Huge upswing in scam/fake client postings making it hard to find real work!

[christinagray00]

I have noticed over the past month an influx in scam postings. I assumed UpWork would find a way to "fix" this issue, but it's only gotten worse these past couple of weeks. I go into my Find Work feed and almost every fourth or fifth posting is a fake/scam one. Luckily, I figured it out after applying for one or two of them and don't waste my time anymore, but I still see a lot of people submitting for these "jobs" and pity them wasting their time and credits, or worse... actually clicking on the external links that are sent in from some of these "clients!" (shudder!)

Once you notice, it's easy to see these scam postings. They are never from an established client - always a new one. They have the same format and even use the same wording in their posts over and over again! It's making it hard to weed through and find the legitimate postings to apply to. 

Here are two examples...

These are a new "trend" that started a week or so ago. These 3 just popped up:

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

This one has been circulating for weeks/months now:

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

I have seen this corny text used at least 50 times!

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

Help!! 

[martina_plaschka]

Yep, they are annoying. Scammers are evolving, they don't put telegram handles or something similar into their job postings any longer, I guess those get zapped immediately. These postings should at least get deleted if they are identical, which is not allowed. That can be circumvented by using different client accounts, different countries - the algorithm can't catch that. 

[PradeepH]

Hi Christine,

Thank you for reaching out to us. I shared your report with our team to investigate and take action based on our internal processes. In the future, feel free to use "Flag as Inappropriate" option throughout the site to report any suspicious activity.

Thank you,

Pradeep

[2f34ffd3]

If there is more and more spam,
I have chosen not to respond to anyone or make any proposal to someone who does not have the verified payment.