-time with deadlines

Thank you

"

The only difference in these type of jobs was the niche they were targeting

 

I applied on one of these jobs and got a very automated response;

 

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

-client name "

 

Here are 4 of these similar jobs. You can see the pattern for yourself. These are by different clients in different countries.

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

 

I have been keeping an eye on these jobs and had saved more than 10 such jobs, and they are no longer available. I am very confused about what is happening here on Upwork. Can anyone please inform if they faced this same issue? I don't know which jobs to apply to anymore. These similar ones look very legit, have good client history, and everything, they don't look fake except that they are all almost the same. And these are no longer available after a day or two. Funny thing, I had applied on one of these jobs, and I got a response that I shared above, and a day later, I received two invites on "EXACT SAME" job by TWO DIFFERENT unverified clients. Even though the original job I applied too, was by a verified client with sufficient history.

 

What is happening?? How do I know which jobs are real jobs and not a weird, same pattern game scheme? Has anyone else been affected by this? I contacted Upwork chat support 2 days ago regarding this and was told to wait for an email with an answer. I got nothing.

 

Would love an explanation! Thanks

Hi Wajeeha,

 

Could you please reach out to me via PM (click on my name) and share all of the examples you have on your end? If a job is not available anymore and you have the URL, feel free to share it with me as well. Thank you.

~ Goran
Upwork

just did

Hey there,

Upwork has known about these for a couple of days though they haven't given us any information yet. You can check out the main thread about them here

I've seen them as well. Noticed about 10 new ones just since last night. Like you, I was going to apply until I realized it's like a spam bot service placing all of these "ads" on here.  Hopefully Upwork looks into this to determine if these are legit or scams. Freelancers have enough trouble finding clients these days without having to wade through scam accounts en masse. 

berg_shari
Community Member

It would be nice if Upwork returned connects for these postings to the freelancers who applied before we started to realize there might be a scam going on with them. 


Shari B wrote:

It would be nice if Upwork returned connects for these postings to the freelancers who applied before we started to realize there might be a scam going on with them. 


If the job posts are taken down as terms of service violations, you get the connects back automatically, so make sure you flag them.

lauranky
Community Member

Petra, I applied to 5 of the jobs. All 5 were taken down as a TOS violation. Not one connect was refunded.

What's supposed to happen and what actually happens doesn't always align. 

lysis10
Community Member


Laura K wrote:

Petra, I applied to 5 of the jobs. All 5 were taken down as a TOS violation. Not one connect was refunded.

What's supposed to happen and what actually happens doesn't always align. 


Oh boo. I wanted to apply to see what happens too but that's what I'm afraid would happen. Upwork kills the jobs before a reply.

 

 

Hi Laura,

 

I shared your concern with the rest of our team and one of our agents will reach out to you directly via a support ticket to assist you further.

 

Thank you.

~ Aleksandar
Upwork

No worries, I'm already in touch with someone about it. I was watching to see if my connects would be returned however, so I knew to reach out when they weren't refunded. I suspect a lot of people who applied for those scam jobs will have lost money on connects and not realized. 

Just checked, my connects haven't been refunded either.

kochubei_valeria
Community Member

Hi All,

 

We're aware of the issue with some connects not being refunded automatically when these jobs were cancelled and we're working on a solution to make sure the connects are refunded. We'll keep you posted.

~ Valeria
Upwork

Thanks!

Hi Valeria,

 

Is Upwork going to give an official, public response to this at some point?

 

This fake job spam crisis is damaging Upwork's credibility in the freelance community. 

Up until a few days ago I was a big supporter of Upwork and frequently encouraged friends to give it a try. 


I regret it, now knowing the complete lack of transparency. So far it has been found that Upwork doesn't refund connects when it's supposed to. Who knows how much money they've made (and freelancers have lost) from that.

Some of those jobs, despite being flagged days ago, are still live. 


And many days after first appearing, there still has not been a comment made on what looks like scammers gaining access to client accounts. Upwork should be communicating with us regarding their security breach so accounts can be protected.
(you'll notice not all of these jobs are being posted from new accounts. Some are old accounts with work histories, the oldest I found was from 2008.)


All we're offered is canned responses. When people post about it, you get moderators asking for a link to the job ad(s) as if they have no idea what's going on. 

My trust in Upwork is declining quickly 😕 

How can I be certain that there haven't been things I've applied to that were cancelled for ToS that I never recieved credits back for if your system isn't working in verifiable cases?

Decided to look into if Upwork has had past security issues and came across this from just over a year ago.

https://community.upwork.com/t5/Freelancers/So-Upwork-this-security-breach/td-p/562999


They did the same thing they are doing this time, throwing people the occasional canned response and otherwise hoping it all goes away.

Upwork, can you tell us how the scammers gained access to existing accounts over the past week and if the security issue is on going?

Hi Laura,

 

To clarify, the issue with Connects not being refunded automatically when some jobs were recently closed by our team for violating Upwork TOS isn't a security issue nor related to the technical issue discussed in the thread you are referring to.


Our team is working to ensure Connects are refunded for all of these jobs, in line with our procedures and guidelines. We'll follow up with an update once we receive confirmation from our team. We appreciate your patience and understanding.

~ Vladimir
Upwork

Thanks. I never said connects not being refunded was a security issue. 

I asked about scammers gaining access to existing accounts. 

They clearly have no incentive to actually fight the spam and fake accounts.  Spent connects = free profit.  Moderating spam = increased costs.  Goes in line with them removing the single most useful flag category.

 

We are the moderators now.  Just like this 'community' where they syphon free work off freelancers answering things they obviously do a poor job educating people about. The wonderful 'community' where we are the last to hear of feature changes, yet somehow are the ones who requested it with 'overwhelming feedback' that is almost nowhere to be found on these boards.

Hey guys, did you see that article with this title?

 

Is Upwork Posting Fake Jobs To Keep Freelancers Bidding?

If it gets removed I will most definitely be letting this reporter know.

Oh look at that, removed. I'm not allowed to link to it because it 'contains third party contact info', but I'm pretty sure that's a blanket rule since most sites have third party contact info so they can remove anything that talks badly about them. You can google it though. 🙂

I did read the article. I'm not thrilled about this writer using screenshots from our community conversations without our permission, honestly. He also moved one of my comments out of sequence and therefore out of context. Kind of unethical.

I don't know the facts about this, and while I'm not happy about the current state of affairs, I don't like the implication that I'm participating in an anti-UpWork pile-on. I will say that my connects from the one scam job I applied to still have not been refunded. But my connects from two other jobs that were "cancelled" have been refunded since then. 


Kathryn M wrote:

I did read the article. I'm not thrilled about this writer


That "writer" is an ex upwork freelancer who was permanently suspended from Upwork and now works for an "Upwork competitor" (of sorts). He has made it his life's mission to run all over the Internet like a jilted lover vomiting hate and twisted facts everywhere he can. 

 

Those weird jobs were a mess and I wish Upwork would come clean and explain what actually happened. (I have a theory... )

 

But personally I don't subscribe to conspiracy theories in general and use common sense instead.

If Upwork wanted to post fake jobs, they'd not do it in such a dumb and obvious way. 

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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