Freelancers using scam to their advantage

[achareorock]

I have recently been reading posts about scams here. And this reminds me of a topic discussed by some of my Upwork freelancer friends.

Some say they conciously do apply to scam jobs so as to gain free connects since there is a 95% possibility of getting a reply from a scam job. So they can make like 50 to 60 connects which they will now use in applying to legit jobs.

Now, i read people saying it is the freelancers  responsibility to protect themselves by being aware of Upwork terms. Which i totally agréé. 

But now, with this new trend even if Its just one freelancer doing it, I think we are very far from being free from scam jobs.

Its true Its possible to tell if a job post is legit or scam. But truth be told, it is very frustrating and annoying when you try to apply for jobs, and all you see are scam jobs.

For example, this morning i try looking at job post hoping to get something interesting to apply though i have only 2 connects left. I intended to buy connects and apply when i see one.

But all I came accross were scam jobs. I just got discouraged and closed the thing. 

Sometimes you even flag some, but you come back after 24hrs, and sometimes even after 48hrs, to your greatest surprise, the post are still alive and the accounts still running .

Why!

Some job post [scam jobs] are so obvious and i believe Upwork does not even need to do an investigation on it.

My humble opinion.

[petra_r]

---

Achare ashurock J wrote:

Some say they conciously do apply to scam jobs so as to gain free connects since there is a 95% possibility of getting a reply from a scam job.

---

Upwork really needs to stop giving out free connects for getting an interview. This "feature" is responsible for so much spam and is massively abused.

[ericaandrews]

I never thought of it quite that way, but yes, I can see how the free connects encourages spam.  Even so, I 100% blame UW's lack of vetting of 'clients' and job posts  for the proliferation of scams.  People can't 'interview' for scam jobs if scam jobs aren't allowed to be posted in the first place.  However, I can also understand there are probably many frustrated freelancers that say "Well, hey, if UW is going to waste my time letting the job board fill up with scams I have to rummage through, I might as well get something OUT of it for my time being wasted. " 

The free connects really do help some legitimate new freelancers that often have to submit many proposals before landing a first UW gig, so maybe the happy medium would be to limit the number of connects per month any freelancer can earn  just for getting interviews or make the free connects for interviews only available to new freelancers that don't have a JSS or at least a 'rising talent' badge yet.  I'd hate to see legitimate new freelancers punished simply because some more experienced freelancers are "gaming" a system that is already being "gamed" by spammers and scammers.  Oh, the irony. 🙂

[feed_my_eyes]

---

CJ A wrote:

The free connects really do help some legitimate new freelancers that often have to submit many proposals before landing a first UW gig, so maybe the happy medium would be to limit the number of connects per month any freelancer can earn  just for getting interviews or make the free connects for interviews only available to new freelancers that don't have a JSS or at least a 'rising talent' badge yet. 

---

New freelancers are the ones who are posting fake jobs (not just responding to scam jobs) to award themselves connects and fake reviews. Experienced freelancers don't need to do that.

[cassajoy]

Goodness, I didn't even think of that. Of course!
I also felt as if the community forums were being spammed with the same type of post again and again. More than likely, though, people are not searching before they post.

[ericaandrews]

I haven't seen anybody concretely verify WHO is posting the scam jobs or WHO is responding to them, but if they've been on here long enough to figure out how to 'game' the connects system, they don't sound that 'new' to me. The UW 'account'  might look  'new', but the person is now 'new'.   Either way, I don't think the solution is to punish all the new freelancers, since many are regular folks just trying to land a first UW gig.   As far as the actual scammers that are posting jobs and 'hiring' themselves: Well, that's really is OWN Karma because all they are doing is losing money when UW takes 20% each time the scammer 'pays' themselves from their 'client' UW account to their 'freelancer' UW account.  'Award' yourself a $10 contract to 'pay' yourself $8 when you 'receive' it, to get free connects (of no monetary value) and post a fake review, also of no monetary value. Net loss: 20% of investment.  Sounds like a losing business strategy  LOL

[feed_my_eyes]

There are multiple online groups - some with thousands of members - where people offer to sell fake reviews to new freelancers, pay to use other people's accounts to fake their location, and post fake jobs to give each other connects. Obviously I'm not going to post links here, but trust me, they exist. And I support getting rid of the bonus connects not to "punish" anyone, but to reduce the number of scammers gaming the system (not to mention all the freelancers wasting customer support time whenever free connects don't instantly appear in their accounts). I'll bet you that dishonest people are getting way more free connects than honest people are.

[binu86]

Think about the people like me, they don't have money to invest in connects, Yes this is a scam. I use my lots of Money on connects but did not get any Response. The upwork team member told me that increase your profile JSS. I know they are right, But if I'm not getting any job so there know why to increase Profile JSS.

[ashrafkhan81]

Oh well! Well well well! 

[binu86]

Any Suggestions for me @Ashraf Sir?
How can i deal with this?

