Is Upwork losing the battle against scammers?

[creativedigit]

I haven't posted in months, and I'd hate to be ranting on my first one. After closely monitoring the scammers who are posting on the platform on a daily basis, I figured out that it's one entity behind this form of attack. 5 out of each 10 job posts on average are coming from scammers, at least in my category and at the time I am checking on new gigs. If Upwork won't take immediate action, it will be a matter of time before Upwork will lose everything. If Upwork is not aware of how serious the situation is, I highly recommend that they think twice.

Failing to take immediate action means that Upwork does not respect its members' time. Think about all the time we're losing on a daily basis because scammers are freely posting on the platform. I reached a point where I know before clicking on a job whether it's legit or not.

I suggest the following workarounds:

• For the immediate future, have an employee manually review each job post, and simply reject the posts that contain contact information or links for external communication. While it doesn't stop all scams, it will drastically decrease their number.
• Have your developer build logic for handling job posts. Check if the person who is posting has at least hired one freelancer in the past, and if they did, allow their job post immediately. Otherwise, for new clients (since all scammers have new accounts), simply pause the job from being posted until an employee manually approves their job post (or rejects it).
• Ask your developer to create a Regex to detect if the job post contains emails, phone numbers, or other contact information in the title and the description of the job (on the server-side). If it does contact information, stop them from posting the job until they resolve the issue (removing the contact information in this case, since this is a mistake even legit clients may do sometimes).
• Ask those who create new accounts to confirm their identity with email confirmation and two-factor authentication.

I am considering quitting the platform temporarily in the next few days until this issue is resolved. I can no longer afford to waste my time reading proposals of scammers. This used to be a great platform, what happened?

[glen-s]

As this is a topic that has been raised countless times by freelancers, has Upwork ever directly addressed these concerns, or is hoping for a little communication just too naive?

[pgiambalvo]

It’s good to know the team is still working on this in many ways and updating us. It really is. But while we are waiting for these new initiatives to be fully implemented, why can’t someone with the authority to remove posts search for the words Telegram and WhatsApp in them and then hit “Delete” on each one, and repeat this process like 5 times a day? That would certainly lead to immediate and noticeable results in removing them from our feeds.

[6a0c2043]

thank for this suggestion.

we the new freelancers suffer a lot because we want to get gigs and sometimes fall for scammers.

[holderlin223]

I would consider instantly erasing any proposal that mentions Telegram or Whatsapp contacts.

[debi-f]

I wasted my time flagging the scam job posts...and nothing happened 👎

[vachevskij]

Hey!
**Edited for Community Guidelines**cheated me
They created a profile with my first name, last name and photo to deceive people.

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

Where can I write to get this profile blocked?

[LuiggiR]

Hi Mykola,

Thank you for bringing this to our attention and I'm sorry to hear this happened to you. I've forwarded your report to the relevant team for review. We will let you know as soon as we have an update.

[debi-f]

Luiggi R., 

Are you surprised and sorry about what happened to Mykola???

It happens because Upwork Team (relevant and no relevant) are doing NOTHING about our reports for the last 1-2 months!!! 

It is impossible to find a real and reliable job in Upwork. It seems that the "relevant team" is not working and not caring about the site, the clients and the freelancers. 

In 12 years, I never found such a poor situation!!

I think that is time for the  freelancers to take their clients outside Upwork, is safer than working here. 

[LuiggiR]

Thank you for your patience, Mykola.

The team reached out to you through this support ticket with more information about your report. 

[calado-marco]

Hi Wassim

I really don't won't to be the "devil's advocate" here, nor even offensively blunt, but what it seems to me is that there's to much work "chasteness" going around. 

Let's speek clearly: what you find on line is what you find in life everywere.

Grifters will grift and at the end of your internet connection you will always find a human scammer trying to trick you. That doesn't mean that online work is a scam, what you see in upwork, you'll see everywere and on every platform. You'll see it on your daily life, on the subway, on publicity, on the train station on your mail box.

You'll see it on the auto repair shops, on the lawyers offices on restaurants! On the guy sitting on the waterfront that you never saw on your live and yes even on some "friendships" that you've known all of your live.

That said i do agree that something should be done about it, but what?

Even if all online platforms pulled a colective way to fix it, how much time would it take until the issue was back?

At the end of the day, the best defence is to pull up your inner live experience multiply it by 4 and apply it online.

Ans has to some responses here that say;

I know quite a few talented, experienced freelancers that have simply left the platform recently due to the unmanageable number of scams, either going to other platforms or simply finding and managing their own contracts 'solo' outside of UW.

