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Aziz's avatar
Aziz U Community Member

Constantly being flagged for verification.

Hi,

I am a verified freelancer on Upwork. However, over the couse of last year, I have been flagged for a verification check three times. 

 

I think it maybe because I travel and work at the same time, and I've been travelling constantly for the past 2 years over 20 different countries. Is there a way I can let upwork know ahead of time that "hey I am travelling constantly, don't flag me for verification" ?

 

It gets kind of annoying and it's not the best image in front of your clients. Right now, I am flagged and my account suspended/on-hold and my clients are asking me the reason why (they all got an email i think). I've submited the documents and now I have to wait 48 hours for them to get back to me. Meanwhile, my account is locked and I can't do anything and have to explain to all my clients what's going on.

 

Please help and let me know what I can do to remedy my situation of constantly being flagged again n again.

12 REPLIES 12
Bojan's avatar
Bojan S Community Manager

Hi Aziz,

 

As part of our ongoing work to keep the Upwork marketplace a secure place for freelancers and clients, verification is sometimes required more than once. We do try to avoid doing this repeatedly and apologize for the inconvenience it may cause. 

 

I'll go ahead and follow up with the team handling your case and you can expect to receive an update on your ticket directly.

Thank you.

~ Bojan
Upwork
Aziz's avatar
Aziz U Community Member

Hi,

I made a similar post here two weeks ago, about being flagged again and again to verify my identity. Anyways, I submitted the requested documentats, and was verified. Since then, in just two weeks, I've been asked to verify my ifendity 3 times. 3 times, in a span of 2 weeks. 

 

This can't be normal or right. Contacting the support, they give me a canned response. Posting here on the forum, I am also given a canned response. I want to know who I need to contact to remedy this. I've provided my passport, my drivers license, my phone bills etc...This is not normal and very annoying. Please, if anyone of the upwork support staff are reading this, please tell me how i can resolve this without giving me a canned response. 

 

I understand verifying identity keeps everyone on Upwork safe. I get it, and i am happy to provide whatever is required. However, being asked for this every few days and disabling certain features in my account is NOT ok. It get's in the way of my work, my clients. 

 

Thank you.

Maria's avatar
Maria T Community Member

How is it possible?
There are lots of fake profiles and Upwork is dedicated to verifying established freelancers
Aziz, you're not the only one, but you get the most verified freelancer award.
Maybe Upwork can create a nice icon for this award Smiley Frustrated

Nichola's avatar
Nichola L Community Member

It is not normal to have to hand over very personal documents to faceless verifiers multiple times. 

 

Upwork needs to stop alienating top-earning freelancers and to start addressing this problem. It also needs to identify and start the verification process on the countless identical false profiles that are littering the freelancer board - some of whom are earning money by stealing the profiles of well-known people who do not even have accounts on this site. 

 

 

Aziz's avatar
Aziz U Community Member

This. What's funny is, I was recently helping an Upwrok client find a freelancer as I couldn't commit a lot of time to his project, and we found one. All seemed ok at first, until I checked his IP address and it was coming from Guangdong, China even though on this profile, he claimed to be from Albert, Canada. 

 

The client fired him immediately of course, because of company policy to only hire Canadians (because of healthcare laws/legal issues etc). 

 

We reported to upwork, and it's been a month and his profile is fine, no issues. Meanwhile, I am getting flagged on almost a daily basis. 

Renata's avatar
Renata S Community Member

Hi Aziz, 

I think I located what might be the source of your problem. I'll send you the link via the messaging system. Someone appears to have copied your profile overview. 

(Edited to add this: the profile in question was not yet verified, so it may not have been the source of Aziz's problem.)

Aziz's avatar
Aziz U Community Member

Whoa, really? Thank you. How does the messaging system work, I didn't know you could privately message people on Upwork. Anyways, looking forward to this.

Valeria's avatar
Valeria K Community Member

Hi Aziz,

 

Sorry about the delayed reply. I have been checking with the team about your account status. We'll get back to you shortly about that and appreciate your patience while we're getting it sorted out. 

 

UPDATE: Aziz, you should be all set and no need to re-verify your ID. There will be an update on your support ticket as well shortly. 

 

Thanks!

~ Valeria
Upwork
Jennifer's avatar
Jennifer R Community Member


Valeria K wrote:

Hi Aziz,

 

Sorry about the delayed reply. I have been checking with the team about your account status. We'll get back to you shortly about that and appreciate your patience while we're getting it sorted out. 

 

UPDATE: Aziz, you should be all set and no need to re-verify your ID. There will be an update on your support ticket as well shortly. 

 

Thanks!


Valeria,
it is good to see that some actions are taken. Can you find the time to read and act in the pm I send you back in July? I flagged a profile that uses one of my overview but it is still there.

 

4.1 EXAMPLES OF PROHIBITED USES OF THE SITE
Fraudulent or misleading uses or content, including:

...

  • misrepresenting your experience, skills, or information, including by representing another person’s profile, or parts of another person’s profile, as your own;
Valeria's avatar
Valeria K Community Member

Hi Jennifer,

 

I'm sorry I missed that. I went back to check the profile you sent me and it turns out that, similar to the profile Renate mentioned on this thread, it was never accepted on Upwork. Therefore, they wouldn't be able to accept invites or send proposals and shouldn't come up in Freelancer Search. Do you mind sharing how you were able to locate that profile?

~ Valeria
Upwork
Petra's avatar
Petra R Community Member


Valeria K wrote:

I went back to check the profile you sent me and it turns out that, similar to the profile Renate mentioned on this thread, it was never accepted on Upwork. Therefore, they wouldn't be able to accept invites or send proposals and shouldn't come up in Freelancer Search.


For some weird reason profiles of unapproved freelancers show up from a google search and can be directly clicked through to, with no indication that they were not approved.

A profile that was rejected should be automatically set to private.

 

They don't tend to come up in freelancer search internally, but do come up in google search.

 

Jennifer's avatar
Jennifer R Community Member


Valeria K wrote:

Hi Jennifer,

 

I'm sorry I missed that. I went back to check the profile you sent me and it turns out that, similar to the profile Renate mentioned on this thread, it was never accepted on Upwork. Therefore, they wouldn't be able to accept invites or send proposals and shouldn't come up in Freelancer Search. Do you mind sharing how you were able to locate that profile?


As Petra said, these profiles can be found through google and if you have the link, you can access them directly. I would expect these links to end in limbo but that the information is stored somewhere within Upwork in case the individual tries to sign up again in the future.