[tagrendy]

Hahaha, never thought of that! That's true! You get connects from scam interviews. Hey, thanks for the idea, will come in handy in a rainy day. Though I have like 100 connects, don't even know where I have it from.

[esadr]

I would never remember that either. 🙄

This is then a closed-loop, if free connections can be "obtained" in this way, then regular clients will probably be flooded with spam proposals.

A few days ago I noticed a job post from a client with job history and the next day someone was hired at this job, but a copy/paste job was posted from another client who has just been registered. Everything was identical, except that the second job post had a lower price, so I believe it's a freelancer who took the job and wants someone else to do it, and him to take a percentage.

I'm surprised that Upwork doesn't react more sharply to these events because this way the Upwork freelancing platform will very likely gain a bad reputation. 😐

[jeremiah-brown]

A really easy fix to this would be to require clients to put up a minimum deposit (or percentage thereof) before posting a job.  This could be used towards payment of the work performed. 

Freelancers have to verify their identity (as far as I am aware) before they are able to start working.

I think the easiest solution to so many of the issues here is to require everyone to have some skin in the game.

[miriam-ocampo]

You are definitely correct, that would be the best solution, this is getting to be a big problem now, from 10 new jobs I see, 7 are scams, the platform should take this more seriously since it had a reputation of being one of the best for freelancers to work in, but now it's all becoming just scams, all day. I think I'm even flagging 15 per day or so, but there they are the next day, it is frustrating. 

[07b5e502]

That's... Kinda smart. Scammers want to take advantage of freelancers and end up getting taken advantage of themselves in the same way. I wouldn't advocate for that though, really risky and unethical. 

I don't find connects that hard to come by either, I just reserve proposals for jobs I'm more likely to get. 

But yeah I agree with you, it's really hard to get scam listings off the site. If your a suspicious freelancer though you get nuked easily.

Maybe it's because upwork doesn't have much pity for freelancers getting scammed? or some other more complicated reason.

I would say though that we're as much upworks customers as the clients are. Considering fees are taken from any services we complete on the site. Providing funding to upwork. 

[AveryO]

Hi Eric, 

Based on my observations, online scams have been more active, especially with the pandemic and the transition to a more online workforce and lifestyle. I see you actively participating in threads where scams on Upwork were discussed. I understand where your frustration is coming from and assure you that the team is aware of this and is actively looking for ways to reduce this problem. 

I can share that we have teams and systems that help identify red flags if a user or a job post is fraudulent. However, there are instances where we cannot foresee a violation based on a client's job post or their initial communications with a freelancer. We usually receive flags when the interview stage has already started - and the client explicitly communicates a TOS violation with a freelancer (communicate outside of Upwork, pay a fee to begin working, purchase equipment, receive checks/payment outside of Upwork). In cases like these, the teams involved take action immediately against the client's job post and account based on the report.

We are always open to hearing feedback and suggestion from the Community on how we can improve, so if you have any, please don't hesitate to share it here in the Community, and our team will be sure to sound it off to the appropriate team. 

[07b5e502]

Thanks for the feedback!

However I could never claim to know a situation 100% so I was just thinking of the worst case situation and then optimisticly planning for it (and gathering feedback from others if I could.) I'm glad upwork has execceded my expectations in this regard. 

In regards to my increased participation I was just browsing the forums more actively due to the recent situation. There's a lot of valuable information to be discussed and viewed here and I feel I was lacking in my handling.

Especially with their increased activity it's important to keep track of what sorts of malcious parties are operating on upwork (and how they're scamming.)

Maybe upwork could have some sort of weekly post/show case for both clients and freelancers warning of the more common tactics malicious parties adopt? I would think that it would highlight and keep important rules in people's memories.

But most intial ideas are silly so feel free to ignore or correct that suggestion. 

Really no one's to blame for scams execpt scammers, it's nice to upworks commitment to stopping them regardless ( just to clarify though I'm satifised with how you handled my problem, I've just grown more intrest in the topic after seeing it first hand. I'll be honest as well, it's somewhat emabrrasing how easily I was lead on initially. You always think you'll be the first one to spot a scam until your the last 😂 )

Wishing you a good day!

[moonraker]

---

Eric H wrote:

Maybe upwork could have some sort of weekly post/show case for both clients and freelancers warning of the more common tactics malicious parties adopt? I would think that it would highlight and keep important rules in people's memories.

---

The problem is that too few peope would read such material - until it's too late. And those people who are likely to read such material are also those less likely to be scammed.

It's been suggested numerous times that Upwork implements a mandatory and meaningful readiness test that helps educate new users to help them avoid scams. It's just easy pickings for scammers on the platform, which is why there's so many.

If fewer people were scammed because they were educated on spotting and avoiding scams, there would be less scammers.

Alas, Upwork just doesn't appear to be interested in the idea.

[mwiggenhorn]

I completely agree.  There are plenty of freelancers who have offered their time and expertise to draft a meaninfgul readiness test - and have offered this for years.  No one cares and/or no one is listening.