Do you really think that they won't face the same problem in other platforms?

I work with 4 freelancing platforms. Four.

The problem is everywere....

My view is just this: after covid, online working became a major worldwide capital market.

What is hapenning now already happened before but the scale of it now is completly different simply because there's more people envolved and therefor more money envolved.

Kind of there's more virus in windows and less in Linux, simply because the market for windows is tenfold the market for Linux.

Listen, in my prespective this is not resolved by hiring programers, or getting more people to check profiles or paying someone to create algorithms or whatever. This is my thought:

Oblige the clients to deposit the value first. Only accept the job, or (upwork) only alow the job  to start after the money is there.

Grifters never put money front!

Sorry if i was harsh

Best regards

Marco

[67b29b3e]

I have applying on Upwork since 3 months and have ended with replies from scammers. I think about 99% of the job postings are from scammers. Most of them ask to contact through Telegram or whatsapp, if this is not mentioned on the job posting you will be asked to contact them via gmail or any other media on your invitation. It is very difficult to find a legitimate job on Upwork. I have joined this platform with great expectation to work from home so please do somethiing to filter the scammers so that new joiners like me can apply for legitimate jobs. 

[m_terrazas]

---

Abina A wrote:

I have applying on Upwork since 3 months and have ended with replies from scammers. I think about 99% of the job postings are from scammers. Most of them ask to contact through Telegram or whatsapp, if this is not mentioned on the job posting you will be asked to contact them via gmail or any other media on your invitation. It is very difficult to find a legitimate job on Upwork. I have joined this platform with great expectation to work from home so please do somethiing to filter the scammers so that new joiners like me can apply for legitimate jobs. 

---

While Upwork decides to do something about the scam/spam jobs, you can filter your feed to at least clean up some of them.
https://community.upwork.com/t5/New-to-Upwork/Filtering-Scam-Posts-How-to-use-the-Upwork-Advanced-Se...

[67b29b3e]

Hi Maria,

Thank you for your reply.

Even if I apply filters scam is still happening. I do not apply for jobs that say to contact on a different platform upfront itself, however the others which do not say this upfront will ask you to contact them personally after you apply for the job. I also received an interview invite by a scammer. These are unfortunately  my experiences for which I need help.

[pavlovic-zorica]

Excellent post, Wassim!! Why UpWork is not doing anything about it??? I don't want to hear common excusess, they HAVE TO DO something! UpWork is taking fees from the freelancers and the contractors already, so AT LEAST should protect us from the scammers. If don't know how to do it, LEARN from FlexJobs

[daniela_sauret]

I'm honestly losing hope on upwork, almost 70% of the jobs that appear on my feed are scams and most of the times repeated spam (I've found as 7 same job postings in a row with external links and telegram numbers...how hard can it be for the platform to identify it's a scam). 
and also you have fishy people (in my case a client) that blocks payment by "requesting changes" that are completely additional to the original scope and contract (talking about fixed price scheme) and the support on upwork doesn't even reply...I had to cancel the contract and let go my earnings... 

And it's been 3 weeks approximately since I haven't been able to find any real job and also with the 20% fee you have to low your rate too much...i mean the platform doesn't offer a 20% fee service anymore...

[m_terrazas]

---

Daniela S wrote:

I'm honestly losing hope on upwork, almost 70% of the jobs that appear on my feed are scams and most of the times repeated spam (I've found as 7 same job postings in a row with external links and telegram numbers...how hard can it be for the platform to identify it's a scam). 
and also you have fishy people (in my case a client) that blocks payment by "requesting changes" that are completely additional to the original scope and contract (talking about fixed price scheme) and the support on upwork doesn't even reply...I had to cancel the contract and let go my earnings... 

And it's been 3 weeks approximately since I haven't been able to find any real job and also with the 20% fee you have to low your rate too much...i mean the platform doesn't offer a 20% fee service anymore...

---

Filter your feed and save searches.
Although not the best solution, it is the one for now until Upwork decides to do something about scam/spam.
https://community.upwork.com/t5/New-to-Upwork/Filtering-Scam-Posts-How-to-use-the-Upwork-Advanced-Se...

[esadr]

I don’t know if Upwork has finally done something but I see a lot fewer scam posts on my job feed.

[cyber_sec007]

I can confirm that in the past 10-15 days I see fewer scams, it is back to the level of Q4 2021 for me, not as bad as earlier in 2022. Maybe it is just my feed (IT/Networking, consulting, compliance). 

