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skydakota
Community Member

FRAUDULENT EMPLOYERS!!

The last 4 invitations I received from Upwork "employers" were FRAUDULENT...I tried to reply to the "employer", but each account no longer had access to Upwork!!  I am very upset!! This is alarming!!!! Doesn't Upwork SCREEN THE PEOPLE WHO PLACE POSTINGS ON THEIR SITE????

10 REPLIES 10
gilbert-phyllis
Community Member

First of all, they are not "employers", they are clients. Second of all, no, UW doesn't "screen" them. Each freelancer has to take responsibility for their own business including vetting any clients we choose to work with. There are some safeguards available, e.g. never accept a contract until you have everything you need to being performing the work and billing; never begin work until the client's payment method has been verified. And there is a wealth of information available for newcomers about how to get started, how to avoid scams, etc.

BojanS
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi Karla,

 

I'm sorry to hear about your experience. Thanks for flagging these jobs to us. I've checked and all jobs you're referring to have already been taken down because they were in violation of Upwork ToS and action have been taken on the clients' accounts. 

 

Please, check this help article for more information on how to use the flag option found on each job post or message to report any suspicious or inappropriate content. Also, check out this post for more tips on how to avoid questionable jobs.

 

Thank you!

~ Bojan
Upwork
prestonhunter
Community Member

re: "Doesn't Upwork screen the people who place postings on their site?"

 

No.

 

Upwork does not screen job posters. Upwork doesn't claim that it screens them.

bundie702
Community Member

I've said it before, and I'll say it again...a person can place an ad to hire a hitman on Upwork and it'll go through (although that would be a stupid thing to do...).

bizwriterjohn
Community Member

As noted by a couple community Gurus: Upwork does not screen job listings.  To do so, would be the task of screening 100s of thousands (millions?) of job listings. 

Now that you are aware there is no such thing as an Upwork Employer - and considering those styles of fraudulent listings are part and parcel of what Upwork cannot control.

Enjoy the day.  Take a screen shot of the listing.  Record the URL upon which you found it.  Take 4 minutes to directly contact customer service.  Relate the issue.  You will hear back something akin to, "we will investigate this, but we cannot inform you as to the outcome".  Which is not an insult that is simply good business.

Then enjoy the day.  You probably saved one, or two, or dozens of others Upworkers from this, as most surely Trust & Security has a baseball bat to apply to obvious scammers.

Why help?   It is more satisfying to help than feel victimized.  Not that you do.  I just state that as a perspective.

Contractor support. Screen shots of the offending screen.  They will investigate.  Then on with our day.

Although I understand the concept of "get on with your day", it does not make up for the time and funds wasted on crafting the proposal, spending the connects, and taking the time to go through the interview process. Plus by that stage, all applicants have already spent their connects, so reporting the fraud doesn't help the existing group of applicants.

I also understand that Upwork can't realistically screen all clients, but what about at least requiring a verified payment method before allowing them to post? That shoud cut down on a vast majority of the scammers without any manual screening required. Are your freelancers worth that one change?


Kristin S wrote:

Although I understand the concept of "get on with your day", it does not make up for the time and funds wasted on crafting the proposal, spending the connects, and taking the time to go through the interview process. Plus by that stage, all applicants have already spent their connects, so reporting the fraud doesn't help the existing group of applicants.

I also understand that Upwork can't realistically screen all clients, but what about at least requiring a verified payment method before allowing them to post? That shoud cut down on a vast majority of the scammers without any manual screening required. Are your freelancers worth that one change?


You can see in the job description whether the payment method has been veryfied or not. But that can also change at any time because credit cards are not valid for eternity.  Upwork is quite clear about this

When you submit a proposal for a job the Upwork system lets you know if the client has an unverified billing method. You don’t have to avoid these clients, but you should know that you cannot get paid until the client successfully completes billing method verification. It is up to you to decide if beginning work before that is done is worth the risk. Please note that even if you have an hourly contract, you are not yet covered under the Upwork Hourly Protection when the client doesn’t have a verified payment method.

When you submit a proposal to a client lacks a verified billing method, please encourage the client to complete the process. Most clients can complete verification in less than a day.

You may sometimes see a client with an unverified billing method and active contracts. This can happen when the client hires during the verification process or there’s an issue with their existing billing method, such as it has expired.

Thank you for the response - I realize that job postings display the
payment verification status and of course I would not accept work from
anyone whose payment method was not verified. The crux of my question is
whether Upwork would consider requiring clients to verify their payment
method before being allowed to post a job as a way of preventing fraud that
would not require any manual screening from Upwork employees.


Kristin S wrote:
Thank you for the response - I realize that job postings display the
payment verification status and of course I would not accept work from
anyone whose payment method was not verified. The crux of my question is
whether Upwork would consider requiring clients to verify their payment
method before being allowed to post a job as a way of preventing fraud that
would not require any manual screening from Upwork employees.

I hope they don't, because I would lose clients - many of whom were new and unverified when I first bid on their projects.

I don't want Upwork to ever require clients to become payment verified before posting a job.

 

In my job niche, I work a LOT with first-time clients.

"Payment Verified" status is something I hardly think about.

 

If a client posts a job and get a chance to work with me, then they'll want to become payment verified so they can secure my services.

 

It is easy for any freelancer to see if any client is payment verified, if that is an issue for them.

I just don't see this as much of an issue.

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