Hello, I wanted to see if Upwork mods have any insight into if there are any plans for allowing freelancers to access more information from clients who have made direct contact via messages. This has been something freelancers have been asking for for a VERY long time.
While it's not always an issue, recently I had a client reach out to me recently with an offer for my listed hourly rate. I asked them to schedule a call, just so that I could understand exactly what they needed before committing (and this was not a red flag in itself, as I've had plenty of good clients that tried to hire me that way, but I needed to do my due diligence and make sure it was a good fit).
They sent me a folder of info and there were some very lackluster and unconvincing instagram posts in there, again not a huge red flag but extremely unserious and generic "campaigns" for someone prepared to spend 100/hr. Also in the folder was a .exe file labeled as their marketing plan, which I have to assume was something malicious, and the next day when I checked back, the message chat said "[Name] does not currently have access to Upwork and will not receive messages until access is restored"
All I could see upon the client reaching out to me was their location, jobs posted, spend, and average hourly rate. Luckily I'm cautious about files like this, but I could easily see a newbie clicking the file and being susceptible to some kind of virus or hacking incident. I do feel that if I had been able to access a full profile for this client (with actual links to their old job postings, other jobs posted, and reviews / ongoing projects), I could have learned more that could have helped me determine this was a scam or something along those lines faster, before risking clicking the link.
Is there any development into the potential for creating more robust client profiles that are accessible once contact is made? To not have access to information just because they spoke to me instead of inviting me to a job posting seems confusing and counterproductive. I've been on the platform for just shy of 3 years now, and this has been a complaint from many people like me for the entire time I've used Upwork. I do feel like a lot of us unfortunately feel that our concerns fall on deaf ears, this would go quite a long way in earning more trust from high end freelancers that know better than to not ask questions about offers that are a little too good to be true.