Others?

[echo380332246qq]

Finally, someone has made a proposal for this.

I've also learned to identify scammers before I click open their posts. Around 7 out of 10 posts were observed to be scammers on my part. But it seems these scammers are also learning by posting more targeted and seemingly real job posts before luring me to their channels in the later chat. This is really time-wasting and frustrating.

What's worse,  while as a measure to avoid useless work I chose to browse much less this platform lately, I sometimes lost prospective clients due to my late response caused by my browsing less the platform and as a result, failing to notice their messages in time. This is a vicious circle.

I really hope Upwork can do something really. At least all clients should be verified.

To earn a living, I pay a monthly membership and pay a 20% commission to Upwork for each job earned. We are not here to be "tortured" by the scammers due to Upwork's neglect or inaction.

The quantity of real jobs in my field is already declining significantly.

Please do something to save us from a worse situation at least.

[debi-f]

Hello,

After months and several freelancers posts, Upwork seems unable to solve the scammers' problem (I reported today**Edited for Community Guidelines**...)

Is Upwork going to solve the problem? After 12 years working through this platform (Elance, Odesk) it seems not to be a reliable place to find a job.  

Thanks

[django_expert]

Hi Debora!

I have seen your profile. it is an amazing portfolio and you have done jobs amazingly. what happened? did you face any scam? can you please elaborate on how and why? it can help other freelancers to avoid such people on Upwork

[debi-f]

I received invitations from scammers, and of course I declined them. And, when I report a scam, the job is still there. Why Upwork Team is not filtering and detecting the scammers before they post a job? If we, the freelancers, can detect them, Upwork Team should do it before they post the job. 

The problem is general, not mine. It is difficult to find a real, reliable job. 

Read all the posts here to know the situation. 

Thanks

[arifzilane]

I'm losing my 2 weeks' hours and payment. 2000$+ Who is responsible for it! And still showing verified the scammer's account. 

Upwork review is not matched with my proof:

1. No manual hours were added. 

2. Work activity screenshot level is 9 to 10.

3. I'm using a memo for the whole working period.

4. Working on client-given tasks. 

Where is that point I was broken! They are not reinvestigated. How did I forgot it? 

[d_korolkov]

After Upwork supported Ukraine in it's war against russian invasion , I've noted a flood of fake jobs here on Upwork: dozens of the same jobs from different IP/countries. Coincidence? I don't think so... 

[84a0b788]

I think that since Upwork charges for Connects now, they will not be as motivated to get rid of scammers.  Beacuse if half of the platform now is full of scammers it will make it look like Upwork has tons of jobs to offer. But in reality, you are spending hundreds of dollars on connects only to get get a reponse rate of less than 5%.  It's almost like being top rated doesn't hold as much weight as it used too. 

[laurelk]

Yeah, good luck with all of that.**Edited for Community Guidelines**

I've been on this platform FOR 13 YEARS (even before they merged oDesk and Elance to actually become "Upwork") and the company has rapidly declined in ethics each year. Currently, the platform is PACKED with scams and the new "Job Success Score" is a total scam, in itself. The score comes 100% from PRIVATE client feedback, so we have no way to see it, dispute it, change it, or in any way "fix" it because when our score drops below 90% no clients will hire us. 

So...**Edited for Community Guidelines**. That's why I'm leaving after 13 years. Time to find a better place to work, where we don't have to spend our own money and waste hours and hours looking for work.

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

[pgiambalvo]

Yes, there are more scam posts here than ever, and more people getting scammed as a result. And it's becoming harder and harder for even successful freelancers to get work. Sorry to see you go, but understandable given the current state of things here. Best of luck to you.

[tomzilla1]

Well, when new clients come on and search for talent, all they see is profiles with $0 earnings, they're not going to scroll 5+ pages to find talent... Not saying this is the case for every client, but sure is what happens when some people search. Easy fix is show the best talent Upwork has to offer on the first page, not on page 25. Also, they should probably rethink about the badge visibility system. Unless you have a Business or Enterprise plan, all you see is Top Rated as a client. I can't remember the last time I've seen a Business or Enterprise account, even though they may spend as such. I don't know what is going on, I guess we'll just have to read SEC filings.

[sujusushanta]

Now a days this is going on in Upwork. I can't see what Upwork team trying to do.... Are they bringing such Scammers into there network as they can't find or bring real clients on their platform.

The rules are all OK for clients but for us(the freelancers) what we will do then, where is our security?