Fake (and low quality) freelancers on Upwork

[charline_cat]

Hi community,

Is anyone else getting increasingly upset with the Upwork platform, mainly as a client, because of fake and low quality profiles? 

I remember when I signed up for my own freelancer account back in the days, I went through a screening process, and was not accepted on the platform until I had a proper portfolio. Now my freelance portfolio that I built over the years is barely getting any views anymore.

My main concern is as a client though. Half of the applications I receive seem to have AI-generated photos and I receive the exact same application text by several freelancers, and no projects uploaded, which makes it feel like it's bots? And I have even found some of my own designed websites in freelancers applications. I have reported these profiles, but is Upwork not doing anything against it? I feel like my own freelancer profile is not seen anymore. I am having a hard time finding quality freelancers nowadays.. It seems like they just let anyone create a profile now?

[48f850a0]

It's due to the way it seems the business idea is now.. it's kind of channeled to quantity over quality. If it was strictly focused on client satisfaction and stuff, lots of freelancers wouldn't be here and the number of freelancers on Upwork wouldn't be this much.. but as long you can buy connects.. come on board!!! 

Even an illiterate can open an upwork account now and chase jobs as long as they can buy connects.. it's all good. Keep it going!!

[celgins]

The answers to your questions are yes, yes, yes, and yes.

Many freelancer accounts are auto-generated and use AI-generated pictures, and many of these accounts send auto-generated proposals. New freelancer accounts aren't really screened anymore, so low quality profiles and proposals are rampant.

With that, responsible, legitimate, and experienced freelancers and clients are charged with filtering, policing, spam detecting, analyzing, and taking other measures to ensure their Upwork marketplace interactions are not only productive, but real.

[the-right-writer]

Upwork removed all category and site limits. Then they removed the Upwork tests, and every skill test, because freelancer wannabes complained it was too hard. Then they decided to increase the fees on high earning jobs, and decrease the fees for dirt cheap jobs. All the while using connects and boosting to try and stop the platform from collapsing. There is no concern about quality. There are scams constantly in the job feeds for freelancers, and no one is removing the fakes, scams, and cheats for clients, either.

Upwork decided to push hard, and I mean hard, on everyone must use "AI." They mean ChatGPT and the other bots that are not AI, and steal from writers and coders. People use them most often to fake their way to a client, just as you have experienced. The freelancers are supposed to acknowledge they are using it, and how, but that never happens.

Keep on Upwork about your stolen material. That is supposed to be one of their big rules. Is it possible to take other action? Can you have another source remove it?